Belfast 8 - 17 November 2018
OPEN CALL
U
OUTBURST
is Belfast's yearly explosion of local and international queer art, performance, film and creative ideas. It's our 12th festival and we’re more fired up than ever about bringing brilliant LGBTQI+ stories and new queer creative ideas to wide audiences here in November 2018. It's a good time for bold brave work. Let's make it happen. We love arts events that are audacious, illuminating, unexpected and wildly entertaining. We also love ideas that get more LGBTQI+* people from all kinds of backgrounds involved in making performance, music, writing , film, visual art and in queer community. Spaces to share quiet stories, fantastic visions, cunning plans and glorious creative disruptions. About half of our programme each year is new art and performance work that we've found and think you'll love, or events that we develop ourselves for the festival. We know that there are artists and projects and great ideas out there that we don’t hear about though, so our Open Call is how we catch up with what you're making or planning to make, giving more artists the chance to participate and share work through Outburst.
WE PROGRAMME
work that...
e Has a lesbian, gay, bi, trans/non binary, intersex or queer focus, with an emphasis on original storytelling, fresh approaches and challenging insights. e Is created or presented by a queer writer or performer. e Is of particular interest to people who are LGBTQI+ and/or offers a genuine opportunity for queer people to participate directly in great arts events. We really love the stuff that shows a strong understanding of Northern Ireland/the North and of queer experiences and issues here in all their complexities, contradictions and diversities. To keep the programme fresh and exciting, we only programme work that hasn’t be seen here yet. Work that's been presented before in development will be considered if it's a brand new full production. If you are an experienced production company or writer interested in developing new work from script stage with Outburst, rather than submitting to this open call, please mail us at hello@outburstarts.com and we can talk about your idea. Our aim is to grow space for queer arts in Northern Ireland/the North, so we focus our development support on local artists and companies.
BRING YOUR IDEAS
that go beyond the obvious, that take queer art and LGBTQI+ stories into new and unexpected spaces and places in this city, that gather us and burst open feeling and thinking and assumptions and plant whopping great fabulous seeds for the changes we need. We don't have a theme. Let's just make the work that's absolutely roaring to be seen right now...
U hidden histories U queer kinships U media representations U queer bodies U U school U body autonomy U queer dreams U getting older U trans utopias U U queer languages U queers & class U forgotten lives U musical legacies U U gender terrorism U fitting in U LGBTQI+ dating U virtual selves U sabotage U U family U building community U queers & money U babies U no babies U U heterocolonisation U homocolonisation U colonisation U glitter U kink U brexit U U mental health U sci-fi U lesbian lives U evolutionary drag U revolutionary drag LOVE U HIV stigma U activism U romance U conflict U conversations U U visual futures U queering food U queering the envirioment U shame U U black lives matter U migrations U marriage U no marriage U feminism U U bi stories U queering the queers U saying the unsayble U DANCING U *lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and other marginalised sexualities and genders.
U SUBMIT
by emailing your ideas to submissions@outburstarts.com If you want to send hard copy materials, just pop them in the post to SUBMISSIONS 2018, OUTBURST, 1st Floor, 18-22 Hill Street, BELFAST BT1 2LA, Northern Ireland. Submissions should include the following: 1. Contact name, address, phone number, email address 2. An outline of your proposed event in 300 words or less. 3. A full budget breakdown of your event costs, including any funding you have already secured or applied for yourself. Please include costings for, performance fees, accommodation, travel, set transportation, tech and any other essential costs 4. Details, if any, of previous performances, screenings etc. of your proposed work, including any reviews or audience feedback. Please let us know if you are planning other performance/screening dates before or around Outburst. 5. Additional support materials such as your website, social network pages or other digital links. Any scripts, images, books, screeners or videos relating to your event are also very helpful to us in building up a full picture of your proposal. 6. Details of artists, performers, writers, etc. involved in the event, including all relevant CVs. A group or company CV is fine where that's more appropriate. 7. A short paragraph on why your event is particularly relevant to Outburst’s audiences and your thoughts on what kind of audience you aim to reach. If you don’t have or know some of these things, that’s okay, just send us what you have.
The deadline for receipt of submissions is 5pm Friday 25th MAY 2018. All programming is subject to funding and funding terms & conditions. Outburst is a curated festival and final programming decisions are made with the aim of producing an exciting programme of new work that is relevant and exciting for our diverse audiences. We’re a small team, so it’s not always possible to have detailed discussions about each submission but we’ll do our best to answer any questions. Our Questions section on the next page might help. Because the volume of submissions we now get for Outburst is quite large, we’ll generally only get in touch to chat if your work is the right fit for this year’s programme. We’re happy to offer feedback on proposals at your request and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. For news and updates, join us on
Outburst Arts
@OutburstArts
questions? Q: What kind of support can Outburst offer for my event? A: Outburst can cover artist/performance fee, travel and accommodation costs, venue hire, marketing, tech costs and other essentials. We don’t cover development or rehearsal costs unless your event is being co-produced or developed by Outburst. Bigger or more ambitious productions may need to contribute partnership funding from other sources. Let’s chat. Q: How many performances/shows should I budget for? A: Generally we programme just one perfomance of a show/event, sometimes more for plays or if the production has an inbuilt small audience capacity per show. Q: I’m writing a funding application. Can I get a letter of support, or say that the event is going to be in Outburst? A: Feel free to say that you are submitting your event for consideration in the festival but we only provide letters of support for work we are co-producing at this stage. We can provide letters after we have confirmed programming. Q: I am a new artist and haven’t produced something before. Can I still send you an idea? A. We aim to create spaces in the programme for work of all kinds. As long as your event will be well run (we can offer help with that) and you have an audience in mind who'll be into what you’re doing, we'll look at your idea the same as all the others. Really think about what's possible for your event at this stage if you haven’t run one before. Don't be afraid to ask questions if you're doing this for the first time, we're here to help. Q: Can I send you a script? A: We love to read new work but we only programme ready-to-stage productions through the Open Call. Drop us a line if you would like to discuss developing something in partnership with a theatre company for Outburst over the coming year or two and we can look at possibilities for your script. Q: When will I hear if my proposal is shortlisted? A: While we try our best to get back to everyone, we’re a small team and receive a lot of proposals, so we can’t guarantee we’ll get the chance to chat to you about your work unless it’s shortlisted. You should get a confirmation once we have received your submission, so if you don’t hear from us at all please get in touch. You should hear from us by the end of July at very latest if your proposal is right for this year. Q: We are a venue/community organisation/ non-LGBTQI group/youth group/agency that would love to do something for Outburst but not quite sure what. Can you help? A: Absolutely. We love to create new partnerships that bring great events to new audiences. We do lots of “matchmaking” between organisations and artists or events that can bring Outburst to your area or group. Drop us a line at hello@outburstarts.com instead of to the submissions address. Q: I don’t have an event to submit but I’d love to get involved in Outburst in other ways. Is there anything I can do other than perform? A: Yes! For starters, our amazing volunteers are a big part of the team before and during the festival. Some volunteers lend their time and specific skills throughout the year. Drop us a line to hello@outburstarts.com and tell us a bit about yourself. We’d particularly love to hear from people with skills in fundraising, marketing and business development. We also invite those with organisational skills and experience to apply to join our governing Board of Directors. Contact us for an info pack on Board Membership and details of our next board recruitment opportunities. Q: Do you accept film submissions? A: Yes, we programme new queer feature films in partnership with QFT, our local independent cinema. While we don't have a shorts programme, we do sometimes programme shorts before features. We can also screen work as part of other events, particularly if the content is stimulating and relevant around specific queer issues or topics we're exploring in the wider programme. Please send a screening link or DVD along with the rest of the submission details. Outburst and our projects are supported by several agencies and sponsors throughout the year, including Arts Council of Northern Ireland (Primary Funder), British Council (Main Partner) Belfast City Council, Department for Communities and others.