Bristol Old Vic’s Ferment to triple commissioning budget for new work as part of a revamped commitment to freelance and independent artists across the South West.
Bristol Old Vic’s Ferment programme today revealed renewed and expanded strands of support and collaboration for artists and companies across the South West.
After two years of conversation and learning with artists across the region, the revamped Ferment model, marking its tenth anniversary, responds to the urgent and evolving needs of the industry’s freelance and independent creative sector.
Ben Atterbury, Bristol Old Vic’s New Work Producer explains; “Put simply, we believe that the best way to support artists and companies is to trust their ideas, guide their development, back their ambition and commit to presenting their work. We’re enormously grateful to the John Ellerman Foundation, whose support over the next 3 years contributes to the delivery of the biggest commissions for artists and companies that we have ever awarded. We’re also indebted to other organisations who have broken ground and tested their own models, blazing a trail in supporting new work that inspires us to go further and deeper than we have before.”
Recent successful productions such as Wild Swimming (by FullRogue) and Outlier (by Malaika Kegode, Jakabol and Jenny Davies) have demonstrated the impact of bringing Ferment’s work into the heart of the artistic programme at Bristol Old Vic, supporting that work with more money, more skilled collaboration and longer runs. This investment allows us to commit to that way of working – structuring Ferment’s strands of support so that we can collaborate with more artists and companies to develop their work in this way, pushing projects out of “development hell” and providing opportunities that help artists to build their creative practice for the longer term.
Bristol Old Vic’s revitalised Ferment programme is organised into three main strands of activity:
1 Development, Commissioning and Co-Producing
We’re more than tripling our commissioning budget, and focusing resources on developing, commissioning and co-producing more projects.
We commit to co-producing three or four projects with artists and companies per year and offering eight to twelve smaller development commissions We’ll select these projects through a public process that mixes open call with curation.
We are grateful for the support of the John Ellerman Foundation, whose funding will support help us deliver this strand over the next three years.
Our 2022/23 Commissioning Round opens tomorrow (16 Jun) and will close on 15 July.
2 Targeted Projects
Offering structured and bespoke support to tackle specific needs from our artistic community Beyond the development and creation of new work, we will also be offering structured and bespoke support to tackle specific needs from our artistic community either ourselves or in partnership with other organisations across the UK, from writing and producing to offstage roles and beyond. These are our ‘Targeted Projects’.
3 The Ferment Forum
The Forum is a free, open, accessible network of artists, currently with over 600 members.
Its aim is to enable communication and mutual support between artists across the South West, offering a range of free benefits, including access to Bristol Old Vic’s resources and opportunities to expand your network and develop your creative practice.
To learn more about all three strands, visit the Bristol Old Vic website.
www.bristololdvic.org.uk/for-artists
Associate Artists Working Group
Additionally, we’re bringing our associate artists closer to the heart of our operations with the formation of a working group, comprised of four of our existing Associates, who will work with us for a few days each month on an ongoing and paid basis.
These artists are participating in the development of our artistic programme, contributing to the working life of the theatre and lending valuable support and perspective in all areas of our operation, including Ferment. Our working group for 2022 are Saikat Ahamed, Edson Burton, Julia Head and Malaika Kegode; all four artists have already begun their engagement with us and we’re excited to see the impact of our collaboration with them grow across this year and beyond.
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