PUSH+ is a 3-year Creative Europe co-operation project led by Imaginate (Scotland) alongside Aaben Dans (Denmark), Krokusfestival (Belgium), Scenekunstbruket (Norway), The Ark (Ireland) and associate partner Bangkok International Children's Festival (Thailand).
PUSH+ will stimulate European dialogue and initiate new artistic ideas and performances around three important topics in performance for young audiences – Home, Failure and Different Bodies. These are topics that push us to take more risks as makers and presenters, to address the underrepresentation of different lives and bodies on our stages and to tell stories that really connect with children and who they are. Each topic will have a year-long focus with a Lab, Residency and Festival Visit/Presentation. We will also explore three artistic formats - Participatory, Site-specific and Intergenerational - across all three topics.
We have curated the following programme:
PUSH+ Labs - an 8-day research lab around each of the three topics
PUSH+ Residencies - two weeks of studio time for the early development of a Lab idea
PUSH+ Festival Presentations - the presentation of topic-related works in progress or public interventions created by participating artists at a partner festival
PUSH+ Festival Visits - a group of 10 artists and the partners visiting a partner festival to see work, take part in the PUSH+ events and network with the festival delegates and audiences
PUSH+ International Workshop - a 5-day workshop in Bangkok exploring the Different Bodies topic with 5 artists from Europe and 5 from Thailand
PUSH+ Symposium - a day-long event at The Ark in Dublin to compile, interrogate and share the ideas and research at the end of the project
PUSH+ Outside Eyes - an invitation to 5 experts or guests to provoke, bring cultural contexts outwith the partner countries and reflect back to the project
You can read more about PUSH+ on our dedicated project spaces:
PUSH+ website
PUSH+ Facebook
PUSH+ Twitter
PUSH+ Instagram