The Australia Council invites live art practitioners to propose national and international tours for live art work.

Your live art work must be ready to tour, and have confirmed one or more presentation partners. This could include festivals, theatres, galleries or community spaces who can support you to present your work regionally, interstate and/or overseas. 

Hopscotch is a Market Development initiative, in partnership with the Inter-Arts Office. The aims are to:

• support innovative Australian live art by developing new national and international markets
• extend the life of live art works through touring
• build  knowledge, expertise and networks for presenting live art
• increase artists’ professional networks and income levels, and diversify their income
• maximise audience engagement with Australian live art

Who can apply?
Australian live art practitioners can apply as individual artists or as a group. You will need to articulate your work in the context of Australian and/or international live art practice.

What can I apply for?
You can apply for up to $10,000 to tour your live art work to presentation spaces which may be regional, interstate and/or overseas. You can only request Hopscotch funding to support travel, freight, accommodation costs and per-diems (a daily amount to cover basic personal expenses while on tour - you  can refer to the Australian Tax Office's per diem guidelines as a guide).

You must detail the artist fees and income within your budget, as confirmed with your presentation partner/s. We acknowledge that live art practice is experimental and may connect with emerging arts spaces so that full fees are not always possible, however you must clearly demonstrate the strategic opportunities and future income this presentation will generate.

Applications that demonstrate strong commitment from presenters and partners, including appropriate artist fees and other co-funding, will be more competitive against the selection criteria.

Restrictions:

• This initiative does not support purchasing capital items, production costs or artists fees. These must be outlined in your budget, with fees and in-kind support from presentation partner/s confirmed in support letter/s.
• Applicants with outstanding acquittals for Australia Council grants are not eligible to apply.

What is live art?  
Live art is a term used to describe work in which artists explore the live experience of artistic processes, pushing conventions of theatre, performance art and site-specific work. It may also engage local communities and diverse audiences to develop, create and participate in the live event.

Live art networks include LALA (Live Art List Australia) and the Live Art Development Agency, supported by the Arts Council England. Recently the Australia Council has supported live art initiatives including the Visible City laboratory with the Melbourne Fringe festival, the P4 (Pilot) project with Performance Space, PICA and pvi collective, and the upcoming Live Art Cultural Leadership program with Field Theory and Performance Space. See recent Hopscotch grant recipients and stay tuned for stories about these live art tours.

Background
This is an Australia Council Market Development initiative, in partnership with the Inter-Arts Office.

Market Development aims to increase the visibility and viability of Australian arts with programs and initiatives that complement the sector plans of the artform boards. It is responsible for:

• connecting Australian art with markets and audiences, nationally and internationally
• building knowledge via research and evaluation
• strategic investment and initiatives to help artists reach their full potential.

The Inter-Arts Office is part of the Arts Funding division, and supports new artistic practice that does not fall within the existing funding guidelines of the artform boards. This includes creative processes such as interdisciplinary and hybrid arts, and experimental projects involving artists and practitioners from other fields. See news and details of some of the interdisciplinary arts projects Inter-Arts supports.

Australian artists can apply as individuals or as a group. Organisations are ineligible to apply for this initiative.

You can apply for tours taking place from 1 January 2012

You are ineligible to apply if you are already receiving touring funds from the Australia Council, are self-presenting your work, or have any outstanding grant reports.

Selection Criteria
You must present a viable touring proposal with confirmation letters from your presentation partners addressing the following criteria:

1. Relevance of your work in the context of live art
   How does your work relate to current local and international live art practice, discourse and networks? Provide a description of your live art work to tour, the artist/s involved and your other relevant work within the past 18 months. You should include a URL link to provide further information and may attach support material (no more than two A4 pages or one 5 min video file)
   
   
2. Ability to effectively coordinate the touring project
   Outline the travel, logistics and management required to tour this work. Provide a tour itinerary that details the number of presentation/s balanced with travel and rest days. Are there ways to add value to your tour, such as workshops, media or meetings? (You may include a 1 A4 page tour summary as an attachment)
   
   
3. Evidence the tour has a clear commitment from presenters and partners
   How are your presenter/s supporting you to present your work and reach audiences? What resources and connections will you require to situate your work meaningfully in each location? What was the rationale for negotiating the fees? (You must include confirmation from the presenter/s as an attachment)
   
   
4. The strategic impact of the tour for market and career development of your work
   Outline your rationale for this tour. Why are these presentation spaces, regions and audiences strategic to the development of your work or practice?  How will this tour develop future markets for your work? You should include a list of targeted presenters who will attend your work, demonstrating how this opportunity will develop future touring options.
   

Complete an online application form by the closing date 4 November 2011 - click on 'apply online' tab.

You must include confirmation letters from all presenters, including:

• the presenter’s name, position, festival/venue/space, location
• the payment and in-kind support you receive to successfully present this work
• if your proposal involves community groups, you must provide letters of support confirming the community’s full understanding of the proposal and willingness to work with the nominated personnel
• if your proposal involves representations of artistic/cultural practice or intended outcomes relating to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander artists or communities, you must provide letters from relevant communities or artists. You must show clear evidence of support and agreement for the activities undertaken, in line with the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts policy and its underpinning principles. In preparing your application, you may wish to consult the Indigenous protocol guides in song, performance, writing, media arts and visual arts.
• a budget, list of touring personnel, and tour summary
• CV of the work and artist/s involved.

If your application is not complete, does not address each of the four (4) assessment criteria, or does not include the required supporting materials, it will not be considered. Applicants will not be contacted if applications are incomplete.

An independent assessment panel will review the requests against the assessment criteria, with advice from Market Development and Arts Funding staff. While your application may meet the stated assessment criteria, you are not guaranteed support.

You will normally be notified of the results via email within six (6) weeks of receipt of your application. Applications will not be returned to the applicant. These guidelines are reviewed regularly and are subject to change.

For further information, please contact:

Katie Harford, Program Officer
Market Development
Tel: (02) 9215 9041 or Toll free: 1800 226 912
Email:k.harford@australiacouncil.gov.au

4 November 2011 Round

The Hopscotch Assessment Panel met on 1 December 2011 to assess the grant applications received on 4 November 2011.

Peers commended the high quality of the applications and live touring opportunities secured nationally and internationally. Top scoring applicants were very strong in providing detail about who they would meet with, and invite to see their presentations, to assist with future opportunities for their work.

While the Panel acknowledged that the structure around touring for many live art performances may be less formal than traditional tours, the relationships and management should be detailed in applications to provide an understanding of the logistics involved. Particular care needs to be taken to ensure the best quality performance at all times and this includes ensuring appropriate breaks and resources for set up and performance.

Successful recipients:

One Step at a time Like This (VIC), $10,000
To present en route at the 2012 London Festival

Bennett Miller (WA), $10,000
To tour the work Dachshund UN to the United Kingdom in April 2012 at the Fierce Festival in Birmingham

Karen Therese Smith (NSW), $10,000
Tour to New York City and Perth to present live art works The Comfort Zone and Kiss Club

Rebecca Clunn (NSW), $6,500
To present ONE in Manchester, and ONE and a Study in red weight at the Leeds Glorious Trauma festival

Jimmy McGilchrist (SA), $10,000
To present large-scale augmented reality projection project, Curious Creatures, to the Vry festival in South Africa

Thea Baumann (VIC), $10,000
To present Metaverse Makeovers, an augmented reality manicure performance at the JUE Festival in Shanghai

Nancy Mauro-Flude (TAS), $10,000
To present Error_in_Time() at Brighton Digital Festival & with Darwin Community Art Frontline Media

Funding statistics
Applications received: 14
Applications funded: 7
50% success rate
Amount requested: $132,277
Amount approved: $66,500

Panel members:
Liz Burcham (QLD), Emily Sexton (VIC), Martyn Coutts (VIC).

Staff present:
Katie Harford, Program Officer Market Development (Convener); Collette Brennan, Program Manager Market Development; Kathryn Gray, Program Officer, Inter-arts; Ricardo Peach, Program Manager Inter-Arts; Drew Bourgeois, Administration Officer.

For more information, contact Katie Harford, Program Officer, Market Development, 02 9215 9041 or email k.harford@australiacouncil.gov.au

 

 

 

 

13 May 2011 Round

The Hopscotch assessment panel met on 26 May 2011 to assess the grant applications received on 13 May 2011.This was the first round for the Hopscotch Initiative. Peers recommended that applicants should strongly articulate their work in the context of live art, and argue the strategic rationale for their proposed tour in terms of career and market development.

Successful recipients:

Lucas Abela (NSW) $8,000
To present Vinyl Arcade and Gigloo with Keg de Souza at the TodaysArt Festival in Den Hague and Brussels.

David Chesworth (VIC) $8,973.00
To perform Richter/Meinhof Opera at the Art Gallery of NSW.

Dan Koop (VIC) $3,550.00
To tour Wish We Were Here to Launceston, Brisbane, and Melbourne.

Georgina Meagher (NSW) $10,000
To present Kansas in elevators for Exist-ence Festival in Brisbane and YaYW Festival in Bristol.

Team Mess (NSW) $10,000
To tour This Is It to Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Triage (VIC) $10,000
To present Strange Passions at Exchange Radical Moments Festival 2011, Berlin.


Funding statistics
Applications received: 15
Applications funded: 6
40% success rate

Amount requested:$120,492
Amount approved: $49,200

Panel members:
Liz Burcham (QLD), Leigh Robb (WA), Emily Sexton (NSW), Michael Yuen (SA).

Staff present:
Andrew Donovan, Director Inter-Arts (Convener), Katie Harford, Program Officer Market Development, Collette Brennan, Program Manager Market Development, Kathryn Gray, Program Officer, Inter-arts, Ricardo Peach, Program Manager Inter-Arts, Johani Almedo, Operations Manager, Caitlin Fairchild, Administration Officer.

For more information, contact Katie Harford, Program Officer, Market Development, 02 9215 9041 or email k.harford@australiacouncil.gov.au