In the middle of two PUSH visits (to Krokusfestival and then on to the Migration Lab at The Ark, Dublin) I was very lucky to be invited to attend FETEN, a festival for young audiences, in Gijon, Spain. FETEN is an annual event that brings together makers, presenters, producers and promoters to see each other’s work, book performances, network and share ideas together. It brings a huge number of young audience professionals from across the Spanish-speaking areas of Europe and beyond to Gijon, a small city of around 270,000 people.
As part of their programme, FETEN were putting together a Symposium event so invited a range of international colleagues to come and give a presentation to the young audiences sector in Spain.
Before the presentations we heard from Marián Osácar (Artistic Director, FETEN) and Lola Lara (ASSITEJ Spain) before hearing the following talks from the international guests:
- GAM and young audience development (12 to 18 years)
Pamela López (Director of Programme & Audiences, GAM cultural Centre - Chile) - Expanding arts education through civic engagement: “Any given child” program.
Jordan LaSalle (Director of Education Operations, Kennedy Centre - United States) - Why should a festival be interested in artist development?
Fiona Ferguson (Creative Development Director, Imaginate - Scotland) - Shift happens. Theatre for young audience must change.
Dirk Neldner (Artistic Director, Platform Shift - Germany) - SAND Festival and its bet for the artistic challenge in performing arts for young audiences.
Theis Irgens (Producer, SAND Festival - Norway)
After the presentations, we gathered again for table discussions around each presentation topic. Around this industry day, I managed to catch a couple of performances, meet with a lot of Spanish-speaking companies and talk with colleagues about the work of Imaginate and artists/companies based in Scotland.
A HUGE thank you to all at FETEN and to all the artists and colleagues I met with, what a pleasure it was (and of course, finding out more about the sidra tradition of Asturias!).