The European Festivals Association (EFA) and the Ljubljana Festival are delighted to announce the launch of the Open Call for Application for the fifth edition of the Atelier for Young Festival Managers from 14-21 October 2012 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Do you belong to the next generation of artistic festival directors? Do you feel the need to broaden your programming skills, grow your network and get inspired by your peers and experienced forerunners? Are you excited to dig into the cultural and festival life in Ljubljana?
The Atelier for Young Festival Managers is a unique, intense, one-week training programme initiated by the European Festivals Association.
The European Atelier aims to offer to emerging festival directors a stage to explore creative ideas and open up new perspectives.
Kathrin Deventer, EFA Secretary General
Motto of the Atelier
The sentence borrowed from Bernard Faivre d’Arcier “The true role of a festival is to help artists to dare, to engage in new projects…” (lecture on the future of festivals in February 2006) is the motto of the Atelier. Particular emphasis is given to the artistic aspects of festival management. This touches upon artistic vision, political and social responsibility, internationalisation, networking, renewal and sustainability.
Format of the Atelier
Next to a high-level reflection in working groups and lectures, interactive exchanges and insightful face-to-face talks about case studies make the Atelier a unique format.
Find out more about the Atelier!
Presenters
Leading and experienced festival operators, professionals and artists give lectures, lead workshops and take part in round tables and debates – all of them spending at least two to three days with the participants.
Presenters in the past and 2011 editions of the Atelier include:
■Robyn Archer (Creative Director The Centenary of Canberra (2013), Artistic Director of The Light in Winter - Australia)
■Norman Armour (Executive Director PuSH International Performing Arts Festival, Vancouver - Canada)
■Steve Austen (Felix Meritis Foundation - The Netherlands)
■Darko Brlek (EFA President and Artistic and General Director Ljubljana Festival - Slovenia)
■Seok Kyu Choi (Creative Producer AsiaNow Productions, Jongno-gu - South Korea)
■Hugo De Greef (former EFA Secretary General (2004-2008), Director European Capital of Culture Bruges 2002; Co-Founder Kaaitheater, Brussels - Belgium)
■Bernard Faivre d’Arcier (President Biennale de la Danse de Lyon, former Director Festival d’Avignon - France)
■Rose Fenton (International Arts Producer and Advisor, London - UK)
■Ching Lee Goh (Executive and Artistic Director CultureLink Singapore, Former Director Singapore Arts Festival - Singapore)
■Agnes Havas (Mezzo Opera Festival - Hungary)
■Gavin Henderson (Dartington International Summer School - UK)
■Nele Hertling (Member of the Strategy Group “A Soul for Europe”, former Director Hebbel-Theatre, Berlin, General Manager European Capital of Culture Berlin 1988 - Germany)
■Tzvetelina Iossifova (Red House for Culture and Debate - Bulgaria)
■Nevenka Koprivsek (Mladi Levi Festival - Slovenia)
■Wai-Lap Kwong (Programme Director Guangdong Modern Dance Festival - China)
■Gundega Laivina (New Theatre Institute of Latvia - Latvia)
■Grace Lang (Programme Director Hong Kong Festival Society - China)
■Sir Brian McMaster (former Director Edinburgh International Festival - UK)
■Michal Merczynski (Director MaltaFestival in Poznan - Poland)
■Jonathan Mills (Director Edinburgh International Festival - UK)
■Gerard Mortier (General Director Teatro Real de Madrid, former Director Salzburger Festpiele, former Director Ruhr Triennale - Belgium)
■Mark Russell (Festival Under the Radar - USA)
■Marie-Agnès Sevestre (Festival des Francophonies en Limousin - France)
■Galin Stoev (Fingerprint Company - Belgium/Bulgaria)
■Tom Stromberg (Impulse Festival - Germany)
■Fruzsina Szép (Program Director Sziget Festival in Budapest, founding Director of the Hungarian Music Export Office - Hungary)
■Carla Van Zon (Artistic Director Auckland Arts Festival, former Director Creative New Zealand - New Zealand)
■Matthias Vogt (Institut für kulturelle Infrastruktur Sachsen - Germany)
Participants
The Atelier is especially designed for those who are working or have ambitions to become involved in programming or in programming-related departments within a festival.
The Atelier is about formulating experiences and how to hand over these experiences to a next (new) generation of festival makers, focusing thematically on the very essence of art and festivals: the art and the artist.
Hugo De Greef, initiator of festivals and General Manager Bruges European Capital of Culture 2002, Belgium
Why the Atelier?
EFA noticed that there are insufficient possibilities for adopted training in the festival sector focusing on the aspect of “programming”.
This is surprising considering the boom of festivals in the last decades. The professional category of the “festival manager” has emerged and requires specific competences.
Objectives of the Atelier include to:
■internationalise one’s environment
■contribute to the professionalization of the festival sector
■broaden perspectives and give new inputs on the level of content
■connect and share different management skills from East and West
■foster and encourage cooperations and coproductions
■enhance international networking
■challenge and inspire emerging artistic festival directors by bringing them in contact with their forerunners
■build up self-confidence among participants
■explore the diversity of models on how to run a festival
■help structure and evolve the different management skills and competences requested from a festival operator
■confirm and establish creativity and innovation
History of the Atelier for Young Festival Managers
The attention to training and the transfer of know-how has been an objective of EFA since its foundation. A predecessor of the Atelier for Young Festival Managers as we know it today was organised in 1999/2000 in Geneva/Switzerland and Estoril/Portugal at the invitation of the Estoril Festival under the label “Eurofest Training Programme”. Supported by the European Commission and the European Cultural Foundation, it was created to offer in particular to EFA’s membership a high level European professional training for young managers of international performing arts festivals. It focused on all aspects of festival management.
Taking up this dynamic and the good results, a further defined model was developed: today’s “Atelier for Young Festival Managers”. It was launched in 2006 under the coordination of Hugo De Greef, EFA Secretary General at the time. Since then, four editions have taken place: With Görlitz (2006), Varna (2009), Singapore (May 2011) and Izmir (October 2011), 140 young festival managers will have benefitted from this unique experience.
Further information
Contact:
European Festivals Association
Kleine Gentstraat 46 • 9051 Gent • Belgium
Tel.:+32 9 241 8080 • Fax: +32 9 241 8089 • [email protected]