Following our call in November for expressions of interest to curate SBTD’s 2023 National Exhibition Project, the SBTD directors are delighted to announce that we have accepted a proposal from Kathrine Sandys and Lucy Thornett.
The exciting curatorial concept that Lucy and Kathrine have proposed aims to celebrate and debate theatre design across the UK, in all its forms, with an emphasis on the designer’s voice. In addition, they will curate the UK entry to PQ 2023. Their proposal addresses the following:
As the world emerges from the pandemic and faces up to climate crisis, legacies of racism and inequality, and the continued impact of new technologies on our lives, we face a changed landscape for performance design. As design thinking emerges as a valuable approach to solving problems (or is critiqued as a tool of capitalism), how are performance designers responding and adapting to the key challenges of our times? How has our artform changed in response to a changing world? What voices have been missing from the conversation?
The exhibition project will be UK wide with a series of networked events across different regions (including London). The form of each event will be adapted to its location and patterns of engagement, reflecting current topics of interest and concern for the communities of each place. Event spaces will be designed and created by regional curators through repurposing existing materials, past productions and stock items, in dialogue with a network of designers and venues. The regional events will represent designers in a mix of discourse and artefacts. This will vary from region to region depending on the concept of each regional curator.
Regional event spaces will also host discussions, talks and presentations along with elements decided by the regional curators in order to draw out and share common themes and specific identities.
Additionally, SBTD will publish a catalogue representing the work of its members, through an open call, with essays by contributors and a document of the debates and conversations emerging from the series of events.
The regional event series and catalogue will be the core aspect of the project. As well as this we would like to gauge whether SBTD members are interested in showing their work collectively as part of a single-venue open (non-selective) exhibition, probably in London / Greater London.
Although some of the regional events represent individual designer’s work through artefact, this may not be a feature in every location. SBTD would therefore like to offer members the opportunity of a single-venue exhibition in addition to the regional events, if there is enough interest.
As in the past, designers participating in the catalogue and single venue exhibition will be asked for an entry fee to cover costs, but SBTD will keep this as low as possible, with a scale of contributions to enable the widest participation of members in SBTD and sister/brother professional organisations.
Please register your interest via the button below.
