The IETM-Australia Council Collaboration Project is pleased to announce the second and final program of supported projects for the 2012-13 financial year.

The aim of the project is to create new opportunities for Australian performing artists, companies and producers in Europe. Sophie Travers, Project Director seeks to match the market development aspirations of Australian artists with opportunities and resources.

Residencies, exchanges and collaborations

Going Nowhere is an international event exploring the ways that we, as artists and audiences can sustainably generate and share creative experience without getting on a plane. Building on the experience and outcomes of the inaugural Going Nowhere event in 2012, the project is supporting Melbourne’s Arts House to seek further international partners for the creation of collaborative works and the presentation of these in 2014. Arts House is being supported to research sustainable arts initiatives in Europe that have an interest in commissioning work and sharing presentation platforms. Arts House are active IETM members and this project speaks to urgent concerns expressed within the network.

Having supported Brisbane based independent producer Britt Guy to travel to the IETM meeting in Zagreb in 2012, the project is now following up with support for her Dance Exchange with Slovenia and Croatia. In August 2013, choreographers Matthew Day and Rhiannon Newton will travel to Maribor in Slovenia to participate in the Nagib Festival. In September selected Eastern European and Australian solo dance artists will then come together over a two week period travelling between Zagreb, Rijeka and Dubrovnik to participate in a residency dance lab as part of Perforations Festival. This format is then repeated at the Brisbane Powerhouse in late September with the same artists. The Lab will open up an opportunity for ongoing dialogue between the European and Australian Dance communities, opening up communication for collaboration beyond the partnership.

Sam Haren of Sandpit in South Australia will undertake a residency at Akuyeri Theatre in the far north of Iceland, in the framework of a developing partnership with the small but dynamic performing arts scene in Iceland. The Director of Akuyeri Theatre will host Haren in a residency in which he will work with the resident ensemble of young performers. She will host his research practice and make connections with the local arts community as well as introducing Sam to her networks in Rejkavik, where she is Director of the increasingly well known Lokal festival.

Rockie Stone is a contemporary circus maker and Fran Swinn is a composer and musician. Together and separately they have been exploring improvised performance. Their interest in collaboration led them to working in Europe, in particular France, where there are extensive infrastructural resources for researching this kind of new performance. The project has supported their engagement with partners in France in a joint residency where they were both able to develop their practice and their relationships with producers and presenters that will lead to presentation opportunities, commissions and co-productions in future.

Dublin Dance Festival

In collaboration with Dublin Dance Festival and Arts Projects Australia, Sophie Travers produced an international presenter program during the Australian presentations at Dublin Dance Festival. Targeting fourteen influential presenters of contemporary dance in France, Scotland, England, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Poland, she was able to put together several strong networking platforms for Lucy Guerin Inc, Ros Warby, Stephanie Lake and Larissa McGowan and their producers. Also included in the platform were Rosalind Richards of Artful, Anne Dunn of Sydney Dance Company, and Margie Medlin of Critical Path.

In collaboration with On the Move and Asia Europe Foundation, Sophie Travers represented Australia Council at the Platform Meeting of Asian and European Cultural Mobility Funders in Prague in June. Attended by fifty representatives of all the major stakeholders in cross-cultural mobility, she was able to present the work of the Australia Council and its partners in supporting artists exchange between Australia, Asia and Europe.

Research, networking and advocacy

Kath Papas, Melbourne based independent producer of diverse contemporary performance will be supported to travel to Belgium, Germany, UK and The Netherlands in 2013, to visit Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tay Tong festival and Tanzmesse. Kath will continue the dialogue with presenters and artists regarding the contextualising of indigenous and cross-cultural work and how it is created and distributed in Europe. Her aspiration is to build markets for the artists with whom she works and to influence her producing of related events in Australia.

Liz Burcham, Director of Metro Arts in Brisbane, was supported to attend the IETM meeting in Dublin to consolidate and extend some of the conversations she has initiated in Europe on behalf of the MAPS QLD and other independent artists supported by Metro Arts. Liz was also interested to form new relationships with presenter and producer peers in the run up to APAM in Brisbane where Metro Arts will form a connection to the local independent arts community alongside the arts market.

Director of Ten Days on the Island Festival, Jo Duffy, was supported to attend the Dublin IETM meeting to connect with the larger than usual Greek contingent for commissioning, collaborating and exchange discussions linking the festival and the Greek Islands. The next IETM meeting will be held in Athens in October 2013, thus there were many independent producers, presenters and artists with whom Duffy could connect to create deeper, longer term relationships between Tasmanian, Australian and Greek arts communities.