AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

http://www.kunst.dk

In 2008, the U-TURN contemporary art festival was held with support from the Danish Arts Council. Now the Danish Arts Council would like to establish a recurring contemporary art festival that will become a major event in the Danish art world. The festival is intended to create international attention, to stimulate the Danish contemporary arts scene, and to promote interest in contemporary art with the public at large.

Theme and geographical location
The festival should focus on how contemporary art works with topics that range from the political to the existential. The festival must be able to communicate this to the public at large and, therefore, must be visible and accessible to large, new segments of the potential audience.

The festival will focus on visual arts. However, the Danish Arts Council will place emphasis in its choice of projects on the fact that the festival is intended to open up diverse forms of artistic expression and cross-institutional collaboration with relevant institutions within this field.

The festival is to be anchored in Copenhagen – if possible, with satellites in other parts of the country.

Who may apply?
Danish institutions (art museums, exhibition spaces, galleries, etc.) may apply for support to organize an international contemporary art festival – ideally, in collaboration with other institutions and/or foreign partners.

The Danish Arts Council envisions that the festival will be realized as a collaboration between a number of different partners who, together, can ensure that the festival will attract widespread attention for contemporary art throughout the festival year. There must be a clear organization, and there must be someone with primary responsibility for the overall project.

Application deadline
1 May 2010

Project priorities
The Danish Arts Council will prioritize projects that:

- create a dynamic between art, citizen and public
- contribute significantly to promoting interest and familiarity with contemporary art in Denmark by dealing with themes that are relevant and topical to a broad audience
- strengthen a continuing and developing dialogue between Danish art and art abroad
- have a differentiated communication strategy with an outreach program to ensure that various target groups are reached
- have a high artistic quality and level of ambition and are based on an original curatorial idea
- contain cross-disciplinary elements with a starting point in the visual arts
- have an organizational anchoring with strong curatorial as well as administrative and economic proficiency
- are able to attract important support from foundations and sponsors as well as municipal and regional support

Evaluation committee
Mads Øvlisen, chairperson for the Danish Arts Council
Elisabeth Toubro, chairperson for the Danish Arts Council’s Visual Arts Committee,
Christine Buhl Andersen, chairperson for the Danish Arts Council ‘s Committee for International Visual Art
Lewis Biggs, director of the Liverpool Biennial
Sara Arrhenius, director of Bonniers Konsthall

The evaluation committee will assess the applications and make a prequalification appointment of a maximum of 3 projects, each of which will receive DKK 30,000 to develop their projects further. The same evaluation committee will assess the 2nd-round applications and take a final position for the Danish Arts Council, which will determine the final winner.

The evaluation committee, after having received applications, will have the option of entering into a dialogue with applicants with respect to qualifying contributions.

Applications will only be prequalified to the extent that there are qualified candidates.

Financial framework
The Danish Arts Council will grant up to DKK 6.7 million to the winning project.

No additional funding can be expected from the Danish Arts Council. However, it is expected that the applicant will raise funds in addition to the support granted by the Danish Arts Council.

As grant provider, the Danish Arts Council sets the fundamental goals that the festival is to meet. Specific requirements will be set for reporting and supervision in order to avoid the economic-administrative problems of the U-TURN festival.

Application requirements
The application must contain:

- a project description containing a description of the festival’s theme
- a budget
- an interim list of artists
- a list of collaborative partners
- a communication strategy
- an account of the project organization, including a plan for administrative and economic supervision

Please note that the application must be submitted in English. Applications that do not contain the required information will not be considered.

Contact
For further information please contact Anette Østerby, Director of the Visual Arts Centre at The Danish Arts Agency at aoster@kunst.dk

Disclaimer: The Danish Arts Council reserves the right not to use any of the submitted proposals. Any dispute will be settled according to Danish law and venue.

from e-Flux