On Friday 2 december 2011 we are hosting a MINI-ICAF in which we’ll look back on the fifth edition of International Community Arts Festival that took place late March/early April 2011. At the moment, the editors are putting the final touches on a video documentary of all the shows, events, and workshops that were filmed during the festival. Short films about the artist-in-residencies and registrations of the evening shows can already be viewed on our website. During the MINI-ICAF we will launch the DVD containing the documentary, of which all visitors will receive a personal copy. The book report will be published in the course of 2012.
Programme:
The definitive programme and time table of the MINI-ICAF will be published on our website by the end of October. Please surf to www.icafrotterdam.com for more information. The main guest of our MINI-ICAF will be the renowned community arts expert François Matarasso. In the morning, he will present a keynote speech on the power of community art in the light of the recent uprisings in British cities. We will also screen the ICAF documentary and a film that the English community dance company Dance United recently completed on their ICAF residency in Moerwijk, The Hague. Carly Annable and Helen Linsell from Dance United will also be present for an in-depth look at their work. Finally, we will present a new European cooperation project named COAST. This acronym stands for ‘Community Oriented Art and Social Transformation’ and connects – with financial support from the European Culture Programme – four ICAF-partners who will work together in the coming years around the theme of migration. The partners are: The Rotterdams Wijktheater, ACTA Community Theatre from Bristol, Expedition Metropolis from Berlijn and the Polish company Theatre Grodzki from Bielsko Biala. Representatives from all these groups will be present at the MINI-ICAF to brainstorm with you about the potential power of collaborating internationally with regards to community arts.
Book Report:
The book report of ICAF 5 will be published in the course of 2012. It wil be considerably different from our previous books. Rather than a description of what it was we intend to compile specially commissioned essays as well as a transcription of the highly stimulating morning seminars facilitated by Jan Cohen-Cruz. Among the essays you can expect contributions by Edith Scher about ‘the theatre of neighbours’ in Argentina, Matt Jennings about the dilemas within Northern Irish Community Arts, Zindaba Wa Chisiza on ‘theatre and development’ in Tanzania and a critical introduction written by Jan Cohen-Cruz.