Earlier this year we put a proposal out there– what happens if you employ an artist for a year, to just be an artist?

The pandemic has highlighted the inequalities and challenges that artists face. We don’t want to go ‘back to normal’ and so we’re proposing a different way of working.

What would happen or change if you were employed for a year? If you were trusted to lead your own creative work, and have paid time to think, have conversations and create if you want? If you could get off the project treadmill for a bit and explore what being an artist means in this COVID/ post-COVID world?

This is the first of a series of blogs from the team commissioned by Arts Council England to come up with a new showcase for performance from England at the Edinburgh Festivals.

A new flagship International Showcase celebrating performance created in England will be piloted during the Edinburgh Festivals in 2021. The showcase will be led by a consortium comprising Battersea Arts Centre, Dance4, Fierce, GIFT, MAYK and Transform.

Alongside many other colleagues and friends across the country, we’ve spent much of the past few months making the case for the importance of culture in people’s lives. This was recognised by the government who are now awarding £1.5bn through the Cultural Recovery Fund.

We’re changing our working patterns this summer as we continue to adjust to life during the pandemic.

Earlier this year, following an open call from MAYK and Watershed, artists Xavier Velastin, Robbie Thomson, Ella Good and Nicki Kent, spent time with us exploring technology and climate breakdown, with a focus on the local effects of the climate crisis, and our demand for gas and oil, and sustainable energy.

Are you missing the buzz and community of Bristol’s vibrant arts scene? We’ve got just the thing. We’re joining forces with Bristol Old Vic, Watershed, Colston Hall, St Pauls Carnival, Trinity, Spike Island, St George’s Bristol, Arnolfini, Paraorchestra and Bristol Museums to launch Bristol Arts Channel for a pilot programme this June.

You may remember that a couple of years ago we had a little event called Demostage, that we ran quarterly. It was a platform for new ideas – not a scratch night, but an informal environment where artists could share their thinking about a new project, or something they were stuck on, or a wild idea that needed some other brains to make sense of it.

Are you an emerging theatre company, producer or artist committed to touring your work nationwide?

Our friends at Paines Plough are working in collaboration with a wider network of established touring and producing companies which MAYK is part of, and which also includes China Plate, English Touring Theatre (ETT), Graeae, Kneehigh, Fuel, Out of Joint, Tiata Fahodzi, Wise Children and Yellow Earth to share knowledge and experience with emerging companies, producers and artists committed to touring, and to then introduce them to Paines Plough’s Small Scale Touring Network (SSTN) across the UK.

We asked Sleepdogs’ Timothy X Atack to write something to accompany our (not) a Mayfest party playlist, which played out live on Spotify on Thursday 7 May 2020. We shared Tim’s text over Twitter throughout the evening, offering a parallel experience for those listening in to the playlist in the kitchens and living rooms. Here’s the full text: