Complicité’s Mudlarks awarded grant

Jerwood Foundation has awarded a grant of £20,900 to Complicité’s Artist Development Programme, Mudlarks. Complicité is a national and international touring theatre company, led by Artistic Director and co-founder Simon McBurney.  As part of Complicité’s dedication to identifying and supporting artists, their Development Programme Mudlarks, is designed to allow artists to develop their ideas freely, encouraging creativity without the constraints of rigid methodologies. It resists target-driven pressures and the need for immediate definitions and instead, provides artists with the tools they need to interrogate an idea and find a shape or form that truly serves the work.

 

 Funding provided by Jerwood Foundation will support two of the three interlinked strands which make up the wider Mudlarks programme.  ‘International Residency’ and ‘Supported By’ are at the core of their artist development work, aimed at supporting artists making significant steps in their careers and which all have internationalism and environmental sustainability at their heart. This funding will go directly towards supporting 37 artists on this programme over the next year by offering space, time and resources, and access to knowledge, insights and international connections gathered by Complicité across the company’s four decades of creating work.

 

The Mudlarks ‘International Residency’ is a week-long residency for both UK and International artists of any discipline who come with an idea and are provided with a raft of resources to help them explore it: collaborators, facilitated sessions, mentors and provocation. All support provided is selected with their specific piece of work in mind.

The ‘Supported by’ strand is a bespoke year-long programme of support for artists who are further along in the development of their ideas and helps artists grow their ambition, accompanying them on the journey to full production. Artists receive creative and producorial mentorship, access to Complicité’s skills and knowledge and extensive networks.

Tim Bell, Senior Creative Producer at Complicité said:

Mudlarks is an idea development programme with one simple function; putting brilliant ideas in front of audiences. We believe this is the best gift that we can give artists today. But first we must enable artists to go to the hinterland of their idea. Complicité is a company whose lifeblood has been a dialogue with international practice; our work is the result of countless international exchanges, conversations and collaborations. Now Mudlarks provides those opportunities to others too. In a time of increasing division, we must find more and more opportunities to listen, to understand, and to be inspired. We hope the Mudlarks programme does just that.

 

Paula Varjack, an artist supported by Mudlarks said:

Over the course of my engagement with the Mudlarks programme since February of last year, I have been encouraged with my artistic vision, brought into contact with brilliant artists in the midst of their own explorations and most importantly, I have been given trust and time with the 'not knowing' that is inherent in any creative process but rarely given space to breathe in artist development programmes. I have found their approach incredibly unique at a time when so much of the arts sector has such a product over process focus.

For further information please visit Complicité

November 20, 2024