Queering the Space Opportunity – Curious Festival 2019

Opportunity: Curious Arts is seeking submissions from Artists and Creatives to create queer interventions in and around Curious Festival 2019’s sites and venues from 30th June – 9th July 2019. We want to hear your ideas for pop up activity that engages with Curious Festival’s audience and support you to Queer the Space.

Curious Festival is proud to be ‘queering the space’ for 2019 with the following festival venues: Alphabetti Theatre, ARC Stockton Arts Centre, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Dance City, Live Theatre, Sage Gateshead, Northern Stage and Tyneside Cinema. In addition to the festival we are also seeking proposals for our Curious Arts Stage site at Northern Pride Festival. These sites and venues offer a variety of spaces from atriums, corridors, bars and social spaces to host pre-festival event activity, enhancing our audience’s experience of venues from the second they enter.

Proposals: Curious Arts understands that audiences for queer work are dynamic and developing and is keen to both support and partner with early career and established Artists and Creatives. We embrace a wide range of work from mainstream with a traditional appeal to the innovative and experimental.

However, we ask that ideas submitted for consideration fulfil one or more of the following criteria:
1. Explores lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) themes.
2. Is of interest to an LGBTQ audience.
3. Is created or presented by LGBTQ artists.

As part of Curious Festival 2019’s development, we would be particularly interested to hear about work from queer artists of colour and work by trans and non-binary artists.

We welcome proposals from Artists/Creatives that details your work/experience, your activity idea (with
consideration of an appropriate space), responds to the criteria above and details why you feel it should
feature as part of Curious Festival 2019’s Queering the Space activity. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to discuss their proposal by phone call between 10th-12th June 2019.

Pop up activity across art forms will be considered and the final Queering the Space programme will be
selected by Curious Arts in consultation with partners and producers at host venues.

Fee: Up to £175 available per activity inc. travel and expenses.

Submissions: Submit a proposal (max. 1 side of A4) by email to: ellie@curiousarts.org.uk
Please use ‘CA Queering the Space 2019’ followed by your proposal title in the subject line.
If you would like to apply via telephone conversation, text or call 07305948834 to arrange a time.

Deadline for submissions: Midnight Friday 7th June 2019. Final outcome by Wednesday 12th June 2019.

About Curious Arts: Curious Arts is a Newcastle Gateshead based not-for- profit organisation developing LGBTQ arts, artists and audiences across the North East of England. Our work celebrates and explores Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Culture through the arts.

We work in partnership with arts, culture and community organisations and every year in July we produce and present Curious Festival – an annual celebration of LGBTQ culture across the North East. Increasing visibility, dialogue and understanding of the LGBTQ community.

For further information, please contact: hello@curiousarts.org.uk