Probability of Exchange #1 – International Visitors Programme Performing Arts & Networking drink

During the two meetings we want to question how we engage with voices and practices that are marginalised. How can we facilitate and foster the freedom to participate in international exchanges, knowledge sharing and engaging in different local contexts? And when we facilitate our programs, how can we avoid operating in exclusive networks and relations? To tackle these questions and concerns we will delve into different practices, share perspectives on internationalisation, foster exchange and discussions, and meet local artists and organisations. 

Networking drink

Are you a professional, a maker, a freelance artist or from an organisation working within the performing arts? On September 7 – between 13:30-15:00 – we invite the local field for a small netwerk moment, to meet the international guest of the program.

If you are interested to join, please send an email to julia.reist@kunsten.be with a short introduction about yourself, and who of the international guests you specifically would like to meet and why.

International guests

• Tracy Gentles is the artistic director and CEO at SICK! Festival (UK). She is a self-starter with over 20 years’ experience working within creative industries, developing a practice that explores the performing arts interface with academia, health, social justice and more recently, technology. As a working-class woman of colour, matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion can be found at the heart of her work, driven by lived experience.
• Matt Burman has been the artistic director and CEO of Cambridge Junction since 2018, leading on the curation and production of theatre, dance, live art, circus and artist development programmes. Since early 2024, he is a co-lead of Create Cambridge, the city’s new cultural compact.
• Nick Anderson is a cultural producer who has developed festivals and tours across the world. His particular interests sit within counter-cultural and mainstream crossovers, and how best to present exceptional artwork. He has worked across multiple art forms, and with a specific interest in electronic music and experimental sonic artists. When developing programmes and events, he is focused on presenting work with the highest possible production and access levels.
• Gabrielle Martin is a cultural producer and live art curator practising transformative experiential design in one of society’s few remaining ritual spaces. Her work prioritises embodied criticality, imagination, pluralism, and risk. It centres the body, and is framed by social and political urgencies. Before joining PuSh in 2021, she worked as Festival Manager with the Vancouver International Dance Festival.
• Kaie Küünal is an art worker in the performing arts scene. Since 2019 she has been a project manager at Kanuti Gildi SAAL in Tallinn and since season 2023/2024 program curator of the house and of SAAL Biennaal festival, both as a part of collective curatorial teams. While mainly busy with the facilitation of the arts, she occasionally ventures into the stage practice as a performer or dramaturgical support. 
• Caryn Green is the CEO of Sibikwa Arts Centre, and a Cultural Policy and Management PhD candidate at the University of the Witwatersrand. She is passionate about exploring alternative business models for the sustainability of arts organizations; best practice methods to measure impact; and opportunities to facilitate the production and archiving of new and previously undocumented work. This passion is driven by an interest in collaborative, collective and inclusive development, using relevant, responsive and sustainable approaches to increase access, knowledge and capacity for effectively addressing challenges, developing markets and maximizing resources in local contexts.
• Trine Garrett (she/her) is the co-artistic director of Foreign Affairs, a small theater company based in east London that focuses on translation, cross-cultural exchange and collaboration, and performance in unconventional spaces. An experienced teacher and workshop facilitator, Trine leads the company’s creative learning programmes and runs masterclasses and workshops rooted in the company’s practice for other companies and organizations, most recently for the Royal Court Theatre, Cut the Cord, and the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT). In addition to her work with Foreign Affairs, Trine teaches at drama schools in the UK as well as internationally, with recent engagements in Bucharest, Copenhagen, and Paris.
• Lisa Wiegel is the artistic director of Flemish Cultural House, the Brakke Grond in Amsterdam, home for contemporary innovative Flemish performing arts, visual arts, music and interdisciplinary art practices. The Brakke Grond’s mission is to support artists from Flanders in building a sustainable practice in the Netherlands and to stimulate Flemish-Dutch collaboration and exchange. Lisa previously worked in the Netherlands and Belgium as a programmer at De Nieuwe Vorst in Tilburg and as coordinator of Circuit X, a platform for the distribution of new theater makers in Flanders and the Netherlands. She was also an advisor for the Dutch Performing Arts Fund for the New Makers grant and the Multiannual Production Subsidies.
• Robin Laurens is artistic associate for performing arts at Flemish Cultural House, the Brakke Grond in Amsterdam, home for contemporary innovative Flemish performing arts, visual arts, music and interdisciplinary art practices. The Brakke Grond’s mission is to support artists from Flanders in building a sustainable practice in the Netherlands and to stimulate Flemish-Dutch collaboration and exchange. Robin focuses on programming the work of new makers, residencies and context programming. In addition, Robin works at Theater Rotterdam, where her responsibilities include film and art programming in the foyer.

Read the complete biographies here

More about Probability of Exchange

Probability of Exchange is a first pilot trajectory, inviting eight professionals from different contexts to meet twice in 2024, during a two-day gathering. This new visitors program aims to engage in a collective reflection on how to participate today in (co-)programing, sharing networks, local contexts and diverse resources from a sustainable, inclusive and intersectional practice.

Coming together from multiple realities, needs and experiences, offers an opportunity in addressing (remaining) issues of dominant canons and gatekeeping within artistic programming. Via an open call eight participants were selected, who agreed to take on an ambassadorship for their own local contexts and networks, permitting that the experience and encounters made can be shared with multiple others that are not – or cannot be – present. 

Active participation within an international artistic scene is still restricted to those who have the privilege of free movement. Although more organisations seem to grow conscious about their position and power in making choices, there remains a link between programs that are still created through an imperialistic approach and the artists and practices having the possibility to participate. Unfortunately, we see a growing division between the ones with increasing global freedom and those being more and more restricted.

Later this year, the group will have its second meeting during DecemberDance, with a public closing moment.