News

The Arts by the Sea festival champions talent and high-quality work and aims to support both established and emerging artists at early stages of their career.

The Open Call for artists is an annual scheme organised by the festival focused on supporting early career artists in the development of their work. The festival invites artists from around the country to respond to a brief, and the scheme offers a number of commissions for artists to realise their ideas at the festival. Artworks range from brand new commissions of installations or performances, to redevelopments of existing work.

• Open Call creations premiered at the Arts by the Sea festival in previous years have gone on to tour other festivals and events.
• Colony by Mike Blow and Alison Ballard and produced by Hogarth Productions was co-commissioned by Arts by the Sea with Hogarth Productions, Oxford Contemporary Music and with funding from Arts Council England and Reading Borough Council. It was shown at Arts by the Sea in 2016 and went on to be featured at Kendal Calling (2017) and Bluedot (2017).
• Travelling Light by Ithaca (2016) won the Best Light Art Scheme (Low Budget) at the 2016 Darc Awards which celebrates the best in lighting design, and went on to be selected to appear at Kendal Calling with a new commission Candelas in 2017. They were also offered a co-commission tour by Bluedot, Kendal Calling, Shambala, Lakes Alive and Arts by the Sea for Lucid Lanterns (2018).
• The Rockpool by Kerith Ogden and Bee Jasco (2017) led to a commission of permanent lanterns for Kendal Calling in 2018 and a nightly lantern procession at Bluedot in 2017.

This year Arts by the Sea welcomes two Open Call artists ‘Artemis’ and ‘Levantes Dance Theatre’.