Arts and culture organisation, Open Source Arts, is launching a new scheme, Elevate Residency, for performers and creatives in West Yorkshire.
The 3-day residency offers free rehearsal space in its Leeds studio to develop performances that will be shown to the public for free. The scheme is opening in April 2023 to provide a space for new performances to be developed amidst the cost-of-living crisis. Elevate Residency launches amidst a cost-of-living crisis which is hitting the performing arts sector particularly hard as consumers cut back on non-essential spending and arts funding becomes scarce.
The purpose of the short-term residency is to provide the initial resources needed to kick-start emergent creatives and projects in West Yorkshire and bolster the existing network of performers. The hope is that by participating, artists will not only be able to test out their work with other creatives but they will be exposed to a community that can provide further development opportunities for their emerging careers.
Residencies will take place over 3 full days within one week and culminate in a performance to show the in-progress work to a live audience made up of Open Source Arts members, industry colleagues and the public. Artists will be able to collect donations during their performances at the end of the residency. Elevate Residencies are open to a wide variety of performance types including but not limited to, dance, music, theatre, circus, fire shows, aerial performance, puppetry and spoken word.
Situated on Kirkstall Road in Leeds, Open Source Arts provides a wide range of facilities in its studio including a sprung oak dance floor, mirrored walls, an aerial trapeze rig, crash mats, a projector, a prop-building workshop and professional AV system.
Myra Rowland, Operations Manager of Open Source Arts said:
“Our new residency will give performers the chance to embark on fresh and exciting projects. By the end of the residency, they may be on the way to having a fully-fledged show, or they may need to go back to the drawing board, and that’s okay – the more room for mistakes, the more innovative a project can be. It’s a unique opportunity and we can’t wait to see what comes from it!”
Philip Marken, Founder and Director of Open Source Arts said:
“At Open Source Arts, we recognise the challenges that early career artists face in terms of finding affordable opportunities to develop their work. In response to this, we have created the Elevate Residency programme to support artists with a fledgling idea that requires free, professionally equipped space for initial development.”
“Elevate Residency reflects one of our key principles at Open Source Arts which is building sustainable communities. We have already helped a number of early career artists to develop their careers and by offering free residencies to artists, we are not only upholding the creation of new art and culture in times of emergency, but we are future-proofing the projects involved. We want to provide a support network that will allow them to find out about funding, performance opportunities, paid internships and jobs. ”
Bobak Champion, Freelance dance artist, choreographer & theatre maker said:
“Open Source Arts has been an important space in my career and is incredibly versatile whether you want to develop a dance show, theatre performance or test an event. Costs of hiring a rehearsal space can be a huge barrier in the creative process so this scheme is an amazing opportunity for anyone with a project they want to take to an audience. It’s an amazing network of artists and activists, the dance floor is fantastic, OSA have loads of useful kit and I always have a productive day there. The energy and vibe of the building is great.’
Open Source Arts is an arts and culture organisation based on Kirkstall Road in Leeds. Founded in 2015, Open Source Arts is uniquely situated at the interface between culture, society, arts and environmental engagement. It provides a space for creatives, events for community engagement, grants for community projects through Kirkstall Valley Grants, consultancy services to businesses and government as well as running its own circus company, Yorkshire Circus, and marquee hire business, Community Canvas.
We work with people and organisations, using practical action projects and creative dialogue processes to bring people together, get things un-stuck and move towards the sustainable futures we all want to create www.opensourcearts.co.uk
For information on how to sign-up, email info@opensourcearts.co.uk with the subject ‘Elevate Residency’.
