Donations are being taken HERE to support This Is Not Art 2011. All contributions over $2 are tax deductible.
Hard Times
This Is Not Art has recently received some sobering news about funding for this year’s festival. Read on for the official press release, as published on the Octapod’s blog.
According to Festival Coordinator Eliza Adam, TINA has been notified that its current triennial funding would not be renewed. This means with just 12 weeks until the annual arts festival is scheduled to kick-off the TINA operational budget is $18,000 short of its financial need.
“Without this money there is a very real threat to the festival. If we can’t find funding within the next 2 weeks to we will have to make some very hard decisions,” said Adam.
The TINA festival, held annually in Newcastle since 1998, was established to support the development of contemporary arts practice on a local and national level.
The high profile event attracts over 5,000 participants and artists from all over the country and overseas and generates over $1.5 million for the local economy.
“This threat to the festival will result in financial loss for local business and a drop in cultural tourism. We have had many local businesses expressing concern that this will impact upon their annual income “said Adam.
Each year the festival which, presents a diverse program of over 250 free events across the five-day festival, showcases the work of over 400 national and local artists, presenting a program of discussion panels, theatre performances, research forums, hands on workshops and visual art exhibitions and installations.
Writers, arts workers, media makers, thespians, musicians, physical performers, sound artists and visual artists travel from across Australia and overseas, to showcase their work, network, collaborate and develop new skills.
Adam claims the loss of funding will affect the entire festival, and will directly impact its production values.
“It’s challenging to say the least, to present a festival which involves theatrical and musical performances without lighting, staging or sound. This will directly impact the audience experience and the ability of artists to present their work authentically,” she said.
Despite the strong support received from The Newcastle University of Newcastle and Arts NSW and a handful of in-kind venue support, TINA’s budget is still short of a substantial cash injection in order to ensure the high quality of this year’s festival.
“If we don’t have sound and lighting many aspects of the festival may not be able to go ahead in its usual format, if at all so further support is vital,” she said.
TINA is now calling for the Newcastle community to lend its support in order to maintain its culturally diverse, rich and sustainable arts sector.
TINA is seeking both sponsorship from businesses and private donations.
We at Critical Animals are doing everything we can to support This Is Not Art, and to ensure we all have the best experience possible come festival time. You can help us by getting word out about the situation through your own networks – we’ll keep you posted with updates as they come to hand. Parties interested in supporting the festival can contact the TINA team via:
Website : www.thisisnotart.org
Phone : 02 4927 0675
Email: admin@thisisnotart.org
Thank you all for your continued support!
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The Countdown Begins
The Critical Animals team is reporting to you fresh from the This Is Not Art programming meeting in Melbourne, meaning we’re hurtling towards festival time! All Critical Animals submissions have now been reviewed, so if you made a proposal to be involved in CA this year you will be hearing from us shortly – thanks for your patience while we plow through all the amazing applications. In the meantime, regardless as to whether you’re a presenter or audience member, now is the time to start planning your trip to TiNA 2011. The dates are September 29 – October 3 and the place is Newcastle, NSW.
The This is Not Art site has information about travel and accommodation, and Critical Animals will also be posting some practical tips for visiting this year’s festival over the coming months. Happy planning!
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New Friends
Congratulations to Canberra-based designers New Best Friend, who have been selected to develop the branding and program for This Is Not Art this year. We look forward to working with them!
Don’t forget to check up on current opportunities to collaborate with the festival by stopping by the This Is Not Art site.
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Octapod Update
The Octapod Association is a non-profit arts and media organisation that helps facilitate This Is Not Art as well as an array of other exciting creative projects in the Newcastle region. The association is just about to hold its Annual General Meeting, this Saturday 30 April, 1-2pm at Octapod (on Auckland Street, just opposite Civic Park) and is also currently seeking new board members to join its team.
The commitment is generally no more than 1-2 hours per week (but not every week), including attending a monthly meeting (2 hrs). People with a passion for the arts, who are ‘doers’ would be great. The kind of skills they are looking for include: strategic planning/business planning, marketing, advocacy, legal, OHS, community consultation, financial skills. Practising artists and people who are willing to learn and pitch in are most welcome. The board generally attends to legal/contractual/strategic issues and provide advice and support to staff.
If this sounds like you, please contact Christina via podadmin[at]octapod.org for more info. A great opportunity to get your hands dirty with Newcastle arts all year round!
To find out more about the Octapod Association and its projects, head to www.octapod.org
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Reading, Reading…
Thank you everyone who made a submission to be a part of Critical Animals 2011. We’re currently wading through all your proposals and hope to be in touch soon. In the meantime, be sure to keep checking back for updates and CA news in the lead up to September 29. If it’s your thing you might want to follow us on Twitter as well @CriticalAnimals
Lastly, don’t forget to drop in to the official This Is Not Art site for more festival news, opportunities and even more ways to be involved this year.
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Call For Proposals DEADLINE EXTENDED
Over the past few weeks we’ve had a lot of interest from all manner of folk who want to present or participate in Critical Animals 2011. If you’re keen too but you’ve been out of town, maybe wrangling a thesis or just a little slow off the mark then this is your lucky day! No more excuses - the deadline for proposals has now been EXTENDED until C.O.B Monday April 11th.
Please check our previous post for all the finer details, and if you’re still struggling to come up with a concrete idea, but know you want to be a part of Critical Animals in 2011, please get in touch so we can help! Drop us a line at criticalanimals@gmail.com
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Call For Proposals 2011
Call For Proposals
Critical Animals, a creative research symposium held as a part of This Is Not Art, is now calling for proposals to participate in the 2011 festival.
DEADLINE – APRIL 1, 2011
Critical Animals is a forum for students, researchers, writers, artists, thinkers and curious individuals who are critically engaged with creative and experimental art practices. It’s an opportunity to present papers and ongoing research, as well as to challenge creative practices and work collaboratively with others in the field.
Critical Animals aims to strengthen the links between practice and theory with a flexible definition of research that encompasses creative, experimental, interrogative and practice-lead approaches.
The symposium is particularly interested in promoting cross-disciplinary and collaborative approaches. In assessing your proposal we’ll be looking at how we can program you and your work to form interesting conjunctions with other artists and thinkers.
This year’s symposium will take place over three days, from Friday 30 September to Sunday 2 October, in Newcastle, NSW.
Papers, panels, presentations
We are keen to receive proposals from artists and researchers who are investigating or putting into practice specific areas of theory and philosophy. From explorations of form and methodology, to issues impacting on everyday life, we welcome research material and reflections on poetics, politics, aesthetics, practice-lead research, ecological art and ecopoetics, the social implications of art and the overlap between the arts and the sciences.
Experimental and non-traditional presentations are encouraged. Papers and presentations generally allow for 20 minutes per artist, plus discussion.
Other ways to engage
Critical Animals is not just a paper symposium, we invite practising artists to perform or share their work. We would like to present your work as part the symposium’s ongoing dialogue with concepts of creative research. We are looking for artists whose work intersects with critical thought and experimentation across practice, discipline, methodology or medium. We are interested in interactive and interdisciplinary works and events.
Proposals
In your proposal please outline your practice, your project (if applicable) and the way in which you’d like to present it. Where possible, be specific. Take up to 500 words. We’re also looking for artists who can be involved in cross-festival events and panels with artists from the other TiNA programs.
1. In your proposal, be sure to include:
- Name
- Address
- Phone number
- Website (if applicable)
- University or institution (if applicable)
- Bio – 25 words
- A photo for marketing and publicity (300dpi)
2. Are you applying to any of the other TiNA festivals? If so which?
- National Young Writers Festival
- Electrofringe
- Sound Summit
- Crack Theatre Festival
Would you like to be programmed across other TiNA festivals? Again, which?
If you would like to be involved with Critical Animals but you do not have a proposal, contact us with details on your interests or area of expertise and how we might use your skills in the festival.
Submit proposals, questions, ideas and concerns to criticalanimals@gmail.com
Cheers,
Yolande Norris, Ella O’Keefe, Julia Shaw
Co-Directors
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New year, new direction
The new year seems to have finally found its momentum, and planning has begun on Critical Animals for 2011. It’s not quite time to submit applications for this year’s festival quite yet, we’ll be putting the call-out in March (and we’re all looking forward to see what you’ve got for us this year!). It is, however, time to introduce Critical Animals’ new directors – Julia Shaw, Ella O’Keefe and Yolande Norris!
None of them are strangers to the festival and were all involved in 2010. Julia has recently returned to Newcastle and has a predilection for space. Ella now lives in Melbourne and brings her love of words and poetry to the festival. And finally, Yolande, whose resolve we already admire as she travels all the way from Canberra for each month’s meeting, has a thing for pondering, writing, and waxing philosophical about art and society in general. Together, this trio will be responsible for making Critical Animals 2011 the best that it can be.
Much gratitude goes out to Aden for his time and commitment to the festival, and for rolling out the past two incredible events. Sarah will be around in the background as an organisational manager, keeping the cogs oiled. But both past directors will remain a valued as part of the Critical Animals family. A lovely, happy, artsy family that is likely to forget to eat dinner as they get stuck debating the nuances of creative intent as the day wears on. Problematic nutritionally, perhaps, but a boon for creative research in Newcastle, and Australia.
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Callout for Unruly Ecologies Symposium (WA)
For anyone in the west, there’s a callout for artworks for an exciting-looking SymbioticA Symposium:
Unruly ecologies: Biodiversity and art (A SymbioticA Symposium)
November 26 to 28 2010
A symposium exploring the possibilities and difficulties of the diversity of life through critical investigations in art, ecology and activism.
The ecology of biodiversity is based upon an uncertain definition, incomplete statistics and the need to act in a world without balance. While multiple flora and fauna databases have being established and are being coordinated, there is an urgent need to engage even more proactively with complex ecosystems and human responses. Artists, scientists, humanities scholars and conservationists will come together to talk of the ‘matters of concern’ around the potentials and futures of biodiversity.
Confirmed Speakers include Professor Bruce Clarke (Professor of Literature and Science, Department of English, Texas Tech University), Professor Timothy Morton (Professor of English (Literature and the Environment), Department of English, University of California, Davis), Associate Professor Anas Ghadouani (School of Environmental Systems Engineering, The University of Western Australia), Greg Pryor (Artist and Lecturer, School of Communications and Arts, Faculty of Education and the Arts, Edith Cowan University), Dr Lesley Instone (Lecturer, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and Information Technology, Newcastle University) and British Artists Dr Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson.
Dates: Friday 26 November to Sunday 28 November
Locations: Perth and Mandurah, Western Australia
Registration: Symposium sessions free but please RSVP for catering purposes sym@symbiotica.uwa.edu.au
Call for contemporary artworks for a survey of examples: Artist whose work explores the idea of biodiversity are invited to post links to their work under the following categories or email an image and paragraph of text to: perdy@perditaphillips.com
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