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The ICAF festival brings together the best of community arts from around the world. It is packed with performances, visits to projects, and opportunities for artists, companies and individuals to meet, exchange views and reflect on community arts from all perspectives.
The programme this year has a broad theme of ‘space and community arts’, including art in public spaces; art with, for and by under-represented groups wishing to express who they are in their own voice; and space for new ideas and perspectives.
We are looking forward to seminars and performances from artists including Barrio Comparsa from Colombia, who will create a ‘latino style’ street parade, Peter Schumann and the hugely influential US performance group Bread & Puppet theatre, Glasgow Citizens Theatre, Archa Theatre from the Czech Republic and many more.
EMPAF, the East Midlands Participatory Arts Forum, is also heavily involved this year festival. Representatives from EMPAF organisations, including City Arts’ CEO Madeline Holmes, have set off on a pre-festival tour in the ‘Caravan of Dreams’, which will be visiting arts projects in Holland. You can track its progress on the map below:
The team from EMPAF are posting regular updates on the ‘Caravan of Dreams’ blog. You can also follow them on Facebook & Twitter.
EMPAF will lead two workshops during the festival, exploring the different ways work we work with communities. As a leading member of EMPAF, City Arts is playing a large role in the programme. Whilst away we will be working hard to promote our work and make new international contacts.
In the run up to the event, Madeline and Joe from City Arts worked with Andy Barrett (Hanby & Barrett / Excavate) to put together a short film to show arts organisations from around the world what EMPAF is and does. Watch it below:
On top of all of that our beautiful Starchild puppet will be joining the team in Rotterdam and no doubt making many new friends.
We will be telling the story of our trip, sharing pictures and thoughts throughout the festival on Facebook & Twitter… make sure you’re following us to get all the updates.