Fierce FWD: artist development scheme – round 1 deadline approaching – April 22nd

FIERCE FWD 2013 & 2014

Fierce FWD is a two-year artist development programme conceived and produced by Fierce Festival supported by Arts Council England and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.

The programme is targeted at emerging artists living and working in the West Midlands (outside of full-time education). In keeping with Fierce being a live art festival this scheme is aimed at those developing projects for live performance.

The programme has two stages:

Year one: How to Apply

We will distribute 24 micro-bursaries of £250 each in the Spring and Summer. To apply please send a submission of no more than 2 sides of A4, which may include, text, diagrams, photos or video-links outlining an action, research meeting or artistic experiment you would like to make to develop a live performance or intervention. A trace of the activity of the selected proposals will be posted on this micro-site, which will also provide a space for profiling your practice as an artist more generally. We are currently only accepting applications for the April 22nd deadline.

Year two

We will select four artists from 24 recipients of the micro-bursaries to receive a larger bursary of £1500, mentorship and producing /curatorial support to develop a site-specific project for Fierce Festival in October 2014. The four selected artists will be encouraged to support each other as a peer group, meeting monthly supported by a group mentor. Each artist will also be paired a former Fierce Festival artist to specifically support their individual process.

What kind of projects and artists are we looking to work with?

We welcome proposals that expand the idea of what live performance might be. A good guide to the kind of work Fierce supports and develops can be gleaned from downloading the last two previous Fierce Festival brochure pdfs here.

Key Dates

Round 1 submissions open Mon 18th March – Mon 22nd April.

Outcomes shared by Mon 17th June.

Round 2 submissions accepted from Mon 1 July – Mon 29 July

Outcomes shared by Mon 14 October.

Please send submissions to FierceFWD[a]wearefierce.org

Get to know you events

On Saturday 27th April Fierce will convene the first of two ‘Get-to-know-you’ events; inviting programmers from across the UK to talk about their platform and development opportunities for emerging artists. If you are interested in attending the April date please book a place here. The second date will be in the Autumn and announced in the summer. Places are limited!

Sustaining Your Practice Talks

Across 2014 we will partner with various arts organisation partners for a series of talks looking at different aspects of sustaining and developing your practice.

About the identity: designed by Cody Lee Barbour. Cody was on the previous incarnation of Fierce’s emerging artist development scheme Platinum.

Fierce FWD is generously supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Arts Council England.