Art and Survival-The Fellowship Framework
Art and Survival Fellowship
Application Guidelines
Dates: October 2021, October 2022, October 2023
About the Art and Survival Fellowship
Double Edge Theatre (DE) and Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative (BDAC) are currently accepting applications for the Art and Survival Fellowship. The Art and Survival Fellowship is a three-year training and performance opportunity that brings together established and emerging performance artists, educators, and activists to explore climate justice, cultural wellness, creative activation, site-responsive performance, and community-building across rural and urban geographies.
Potential Art and Survival fellows should be interested in: climate justice, social justice, cultural organizing, collaborative performance, and theatrical ceremony in the black feminist and womanist tradition. The fellowship includes: rigorous physical training; facilitated workshops; independent and group study; the development and performance of new solo works; and professional performance opportunities.
Art and Survival fellows will gather in-person at Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, MA for three week-long immersive residencies in October 2021, October 2022, and October 2023.
YEAR ONE: FOUNDATIONS AND PRAXIS
Year one will provide grounding in BDAC’s Body Ecology methodology and DE’s Living Culture principles and practice models. The goal of year one is to ground participants in methods of working with the community to build performance that honors their environment, land, theatrical traditions, and the legacy of arts activism in both rural and urban areas. Participants will leave with tools, strategies, and ideas that can inform the creation of performance work for climate justice.
Facilitated Workshops:
black/water: Conjuring the Sacred, the Secular, and the Profane Through Womanist Ritual Performance
Weaving the Revolution: Cultural Organizing and Community-Centered Design
Flight as Metaphor for Dreaming an Art of Freedom
Producing the Self: Structures and Tools for Building Art through Empowerment
YEAR TWO: FRAMEWORKS IN FLIGHT
During year two of the fellowship, the cohort will begin their individual research and project development. In addition to workshops, participants will receive one-on-one creative ideation support to help clarify their vision for the work as well as the desired impact of this performance and community project.
YEAR THREE: THE ART AND SURVIVAL PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL
Year three features opportunities for fellows to share what they have learned and devised during a low-tech festival. The Art and Survival Performance Festival features performances by the fellowship cohort, dialogue opportunities, and presentations for and with the Ashfield community and invited guests.
Art and Survival fellows will engage the following critical questions:
What is the relationship between collective emancipation and land justice?
How can artistic practice and performance transform our relationship to our environment?
How can womanist and Black feminist emancipatory practices and unexpected wisdoms affirm and advance radical relationships with the natural world?
What are the liberation stories and practices that emerge from an authentic relationship to urban and rural geographies?
What can theatrical ceremony in natural environments teach us about being better land stewards in pursuit of climate justice?
By the end of the Art and Survival Fellowship, participants will gain insight into methodologies, strategies, and creative embodiment techniques that advance cultural organizing, climate justice, and collaboration across urban and rural communities Although the culminating performances are conceptualized as solo works, fellows will leave this experience equipped to build collective artistic and movement-sustaining practices.
To successfully complete the Art and Survival Fellowship, participants must:
Complete three immersive residencies
Complete all required coursework (readings, viewings, and independent study)
Participate in virtual cohort check-ins between each immersion
Participate in virtual coaching sessions between each immersion
Devise and perform a short solo work during the third immersive residency
Optional: Participate in the performance of In The Name Of... in Spring 2022
Who Should Apply?
This opportunity is open to both emerging and established educators, activists, and performance artists including theater, dance, and circus arts practitioners. Applicants should be excited to both learn independently and as part of an ensemble. Priority will be given to Black and Indigenous people.
FELLOWS WHO SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE THE FULL FELLOWSHIP WILL RECEIVE A $2,000 HONORARIUM. ALL REQUIRED TRAVEL, LODGING, AND MEALS WILL BE PROVIDED.
Important Dates
The Art and Survival Fellowship meets in October 2021, October 2022, and October 2023. All times are EDT.
Fellowship Application Launch: May 17, 2021
Fellowship Application Closes: June 17, 2021
Virtual Interviews: June 23, 2021-June 25, 2021 (Interviews will be scheduled between 9 AM and 12 PM)
Applicants Receive Acceptance Notification: June 25, 2021
Fellowship Cohort Announcement: August 2, 2021
Virtual Orientation
September 12, 2021 (11 AM to 2 PM)
Immersion 1
October 17-23, 2021
Cohort Building and Peer Support
Cohort Check-in: February 16, 2022 (5 PM to 7 PM)
Cohort Check-in: June 30, 2022 (5 PM to 7 PM)
Coaching Session Round 2: September 13-14, 2022
Performance of In the Name Of... at Double Edge: May 30, 2022-June 13, 2022
Immersion 2
October 16-23, 2022
Cohort Building and Peer Support
Cohort Check-in: February 16, 2023 (5 PM to 7 PM)
Cohort Check-in: June 30, 2023 (5 PM to 7 PM)
Coaching Session Round 3: August-September, 2023
Immersion 3
October 17-24, 2023
Final Performances at Double Edge: October 23, 2023
Final Cohort Debrief: October 24, 2023
*All dates are mandatory
Contact Information
Double Edge Theatre
948 Conway Road
Ashfield, MA 01330
413.628.0277
Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative, LLC
bettysdaughterarts.com
919.283.9032
info@bettysdaughterarts.com
Organizational Partners
Double Edge Theatre
Double Edge Theatre, founded in 1982 by Stacy Klein, is a cultural cooperative and ensemble collective -- a place of nurturing and sanctuary. We fuse the highest caliber of artistic work, a deep love of the natural environment, and an unwavering faith in human potential. Like the water that runs around and through the land it occupies, Double Edge is a river for artists who thirst -- from all ancestral legacies, cultural backgrounds, community contexts, walks-of-life. Often artists, educators, scholars come here to identify more clearly, to understand themselves, and to seek where their courage will allow them to go. doubleedgetheatre.org
Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative
Led by artist-scholar-organizer Ebony Noelle Golden, Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative (BDAC) is a cultural consultancy and arts accelerator working nationally since 2009. BDAC powers systems, strategies and solutions to advance social justice, cultural wellness, creative emancipation with community organizations, artists, activists, and educators. In 2020, BDAC launched Jupiter Performance Studio, which houses all of the company’s creative and arts education endeavors. Jupiter Performance Studio is a hub for the development, exploration, and production of diasporic Black performance traditions.
