Central Leads the Educational Component of the World's Largest Festival of Performance Design and Space
Central Leads the Educational Component of the World’s Largest Festival of Performance Design and Space.
Imbued with a strong interdisciplinary discourse, 2015 marks The Prague Quadrennial’s thirteenth year as a festival that continuously maps and exhibits the world’s best in the field of scenography and performance design. This year the festival takes over galleries, theatres and public spaces across the city centre, with world renowned artists like Robert Lepage and Julie Taymor sharing the spaces with installations from over 72 countries to create a unique, festival experience.
Central, as lead organisation in shaping the educational aspect, has been working in partnership with the Academy of the Performing Arts of Prague and University of the Arts Utrecht to forge a student team to curate and produce an ambitious eleven day ‘SpaceLab’ programme bringing workshops by leading international artists and performances from students from across the globe to take place in the heart of Prague.
Led by Central’s Jessica Bowles, the Artistic Leader of SpaceLab and Central’s Principal Lecturer and Course Leader for MA/MFA Creative Producing, this collaboration has been part of a wider interdisciplinary research funded by a multi annual European grant ‘Shared Space’ which has brought world leading arts organisations and universities working together to shape future thinking and practices of performance design.
Of Central’s involvement, Jessica Bowles said:
“Students’ learning is at the heart of this process, curating this event as an international team means they have networks that will last way beyond their taught courses. As a university, partnering with leading international arts organisations and universities, Central’s staff and students are informing and shaping the discussion of performance design and space.’
Alongside Central’s major organisational involvement, two student performances (‘Crave’ on 23rd June, an undergraduate company and ‘Cumulous’ a postgraduate street theatre company) were selected from more than 250 entries world-wide to perform in Prague. Second year students Stella Cheung (Theatre Lighting Design) and Rachel Matthews (Design for Stage) were also selected from a national competition to participate in The View from Here, the official UK student submission.
Central’s strength in research and knowledge exchange is further evidenced by invited contributions which will include presentations, discussions and seminars from Central staff members Diana Damian, Nick Moran and Andreas Skourtis.