Seedbed

OPEN CALL OUT TO ARTISTS

AT THE MILL

Do you want to test some work, play with an idea, scratch your creative itch?

 Here’s an open call out to do so:
At The Mill’s new, powerful punch of a curated event - SeedBed - will see three consecutive nights of artists and audiences coming together to test new work, share new ideas, eat some food, and have some conversations. This is an open call out to find a collection of artists to programme across these three evenings 29/30/31 July, here in our new Theatre At The Mill (and its surrounding gardens), for our inaugural Summer At The Mill season.

We want to hear from people who have a small (short-form-ish) something they want to test, play with or talk about. We aren’t putting boundaries on discipline or content. It could be a visual artwork; it could be a 20-minute snippet of stand-up; it could be a collection of new songs, a site-responsive movement piece, a live reading of a new show; it could be 10 minutes of spoken word, a live collaboration between two artists who haven’t performed together before; it could be a one-on-one piece on repeat or a provocation for an hour-long discussion. 

Here’s how we think it’ll work:
- You send us some details of what you’d like to do (submission instructions below).
- We’ll look at all your expressions of interest and get curating; we think we’ll be able to
host around 9-10 artists / works / ideas.
- On the 29/30/31 July we will host three nights of various works, here At The Mill. A different selection each night, curated by us from all the expressions of interest. We’ll try and put interesting artists and interesting work together, we’ll think about how and what our artist’s want to use their time here for and think about the audiences and how they’ll spend their time here too.
- Each night, each programmed artist / work will have the opportunity to share their offering with the audience and other artists, and we can host a conversation about it. This feels key to us, the ability to share the work and then have a good, helpful, progressive chat about it; we’ll make sure these discussions are framed in the best way for you.
- Each night will involve sharing some work, sharing some thoughts, and sharing in some good food.

 Here’s what we can offer:
- We will give £100 to each artist or work we programme.
- We have a small PA system and a projector that you can use.
- We can facilitate discussions about your work if you wish.
- You will have at your disposal (in consultation with us) our beautiful rambling gardens, within which are an informal outdoor Theatre space (staging and seating), multiple other outdoor areas (think Glade, Riverbank, Millpond-side, Dell), we have a Bar in a Barn, we have a BBQ, we have good experience making, hosting, creating and curating work, and we have a lot of love and care.
- An egalitarian ethos and approach to creating and sharing these evenings.
- A stunning outdoor setting to meet and share and break bread in.

Here’s what we can’t offer:
- High-end tech spec
- Tech team to design or light your work
- Any indoor space
- Exclusive use of the space
- Big pots of cash

So, that’s what we aim to do - bring artists and audiences together
for three nights to share and watch and eat and talk.

All expressions of interest for SeedBed need to be with us by midnight Tuesday 6th July. And we’ll get back to everyone by midnight Thursday 8th July to let you know if we can include you and your idea in our inaugural SeedBed. We absolutely welcome expressions of interest from all artists, especially artists whose work has historically been under-represented on our stages,
in our theatres, and in other creative institutions.

Here’s what we’d like from you:
A video - no more than 5 minutes in length - with the following info.
- A little about you
- A little about what you want to share, including duration
- A little about what you’d want to get out of the SeedBed process
Please send the video to info@atthemill.org with “SeedBed - Expression Of Interest” in the email subject. If you have an example of previous work (pic, video, website, or other) you would like to share with us, feel free to send a link along with your video too.
OR
If you’d prefer to send us your expression of interest in writing,
please fill out and submit the form below, with “SeedBed - Expression Of Interest” in the ‘subject’ and with the following in the ‘message’.
- A little about you
- A little about what you want to share, including duration
- A little about what you’d want to get out of the SeedBed process
If there is an example of previous work (item or website or other) you would like to share with us, feel free to send a link within your message.

You’ll find a lot of information about At The Mill here on this website, on Instagram, and on Facebook. Have a look around all three. If you have any questions or would like more information,
please feel free to email us directly.

SeedBed - Expression Of Interest
Written Form