Incubate/Propagate: Towards Alternative Models for Artist Development in Theatre and Performance

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This network seeks to address well-documented concerns that the cultural and creative industries, and the performing arts in particular, are 'increasingly dominated by those from privileged class origins' (O Brien, Cultural Trends, 25:2, 2016, p123). Specifically, the network will address the lack of access to professional development support available to emerging theatre artists from outside of the graduate community (ACE, 2016, p91). The over-riding research question will be: How can the producer-led platforms for professional artist development that are currently targeted at the graduate community be extended or diversified to better serve non-graduate emerging artists? The network seeks to respond to this question by fostering innovative collaboration between constituencies that are rarely brought into conversation: independent producers who are key players in the selection, development and profiling of early career theatre artists to funding bodies, and academics in theatre and cultural industries disciplines whose work addresses social exclusion, inequality and applied or participatory art and theatre practice in the context of socio-economic deprivation. While there are significant bodies of academic research into theatre practice in the contexts of applied, community and activist theatre, these discourses are most often driven by an exploration of the social and individual benefits of participation in theatre and performance for those individuals and communities taking part, rather than an examination of strategies, platforms and networks that participants may access to embark on a professional theatre-making career. This research network aims to bring experts in precisely these fields into conversation with those independent producers who have the strongest track records in developing emerging artists in order to inspire thinking around how to build bridges from one context to the other.The network will bring these two constituencies, together with arts funding and policy officers, into conversation to develop new theoretical insights, practical strategies, partnership models and grant planning. This network activity will thus enable academics and theatre producers to share good practice and principles and collaborate together on new work development programmes that are designed to broaden the socio-economic base of the theatre-making profession. Each workshop will address a different pathway to increasing socio-economic diversity within artist development structures: the first examining how 'risk' might be mitigated, differently understood, or productively exploited, in the context of funding the development of artists and aesthetics that fall outside of the market norm; the second asking if productively troubling the distinctions between professional / emerging / community / amateur in the conceptualisation of artist development programmes might encourage broader access to development schemes; and the third examining how different international models of new work production and artist development might offer fresh perspectives on the UK context. The network will thus set directions for future innovative research in both industry and academic contexts from which arts and cultural industries academics, producers, funders, artists and the theatre ecology more widely will benefit.The primary material dissemination of the research beyond the workshop activity will be a special issue of an open-access, refereed journal edited by the Project Team (PT), and published by Studies in Theatre and Performance. This will include an introductory co-authored article by the PT and draw on papers presented at the workshops, and additional shorter contributions by participants reflecting on the research generated throughout the workshops. An industry-focused report will also be produced by the PT with recommendations for future Arts Council policy and strategic priorities.