Open Out Arts

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SeaChange Arts - Theatre Bristol - Bui Bolg
Le Fourneau - Close Act Theatre

Aims and Objectives of the Partnership

This partnership project is to develop European best practice in vocational training in the field of professional Outdoor Arts. The project aims to increase employability of both creative and administrative practitioners currently working in the sector and to address barriers to employment for those entering the sector. The project will combine training activities and professional exchange aimed at achieving these aims directly with target groups and also draw from the partnership's collaboration to develop and disseminate new approaches to vocational training that can be used in future practice by partners and more widely across the sector.

Outdoor Arts is a fast-growing cultural industry in Europe employing an increasing number of practitioners every year. Entry into this field of employment is largely by informal routes and both commercial practitioners and public/national bodies have identified the need to develop more opportunities for vocational training – both formal and informal - that can be delivered by both non-commercial bodies supporting the sector, commercial practitioners themselves and partnerships between the two. This partnership brings together commercial practitioners and publicly-funded non-commercial bodies to share skills, perspectives and methodologies in order to achieve this.

Objectives

• To deliver a vocational training programme which will enable practitioners to :
  • increase their employability & entrepreneurism, supporting commercially successful work and artistic excellence
  • develop skills needed to access wider markets for their work & diversify their practice e.g. in a community context
  • gain access to employment in the European market
• Develop better practice for organisations delivering professional development for outdoor arts and establish 'hallmarks of excellence'
• Establish European networks of cooperation in training for outdoor arts and the potential for new types of cooperation to develop new markets for work e.g. new touring models
• Sharing experience between artists/promoters and established artists/emerging artists
• Identify key emerging issues within affecting the marketplace for outdoor arts practitioners and establish vocational training approaches to address these
• Developing promotional skills and use of technology

Subjects

• Working in community contexts
• Interdisciplinary practice – and entering outdoor arts from other disciplines
• Commissioning and creation process – meeting the needs of the marketplace and skills development
• Accessing European markets
• Collaboration and cooperation – new approaches to skills transfer and enterprise
• Changing roles and relationships in a changing landscape
• The role and requirements of creation/ training spaces and the opportunity for European networking

Approach

The project will combine hands-on practical activity (linking partner's activities in their own territories to collaboration and exchange between partners) with knowledge exchange and review.

This will include :

• Practical collaborations between practitioners including short working/training placements and exchanges
• Interdisciplinary practical working and training sessions bringing together creative practitioners from different disciplines
• Joint actions in communities (supporting practitioners to deliver workshops and classes)
• Masterclasses, seminars and discussions around key topics
• Networking, partnering, mentoring and reciprocal support – establishing practical mutual support between partners and participants across the network that fosters ongoing organic relationships and new commissioning partnerships
• Production of an Outdoor Arts Toolkit as an online resource
• Use of technology as a key tool for the collaboration of the partnership and promotion/dissemination of findings

This project brings together partners and practitioners whose interest in European cooperation is genuinely long term and the results of the project will support sustained cross-border involvement beyond the project period. An online toolkit documenting the findings and learning from this project will be developed in June 2013 and shared amongst the partners own networks and uploaded onto this website.

Document
Objectives and case studies