Bristol Pride and MAYK are embarking on a new creative collaboration that will offer a seed commission to an LGBTQ+ artist, company, or collective to spend some time developing a new idea for a live performance work that has the potential to be performed at Mayfest and Bristol Pride 2022.
Our brief is open – it could be development time for a show that happens in a ‘theatre’ space, it could be outdoors, it could be online, it could be none of these things. What we’re interested to hear about are the ideas, themes, issues, and aesthetics that you think need to be shared with audiences right now, and a sense of how you want to connect with your audience. We’re interested in proposals that connect to our organisational values.
This is not a production commission, it is in an investment in early research and development – the bit that gets it out of your head. What happens after this part of the journey will be based on conversations between us and you.
We’re looking for ideas that haven’t yet received any support or investment and this is open to artists at any stage of their career.
Alongside the commission, we can offer artist development support from MAYK and Bristol Pride and access to rehearsal space. We would expect to flesh out the full offer in response to the project.
We have £4000 to support this first stage commission. Any development of the project beyond this stage would need additional fundraising.
How to apply
To apply, please send us the following information:
1. A summary of your idea/project. You can do this by sending us a written summary (no more than two sides of A4), a video or audio recording (no longer than 4 minutes)
2. A brief summary of your previous work and a bit about who you are. (no more than one side of A4)
3. Contact information
We’re taking an intersectional approach to this commission, and so would particularly like to hear from artists who are disabled, identify as working class, ethnically and culturally diverse and who experience racism in our society.
Deadline: Friday 25 June, 5pm
To apply please email matthewandkate@mayk.org.uk
Shortlisted proposals will be invited to an interview with representatives from MAYK and Bristol Pride.
If you’d like an informal discussion about this opportunity, please contact matthewandkate@mayk.org.uk
About MAYK
MAYK is one of the country’s leading live performance producing organisations. Based in Bristol but working internationally, our mission is to make important, unexpected, revelatory work with visionary artists that changes our experience of the world and each other. We create dynamic meeting points for participation in world-class live performance both in and out of traditional art spaces.
Led by Kate Yedigaroff and Matthew Austin, MAYK was established in 2011 and continues to make a space for a holistic, long term approach to creating memorable experiences that are accessible to lots of people.
Recent projects include Raquel Meseguer Zafe’s A Crash Course in Cloudspotting, Still House’s SESSION, co-produced with LIFT, and Caroline Williams and Reem Karssli’s Now Is The Time To Say Nothing. MAYK curates and produces Mayfest – Bristol’s international festival of theatre. MAYK is a lead partner on Horizon, a new international showcase of performance created in England at the Edinburgh Festivals.
MAYK is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation and a Bristol City Council Cultural Investment Partner.
About Pride
Bristol Pride is one of the largest Pride events in the UK. A registered charity that works to deliver the annual LGBT+ Festival in Bristol which usually sees over 30 events, using a range of the arts including theatre, film, and other performance mediums, across two weeks in July. This culmination of which is a massive outdoor music and arts festival that saw over 40,000 people attend in 2019.
Bristol Pride also work all year round to challenge homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and promote equality and diversity, for all, through various events, school visits, consultation services and lobbying
Header Image: Splintered by Lagahoo Productions which Bristol Pride commissioned in 2020.
