First espaço agora now hub starts in Rotterdam

PRESS RELEASE For immediate release

7 November 2023

First espaço agora now hub starts in Rotterdam Stichting Passaros is delighted to announce the start of the espaço agora now pilot in Rotterdam. This will be the first espaço agora now city hub worldwide. espaço agora now is a new independent platform that is reimagining artist development and public experiment in the performing arts. It is driven by a growing movement of 300 independent, mid-career artists representing different performance practices and almost 50 nationalities. The overarching vision is to create a network of spaces for ‘slow’ residencies where artists in the performance disciplines can focus on research, practice and process. espaço agora now hubs will be open to local communities, establishing fresh connections between performing artists, local citizens and public action.

The 10 month tryout of espaço agora now in Rotterdam will take place from November 2023 until September 2024. Everyone who is part of the project wants to find new ways and create better, fairer and alternative conditions for artists and communities to experiment, make, and share their work and ideas. In Rotterdam we will try out some of the different concepts we have imagined together as a community over many online and live gatherings over the past 2 years.

The pilot includes: ● Two fully funded ‘slow’ 3 month residencies between March-June 2024. The inaugural residents will be Dutch/Cape Verdean and Rotterdam based spoken word artist and jazz musician Kenny Gomes, and Polish/Dutch opera and music theatre maker Maria Kozlowska.

The theme of the Rotterdam residencies is ‘How can we use our voice? Can we raise our voice in the name of something?' ● A public programme curated and led by a local faculty of 5 artists with a focus on the neighbourhoods of Bloemhof, Feijenoord and Carnisse in Rotterdam Zuid. The Rotterdam faculty is Merel Smitt, Floor van Leeuwen, Aart Strootman, Y.M.P.Flow and Maria Kozlowska. ● An exchange between agora artists and Advertising + Beyond students from Willem de Kooning who have been researching how to build ‘spaces of meeting’.

Naomi Russell, founder espaço agora now said: “We are excited to be able to start this first pilot of espaço agora now in Rotterdam. We have undertaken a lot of research, listening and a slow process in building the network and relationships with artists, producers and wider stakeholders since 2020. We were acutely aware of the universal problem so many had in finding time and space to imagine their work, test, experiment and explore ideas at the earliest point. Our research showed there is virtually nothing that supports this over extended periods for artists in the performance fields, anywhere in the world.

From the very beginning we wanted to make a new model together with artists in different places, representing different practices and different experiences and do this in relation to each other. Rotterdam is a very special place to begin. Its mercantile, open spirit so typical of port cities is of vital symbolic importance, intrinsically connected to different places and cultures, a gateway to the world.

We are looking forward to seeing how the pilot can play a role in creating safe space in a local neighbourhood and how time and space for ideas, artistic practices and dialogues can both strengthen artists and strengthen communities. We are hugely grateful to all our funders for believing in our concept and allowing us to take this important first step of practical execution. We know we will learn a lot as we put our ideas into action, and look forward to sharing what we discover in the year ahead.”

The espaço agora now pilot in Rotterdam has received generous support from Vrienden Loterij Fonds, Van Beuningen Peterich Fonds and the collective contribution of our Founding and Radical Friends and other individual donors. Financial support for the research phase of espaço agora now globally was additionally received from The Linbury Trust, Richard Thomas Foundation and an Anonymous Foundation.

Ends For more information, images and interview requests please contact Naomi Russell, Founder e. naomi@espacoagora.space t. +31 651 61 60 46 This press release is available in Dutch. Spanish and Portuguese versions are available on request.

Notes to editors Stichting Pássaros is a Dutch culturele ANBI Foundation and public benefit organisation with the goal to stimulate, develop, incubate, produce and deliver activities in the field of the arts, leadership development, cultural entrepreneurship and innovation in the performing arts. espaço agora now is the main initiative of the foundation. espaço agora now is a new independent platform that is reimagining artist development and public experiment in the performing arts.

The starting point for espaço agora now was the need in the performing arts for ‘liquidity’ of time and space when ideas are first formed, and the need to bring different disciplines and communities together.

The challenges of time, space and resources are almost universal now for anyone who desires change.

Really safe spaces, spaces in which there is time for calm questioning, deep listening, reflection and experimentation around better alternatives are rare, not only for many in civic and creative movements, but for many people in contemporary society. ➔ In 2020 we started to grow a network of artists interested in deeper engagement with civic change. This network now numbers 300 artists /49 nationalities and keeps expanding. We asked: Could we gather enough critical mass to create spaces for residencies together, open them up in new ways, as vital necessities for our collective futures? ➔ In 2021 and 2022 we began to explore the contexts and the ecosystem in a number of cities around the world: Rotterdam, Lisbon, Buenos Aires, Maputo, Belgrade and London. We undertook research into: the performing arts residency offer worldwide, alternative financial models and how to use found spaces and empty buildings. We concluded that the kind of ‘recovery’ artists and the cultural sector are seeking post-pandemic could not be achieved without bringing artists and communities closer together and creating space for exploration. We became convinced of the urgency to innovate and to do so within a system that is co-owned, independent, sustainable, renewable, flexible and responsive. ➔ Now in 2023 we start the first phase of practical execution. Further tryouts will follow in Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Belgrade, the UK and Maputo in 2024. espaço agora now aims to solve the problems we have identified across the performing arts system globally through its integrated and innovative model of residency spaces, convening LABs, circulation of knowledge and the way it will connect connect artists and communities to resource, time, knowledge and space.

Links: Rotterdam artist faculty + residents Merel Smitt https://merelsmitt.nl/over-merel-2/ Aart Strootman https://www.aartstrootman.com/ Floor van Leeuwen https://www.floorvanleeuwen.org/ Y.M.P. Flow https://www.ikbenymp.nl/y-m-p/ Maria Magdalena Kozlowska http://www.mariakozlowska.com/ Kenny Gomes https://www.instagram.com/gomeskenny/

The Lead Partner for the Rotterdam pilot is Vrienden Loterij Fonds The Vrienden Loterij Fonds (Dutch Friends Lottery Fund) believes in a world where everyone participates and where there is room for radical imagination. The Fund supports social enterprises that enable people distanced from the labour market to participate again. We also support art and cultural initiatives that are at the heart of society, question the world critically and involve people from all layers of society. To develop new perspectives and invite you to shape society differently. Besides supporting these forerunners, the Fund also brings them in contact with each other and to the attention of a large audience. The Friends Lottery Fund is part of the DOEN Foundation, the fund of the Postcode Lottery and the Friends Lottery. www.vriendenloterijfonds.nl

More information on the team, global artist faculty and board can be found on our website: www.espacoagora.space

AGORA 1. a space to meet [ancient Greek] 2. now [modern Portuguese]