Irish Theatre Institute will open applications for the second edition of Gap Exchange in January 2025. Theatre/performance artists interested in deepening their international connections are invited to apply.
What is Gap Exchange?
Gap Exchange is an international exchange programme for artists with an established theatre/performance practice.
The programme is designed to be informal, egalitarian, and thoughtful, with a focus on taking time, slowing down, sharing local knowledge, and offering hospitality. The visits take place outside of capital cities, and the artists are equal partners in designing the visits.
Participating artists will share their creative practice, learn from international peers, and begin to develop an international network in an enjoyable and meaningful way. Gap Exchange aims to create new connections and insight where none existed before.
The open call is for four Irish artists whose practice is focused on places outside of Dublin to meet and exchange practice, inspiration, and networks.
Who is running it?
Gap Exchange is devised and run by artist and creative facilitator Lian Bell and Irish Theatre Institute, with the support from international partners SPRING Performing Arts Festival (Utrecht, Netherlands), Arts Centre Viernulvier (Ghent, Belgium), Bluecoat (Liverpool, England), and the Irish Classical Theatre Company (Buffalo, USA). The artists will be encouraged to introduce each other to their professional networks, communities and creative practices.
The idea for Gap Exchange originally developed out of Gap Day, a programme run by Lian Bell and Mermaid Arts Centre since 2016. There will be additional local Irish partner organisations involved, who will be confirmed when the Irish artists are selected. The programme is funded by the Arts Council’s International Residency Initiatives Scheme, and by all the partner organisations.
How does it work?
Four artists based on the island of Ireland will meet four international artists, one in Belgium, one in England, one in the Netherlands, and one in the USA. Each artist will be paired with another artist and will visit them in their homeplace for a week – meaning that each artist will spend a week as a host in their own country and a week as a guest in another country. These visits will happen between May-July 2025.
The artists themselves are the main architects of the visits. Visits will be preceded by regular online meetups between March-July 2025 as research and relationship building so each host artist can take ownership over planning and programming the visit for their guest. They will be supported in this by the Creative Facilitator and artist liaisons in each partner organisation.
Gap Exchange could be for you if…
- You are curious about making meaningful connections with other artists around the world.
- You want the opportunity to share your practice with artists based in Belgium, the Netherlands, England or the USA, and learn about theirs.
- You would like to take time to get to know their local arts community, and invite them to visit and learn about yours.
- You are based outside of Dublin, or have you have demonstrably strong connections with an arts community in an area outside the capital.
- You have staged at least two full-length professionally produced or previously programmed productions.
- You maybe have additional needs that require extra support to take part – ITI have an access budget for that.
Gap Exchange will open for applications on Tuesday 7th January. A more detailed callout and the application form will go live on this date.
An online information session for prospective applicants will be held on Thursday, 9th January at 1pm. Register in advance for this meeting.Â
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
The online information session will not be recorded but a detailed FAQ document based on the session will be available from Friday 10th January.
Applications will close on Monday 27th January.