Announcing GLEN (Great Little European Network)

GLEN (Great Little European Network) connects the smallest countries of Europe through common networking and training programmes with the objective of contributing to designing more meaningful practices and more sustainable performing arts sectors in the concerned countries, interconnecting them and taking a prominent place on the international scene. The network aims to be an incubator for those who, while benefiting from a local anchorage, ambition to develop their practice internationally.

GLEN is no small idea, but one which aims to find new connection points between some of the smallest countries in Europe. From September 2023 to June 2024 GLEN will implement three areas of activities, networking activities, critical friendships (mentorships) and open webinars that address the specificities of producing and distributing in small countries and advising on how to develop internationally from there.

GLEN was established in 2023 as an initiative of 8 organizations working to support the structuration and internationalization of their national performing arts field. The Founders of the network are:
• Kanuti Gildi SAAL (Estonia) https://saal.ee/
• New theatre Institute of Latvia / The International festival of Contemporary theatre, Homo Novus (Latvia) www.theatre.lv / www.homonovus.lv
• Sirenos Festival Lithuania/ Lithuanian Theatre Information Centre https://www.sirenos.lt/en/ / www.lithuaniantheatre.com
• Performing Arts Centre Iceland www.performingarts.is
• Kultur | lx - Arts Council Luxembourg https://www.kulturlx.lu/en/
• Gledalisce Glej (Slovenia) www.glej.si/en
• Teatri ODA (Kosovo) https://www.teatrioda.com/en/home
• Spazju Kreattiv (Malta) https://www.kreattivita.org/

The participants in the Critical friendships (mentorship program) were selected in 2023. The critical friendship will include 8 months of mentoring from one of the partner countries (not their own) and travel to the two networking activities.

The participants are: Katja Markić (Slovenia), Snæfriður Sól Gunnarsdóttir (Iceland), Zofia Stelmaszczyk (Malta) Reinis Boters (Latvia) Fábio Godinho (Luxembourg), Siim Tõniste (Estonia), Greta Stiormer (Lithuanian), Sovran Nrecaj (Kosovo)

The first webinar will be held at 12pm Iceland, 1pm UK, 2pm CET, 3pm EET on Friday 13th October. The webinar, entitled “How to take over the world (or at least develop an international strategic plan)”, will be hosted by Victor Mayot (Luxembourg) and Bek Berger (Latvia) and will tackle the basics of creating an International Development Plan. Join us to get guidance through the mist of international development and bust myths about working over borders. Sign up here before Thursday, 12th October: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ldu-orz0vH93UNOHYXP5cfRZNZRCih-5N
There will be a series of six webinars tackling different aspects of international production and mobility hosted by the GLEN partners. Information on these events can be found on their websites and through social media.

The project partners led by Kanuti Gildi SAAL have received network funding from the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture to establish GLEN - Great Little European Network.

Goethe Instituut Tallinn decided to collaborate with the contemporary performing art centre Kanuti Gildi SAAL in Estonia. Our dialogue partner within the project is the only German organisation Kunsthaus Dresden. They formulated question - against the backdrop of the increasing use of the city and public space as a setting for right-wing populist initiatives since late 2014, what can art, as a language of freedom, do in times of widespread resentment?
In collaboration with Goethe Institute Tallinn Kanuti Gildi SAAL posed a question: are we wrong to be happy? Focusing on the nexus between freedom and responsibility as well as on positive aspects of free private and public life. Having experienced foreign occupation for centuries, Estonians cherish their personal freedom, which now finds expression in a highly developed digital infrastructure and a positively charged culture of tolerance for mistakes.

Freiraum events in Dresden and Tallinn:
14.06-22.07.2018 Kunsthaus Dresden THE FREEDOM TO BE FREE exhibition Jaan Toomik / Marian Bogusz / Christa Jeitner
14-15.09.2018 Freiraum Tallinn 1 - series on freedom: Isaac Chong Wai, Sarah Vanhee, Sven Johne, Eva Neklyaeva

3-28.10.2018 Kunsthaus Dresden FREIHEIT ZUR FREIHEIT II: Svea Duwe, Manaf Halbouni, Sven Johne, Daniel Kahn, Flo Kaesaru, Kristina Norman, Max Kowalewski, Raul Walch, Theatre NO99, Tools for Action, Jaan Toomik, Zentrum für Politische Schönheit

19.01.2019 Kanuti Gildi SAAL FREIRAUM TALLINN 2: POLIITIKAPIDU

2-3.03.2019 Kanuti Gildi SAAL FREIRAUM TALLINN 2: Erik Alalooga, Eva Mayer-Keller, Joanna Warsza

http://www.goethe.de/freiraum
http://kunsthausdresden.de/

UUE – is a chance to meet (21.-25.2.18) the young, unprejudiced and thought-provoking artists from Estonia! Kiasma Theatre presents: Maria Metsalu, Iggy Lond Malmborg, Flo Kasearu, Kris Lemsalu and SU—MU live, as well as screenings by Kristina Norman and Theatre NO99.
www.kiasma.fi/theatre

LATEST (15-18.02.18) is an invitation to discover Estonian contemporary performance and the mood of young Estonian artists at the eve of the country’s centenary, as well as the collaboration potential of Latvian and Estonian artists. The central event of programme is the new production collectively devised by a group of Latvian and Estonian artists - director Valters Sīlis, visual artist Kristina Norman, choreographers Karolin Poska and Joanna Kalm, composer Toms Auniņš, set designers Epp Kubu and Austra Hauks, dramaturg and director Kāris Krūmiņš, inspired by the history of Livs ethnical group during the establishment and re-establishment of Latvian and Estonian states. Guest performance programme will accompany the premiere featuring work by Juhan Ulfsak, Iggy Lond Malmborg, Kangro-Ulfsak-Epner.
The project is initiated and co-produced by New Theatre Institute of Latvia and Kanuti Gildi SAAL and is part of Latvian and Estonian Centenary programme supported by Latvian Ministry of Culture and Estonia 100 programme.

theatre.lv

“Sünnipäevapidu” (24-25.11.2017) and “Week End Estonien” (15-16.12.2017) are Estonian contemporary performing arts events at FFT, Düsseldorf and at Nanterre-Amadiers theatre, which purpose is to create an opportunity for local agile ones to enjoy Estonian unique art.
The programme for both events is combined with the collaboration partner taken the local context into consideration. These kind of events invite our future-oriented artists and thinkers to non-capital cities and they give their own creation as a gift to the local cultural aficionados. One weekend in Düsseldorf and in Nanterre are melting pot of film and visual-musical performances, which on one hand affirms our 100 year-old country belonging to the European cultural sphere, but also gives an opportunity to show our one-of-kind artworks.
At Forum Freies Theatre in Düsseldorf from our behalf Karl Saks, Maike Lond Malmborg and Kädi Metsoja will perform. Also NO99 will show its documentary “Ash and Money” at local Filmwerstatt and Daniel Vaarik will talk about e-residency. Electronical music duo Cubus Larvik will do a live-set there together with VJ Emer Värk. To Nanterre-Amadiers Theatre Kris Lemsalu, Lond Malmborg and Maria Metsalu are invited to perform, NO99’s documentary is shown there aswell.

fft-duesseldorf.de/
www.nanterre-amandiers.com/

Urban Heat is a project developed by the Festivals in Transition (FIT) network of 13 international festival partners, supported by Creative Europe, which enables artists to engage with the invisible communities within cities. The four year project supports artists to develop and create daring and extraordinary work that connects with the world outside the arts by addressing urgent political and social issues, and by working with audiences and communities affected by those issues.

The canvas for Urban Heat is cities. They are the physical framework of our society, the generator of civil values, the engine of our economy and the heart of much of our culture. But in the era of late capitalism they also feel increasingly unsustainable: economic migration has created an almost invisible underclass; poverty is pushing people to the edges; and issues ranging from mobility to the rise of faith-based communities are seeing cultures and communities becoming more segregated and less permeable.

Urban Heat participants are 22 artists working in performance, theatre, dance and interdisciplinary who are open to experiment with the role of arts in the development of contemporary cities and to re-imagine how art could evoke change and support sustainability in the cities. Through a series of Academies and City Labs, which bring together artists, academics, faith leaders, political scientists and technologists, Urban Heat enables artists to develop their understanding of fundamental issues and challenges facing cities and their knowledge and skills in how to tackle them engaging in new forms of participatory arts practice and projects in response.

Subsequent to these City Labs each partner festival will commission at least one participating artist to create a new work based on the themes of the programme. These works will engage a specific audience or community within each of the festival’s own locations and will be developed through close collaboration between the artist and partner festivals. The new works will be commissioned for presentation in the city art programmes at all participating festivals throughout 2016 and 2017.

Supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

More detailed info: http://urbanheat.co

GLOBAL CITY - LOCAL CITY is a network collaboration of the festivals SPIELART - Munich (GER), Baltic Circle International Theatre Festival - Helsinki (FIN), Homo Novus - Riga (LAT), August Dance Festival - Tallinn (EST), LIFT - The London International Festival of Theatre - London (UK), Bunker - Ljubljana (SLO) and Festival a/d Werf - Utrecht (NL). Associate partners are ALKANTARA Festival - Lisbon (POR) and Aalto University - Pori (FIN).

GLOBAL CITY - LOCAL CITY is a project for the artistic exploration of the social, ecological, and political realities, and civic and social potentials in individual city quarters and of global city developments of the cities of the participating theatre and dance festivals. GLOBAL CITY - LOCAL CITY will create new performing art and other artworks making visible specific issues relevant to the residents of a city quarter, and examine new perspectives and options of action for European artists and festivals.

Each festival will invite one to two locally rooted or festival-related artists to take part in the project. They will form a group, which will then work at all "CityLAB workshops" in every city of the participating festivals. Out of this group, each festival later on will choose one to two artists from another European country for a residency at its festival. The objectives of these residencies will be defined by each festival.

Part of the project is the development of new local city artwork. The aim is to integrate artists into a wider range of European artistic exchange and collaboration, and to open a new discourse about the city and art interaction. A final publication will document the results. GLOBAL CITY - LOCAL CITY is an initiative of the network Theatre/Festivals in Transition (FIT) - http://www.theatrefit.org.

Supported by the Culture Programme of the European Union.

SAMARA is a Baltic-Nordic-European contemporary performing arts network established by 8 internationally active performing art organizations:

Kanuti Gildi SAAL (Estonia) - http://www.saal.ee/

Baltic Circle/Q-teatteri (Finland) - http://www.q-teatteri.fi/baltic-circle/

Bora Bora (endine Entré Scenen) (Denmark) - http://bora-bora.dk/

Lokal Festival (Island) - http://lokal.is/

MDT (Sweden) - http://mdtsthlm.se/about-mdt/

Black Box Teater (Norway) - http://www.blackbox.no/

Kampnagel (Germany) - http://www.kampnagel.de/en/home/

Nordwind Festival (Germany) - http://www.nordwind-festival.de/2014/

SAMARA was initiated by organisations that had been collaborating for longer on one to one basis or on smaller scale projects in various combinations. SAMARA partners joined forces based on commonly agreed existing needs to create new opportunities for emerging Nordic and Baltic artists to co-produce and tour their work. Aiming to facilitate a place for dialogue, networking and long lasting collaborations.

Samara is a type of fruit with a flattened wing around the seed. The shape of a samara enables the wind to carry the seed further away than regular seeds from the parent tree. We hope that this network will assist artists and arts practitioners in developing an extra set of wings.

Supported by Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture via Long-term Network Module financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Ministers of culture in the Baltic countries.

http://www.kulturkontaktnord.org

In courtesy to the support of Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture funding for artist residencies - financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Ministers of culture in the Baltic countries - we have been happy to provide residencies for Nordic and Baltic artists at Kanuti Gildi SAAL since 2009. This has provided ground for numerous collaborations and co-productions and above all set an example to start locally providing residencies for the artists based in Estonia. Hence we have had the pleasure to host the following artists:

2009: Anna Dubrovska /LAT/, Päivi Vettenranta /FIN/, Milla Koistinen /FIN/, Alissa Šnaider /EST/, Jan Fedinger /FIN/
2010: Virva Talonen /FIN/, Sandra Z /EST/
2011: Veera Nevanlinna /FIN/, Juha Valkeapää /FIN/
2012: Christofer Eriksson /SWE/, Andrejs Jarovojs /LAT/, Kristine Vismane /LAT/
2013: Juha Valkeapää /FIN/, Kaja Kann /EST/, Iggy Malmborg /SWE/
2014: Camilla Graff Junior /DEN/, Anni Klein /FIN/, Jarkko Partanen /FIN/ 
2015: Iggy Malmborg /SWE/
2016: Marika Lagercrantz /SWE/, Max Ehlund Goran /SWE/
2018: Adriano Wilfert Jensen /DNK/, Alexandra Tveit /NOR/
2019: Alise Bokaldere /LVA/, Marie Ursin /NOR/, Alexandra Tveit /NOR/
2020: Liza Baliasnaja /LTU/
2021: Laura Stasane /LVA/, Maija Hirvanen /FIN/, Adriano Wilfert Jensen /DNK/, Andrea Zavala Folache /DNK/, Jaakko Pallasvuo /FIN/

For more information about the program and supports see:
KULTURKONTAKT NORD - https://www.nordiskkulturkontakt.org/en/