Those wishing to apply for funding to create new work as an Artsweek project, can submit their original ideas in any artistic discipline to the open call for New Ideas, or to of one of three specific programs: Blink, City Roots, or AlleyWaltz (details on each program and its associated artists’ fees below):

New Ideas

An open call for innovative projects from any artistic discipline for any location within the city. Including but not limited to performance (dance, theatre, multi-disciplinary), visual art (installations, interventions, exhibitions), media art, writing/spoken word, and music. Projects may be proposed by individual artists or arts organizations. The maximum amount available in this category is $2000. Budgets should detail the scale and scope of the vision.

Blink

This popular program from past years is back, inviting artists to respond to the windows of public spaces (street level or upper story) that don’t usually display art. Blink will bring transformative artistic interventions of all kinds (installations, projections, imagery, video, sound, performance), into businesses in the downtown core and East City. Artists do not have to identify a business, but are welcome to propose an idea for a specific business they already have a relationship with, or for windows that inspire them, or for projects that can go anywhere, in any window. Host businesses will be sponsors of the project through a cash contribution to Artsweek. Locations will be determined in consultation with the artists, the business partners, and Artsweek’s Blink coordinator, resulting in clusters of walkable exhibitions around the city inviting people to stop and stare. The fee available in this category will be $300-$500.

City Roots

City Roots is a new endeavor for Artsweek and aims to bring artists, community groups, neighborhood organizations and citizens together on creative initiatives all around the City of Peterborough to design and produce original projects.

Professional artists, arts organizations, and/or community organizations can propose City Roots projects. Projects must be led by a professional artist and will engage with residents of specific wards or neighbourhoods in co-creative activities.  City Roots projects should explore topics relevant to the chosen community (issues, histories, cultures, environments, etc), and outcomes could include: stories told, recorded, or presented; sites animated through visual art (photos, quilts, installations) or performance; places mapped; videos and/or sculptures made; temporary artworks of sight/song/dance created… anything that brings artists together with community members to co-create, could be a City Roots project. The funding available in this category will range from $500 to $2000. Budgets should detail the scale and scope of the project.

* Please note: If you plan to work with a community group or deliver programming to vulnerable members of society, you must obtain vulnerable sector screening for those involved. 

AlleyWaltz

Artsweek 2015 will present AlleyWaltz, a site-specific performance-based event situated in alleyways and other unusual spaces in downtown Peterborough. Audiences are led on a walking tour to experience each work. This year we are looking for 6 short performances, 8-10 minutes in length, which will repeat three times each evening for three nights in a row.

Teams or individuals are invited to submit performance ideas (dance, theatre, music, circus arts, puppetry, etc.) that would suit environments ranging from alleyways, parking lots, fire-escapes, to grassy knolls, which can be realized with low tech equipment such as live sound, portable lighting/available streetlamps and props/sets which can be struck after the final performances every evening. The funding available per piece will be $500 – $700, depending on the number of performers.

Arts Listings

To give the public a sense of the astonishing range of the City’s artistic offerings we welcome listings of events by individual artists or organizations already programmed between Sept. 18th and 27th.  Artsweek will include your listings in our promotional material at no charge.