Artsadmin’s Autumn/Winter 2024 season
From city-wide celebrations to the sheer joy of queer imagination, our touring programme will traverse the globe to bring bold, radical work to new communities, contexts and cultures:
Station House Opera‘s legendary city-scale moving sculpture Dominoes will be transforming urban environments in Poland and Canada this September. Hundreds of volunteers and audience members in each location gather together to create a moving sculpture made of thousands of breeze blocks, setting off a communal celebration across the city for one day. Malta Festival is staging Dominoes in Poznan on 7 September, followed by The Bentway in Toronto on 22 September.
After a brilliantly received tour to Poland, Norway and Bristol this Spring, Cade & MacAskill’s joyous tale of love and transition, The Making of Pinocchio, will head to Switzerland, France, Finland and Belgium. See it at La Bâtie in Geneva from 6-7 September, Gessnerallee in Zurich from 27-28 September, Actoral Festival in Marseille from 4-5 October, Moving in November Festival in Helsinki from 13-14 November, Festival d’Automne in Paris from 22-30 November, or at Théâtre Les Tanneurs in Brussels from 5-9 December.
Legendary choreographer and filmmaker Rosemary Lee is bringing Moving Worlds, her programme of dance films, to The Place in London on 14 September. After this, Moving Worlds will be touring around the UK, supported by the Rural Dance Touring Initiative. See it at DanceEast in Ipswich on 16 September, Glasshouse Arts Centre in Stourbridge on 24 October, and Allendale Village Hall and Felton Village Hall in Northumberland on 26 and 27 November respectively.
And Sentence, a film by Rosemary and Hugo Glendinning, filmed in the Court Room at Toynbee Studios, is available to watch digitally as part of Dance Umbrella, from 9-31 October.
Dominoes takes as its starting point the simplest of ideas, a line of dominoes. Thousands of breeze blocks are used to create a moving sculpture which unfolds across the entire city.
On streets, in parks, through buildings and even on water, occasionally disappearing and then resurfacing, the domino line threads its way through historic and everyday parts of the city, linking its diverse communities in a chain of cause and effect. Hundreds of volunteers and audience members gather together to make this exceptional and unique event.
Dominoes creates an alternative vision of the city, counterpointing, complementing and subverting the architecture, and for a brief moment reclaiming the city streets for its inhabitants. Dominoes was created in London and has travelled to more than 20 cities, including Copenhagen, Marseille, Ljubljana, Ghent, Hull and Melbourne.
7 September (all day event) | Malta Festival | Poznań, Poland
Set in a fictional film studio, you are invited to go behind the scenes of Cade & MacAskill’s creative process and their relationship, and question what it takes to tell your truth.
Artists and lovers Rosana Cade and Ivor MacAskill have been creating The Making of Pinocchio since 2018, alongside and in response to Ivor’s gender transition. In this ‘funny, clever and thoughtful two-hander, rich in playful imagery’ (The Guardian) their tender and complex autobiographical experience meets the magical story of the lying puppet who wants to be a ‘real boy’.
With an ingenious scenography designed by Tim Spooner, layered with sound by Yas Clarke, lights by Jo Palmer and cinematography from Kirstin McMahon and Jo Hellier, the show constantly shifts between fantasy and authenticity, humour and intimacy, on stage and on screen.
6-7 September | 7-8.30pm | La Bâtie | Geneva, Switzerland
27-28 September | 7.30-9pm | Gessnerallee | Zurich, Switzerland
4-5 October | Various times | Actoral Festival | Marseille, France
13-14 November | 7pm-8.30pm | Moving in November Festival | Helsinki, Finland
22-30 November | Various times | Festival d’Automne | Paris, France
5-9 December | Various times | Théâtre Les Tanneurs | Brussels, Belgium
A celebration of the legendary choreographer and filmmaker Rosemary Lee’s unique contribution to dance film making over the last 35 years. Presented by the artist herself in an informal setting, Moving Worlds will be a chance to see a wide variety of ground-breaking internationally renowned dance films rarely seen, from the 1990s to the present day. Known for her articulacy, she reveals how and why she made them and answers audience questions, in a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere.
These award-winning, magical dance films transport you to beautiful places whilst highlighting the grace and individuality of every performer. From a nine-year-old boy leaping through sand dunes, a little girl dancing in a forgotten garden, to over seventy performers of all ages gliding through a cathedral of trees, they reflect our humanity and unspoken connection to each other and the environment.
14 September | 7.30-9.30pm | The Place | London
16 October | 7.30-9.30pm | DanceEast | Ipswich
24 October | 7-9pm | Glasshouse Arts Centre | Stourbridge
26 October | 7.30-9.30pm | Allendale Village Hall | Northumberland
27 October | 7.30-9.30pm | Felton Village Hall | Northumberland
Photographer and filmmaker Hugo Glendinning and choreographer Rosemary Lee’s acclaimed short film, Sentence, explores the fleeting nature of dance through innovative animation techniques and slow shutter speed.
Filmed in the iconic former courtroom at Toynbee Studios, Sentence reveals the ephemerality of dance through the experimental use of animation and slow shutter speed.
Crafted during the isolating period of lockdown in 2020 and accompanied by Isaac Lee-Kronick‘s haunting soundtrack, Sentence is both poetic and mysterious, and evokes a profound sense of longing.
Meanwhile, at Toynbee Studios, we’ve got a packed artist support programme of free sessions, talks and events to help artists at all stages of their careers build a more sustainable practice:
We’re re-igniting our partnership with Raze Collective to bring you another series of Queer Clash Mornings, starting on Thursday 12 September from 11am-1pm. This series will specifically hold space for QTIBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Intersex and Questioning, Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) queer creatives to get together, exchange, chat and network. There’ll be a different QTIBIPOC queer creative co-hosting each session, starting with multidisciplinary artist and founder of The Blacker the Berry, Jesualdo Lopes.
Morning Producers returns after its summer hiatus to provide space, time and peer-to-peer support for freelance producers and self-producing artists. Come along to Alba Caffé from 10am-12pm on the first Wednesday of the month, from Wednesday 2 October onwards, and join Artsadmin’s producers for a coffee and a chat.
Starting in November, we’ll be hosting DYCP Homework Club to provide a supportive environment for folks working on their Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) grants. Every Tuesday from 12 November until the application deadline, the artist support team will be in Toynbee Studios from 6.30-9.30pm, holding space for you to work, discuss your ideas and ask any burning questions.
Calling all QTIBIPOC* creatives, artists, performers & producers!
*We use QTBIPOC to stand for Queer, Trans, Intersex and Questioning Black, Indigenous People of Colour
Raze Collective and Artsadmin are teaming for another series of Queer Clash Mornings, specifically aimed at QTIBIPOC folks! Being a queer freelancer can be a lonely old job and we want to dedicate more space to just connecting. At Queer Clash Mornings, we’ll hold space for creatives to get together, exchange, chat, network and meet other queers doing the arts things and trying to make it work.
Each month we’ll invite a different (and brilliant!) QTIBIPOC creative to join us to talk about their journey, followed by a short Q&A and a general chit-chat. The sessions will be hosted by Gayathiri and Seyi from the Raze Collective producing team and Benji and Nene from the Artsadmin artist support team. Biscuits, drinks and WiFi provided!
- Thursday 12 September | 11am-1pm | Toynbee Studios
- Thursday 17 October | 11am-1pm | Toynbee Studios
- Thursday 7 November | 11am-1pm | Toynbee Studios
- Thursday 5 December | 11am-1pm | Toynbee Studios
- Thursday 16 January | 11am-1pm | Online (BSL interpreted)
We invite our artist and freelancer network to join us at the Artsadmin Canteen to work, hang out, and share space together.
On the first Wednesday of every month we invite freelance producers and self-producing artists to join us in Alba Caffe, on the Ground Floor of Toynbee Studios.
Morning Producers is an informal, peer-to-peer support session. You can bring questions, work, or just come to have a chat. It’s a drop in session, so you don’t need to book, just show up!
- Wednesday 2 October | 10am-12pm | Alba Caffe
- Wednesday 6 November | 10am-12pm | Alba Caffe
- Wednesday 4 December | 10am-12pm | Alba Caffe
- Wednesday 8 January | 10am-12pm | Alba Caffe
- Wednesday 5 February | 10am-12pm | Alba Caffe
This Radar series offers artists and creative practitioners a supportive environment to work on your Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP).
We will be in Toynbee Studios from 6.30 – 9.30pm each session with coffee, snacks and refreshments, to welcome you and support you in your application. Throughout, Artsadmin’s producers will be on hand to provide a sounding board for thoughts or ideas, and to generally support and encourage!
These sessions are open to anybody working on DYCP applications due on 12 December 2024.
- Tuesday 12 November | 6.30pm-9.30pm | Toynbee Studios
- Tuesday 19 November | 6.30pm-9.30pm | Toynbee Studios
- Tuesday 26 November | 6.30pm-9.30pm | Toynbee Studios
- Tuesday 3 December | 6.30pm-9.30pm | Toynbee Studios
- Tuesday 10 December | 6.30pm-9.30pm | Toynbee Studios