VTi (Vlaams Theater Instituut)

Supporting Performing Arts Circulation in Europe

Pilot Project for Artist Mobility, supported by the European Commission

In 2008, ten national cultural institutions with an international policy and practice created a platform, dedicated to Supporting the Performing Arts Circulation in Europe: SPACE.

The members of SPACE share a position in between politics and the artistic field in their own countries, work as centres of information, promote the (performing) arts on a national and international level and are experienced in supporting and running European cultural projects.
They share the belief that one of the cornerstones of a European cultural policy is to facilitate the circulation of (performing) arts across Europe, and also realize there are still a lot of imbalances in this transnational arts sphere, between countries, regions, artists, disciplines and cultural operators.

SPACE’s objective is to give priority to the mobility of arts productions and to combine cultural mobility with cultural diversity, European citizenship and investing in emerging generations. Still a young initiative, SPACE will enlarge the network while implementing the different activities of the multi-layered project.

Together with the three other cultural mobility pilot projects (e.mobility, PRACTICS and Changing Room), SPACE is working on policy recommendations to be addressed to the European Commission.

The project has three different strands which will be carried out between December 2008 and November 2011.

1. ‘Travelogue’ Data exchange & research

One of the aims of SPACE is to enhance data exchange and to develop research about international mobility in the performing arts production. To meet this objective, Travelogue will be developed, an online prototype meant to monitor the international mobility of the performing arts using Semantic Web technology.

Some countries do not map the international activities of their performing arts companies, while others do this in variable ways, often with the immediate aim of measuring the exportation of their productions (and not the cooperation level between countries) quantitatively (not qualitatively). 

The programme seeks therefore to create a simple and efficient tool, created by professionals, to map the current state of affairs in the international dissemination of performing arts productions and identify imbalances, and to generate ideas for developing innovative models and instruments with a view to creating a more balanced situation.

In a first working session held on March 5th-6th 2009 in Brussels, methods for linking, sharing and comparing data were explored. The meeting was set up as an information and training session about the possibilities of linked data in a cultural context, more specifically international touring of performing arts productions. The session was aimed at researchers and information specialists in cultural institutions. 47 delegates from 16 different countries attended this first Travelogue meeting. You can download the presentations of the different lecturers below. Also the (updated) backgroundpaper on Travelogue can be downloaded

2. Training and Development Pilot Programs

Between 2009 and 2011, approximately 100 high potential emerging professionals from different European countries will take part in a mobility training programme carried out throughout Europe.

The training programme consists of three different strands: one dedicated to the performing arts managers (the call was launched in the second week of April 2009) that started last October 2009; one for programmers (call launched 25th November 2009) and one for journalists and critics working on the performing arts (call also expected in March 2010).

The programme will be organised in small groups, and be developed and managed with the cooperation of other networks and organisations such as la Belle Ouvrage (training organisation) and Team (performing arts magazines network).

The aim is to create a network eager to design and practice new forms of cultural mobility, acquire in-depth knowledge of each country’s context, to gain useful European experience, compare and assess working tools, and develop a better understanding of Europe and its cultural diversity, both on a concrete and political level.

3. Institutional Capacity Building

An important part of the project is to enlarge the project by including other already existing institutions, and to support and stimulate new institutions, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, to play a role in creating opportunities for their national artists and art professionals to work at a European level. 

The long-term objective is to create a network of strong performing arts institutions and professionals which are able to contribute - through policy and practice - to a European programme of cultural mobility and circulation.

The members in the SPACE project:

ONDA in Paris (National office for the circulation of performing Arts)

VTI in Brussels (Vlaams Theater Instituut)

TIN in Amsterdam (Theater Instituut Nederlands)

NTIL in Riga (New Theatre Institute of Latvia)

British Council in London

ETI in Roma (Ente Teatrale Italiano)

Pro Helvetia in Zürich

The Red House in Sofia

Institut umění - Divadelní ústav (Arts and Theatre Institute) in Prague

Zentrum BRD des Internationalen Theaterinstituts in Berlin

The partners in the SPACE project:

La Belle Ouvrage

IETM

ENICPA

TEAM Network