IETM Rijeka: Audiences 

IETM Autumn Plenary Meeting
24-27 October 
Rijeka, Croatia
www.ietm.org/rijeka 

Between 24 and 27 October 2019, around 400 performing arts professionals from all over the world will gather at IETM Plenary Meeting in Rijeka, Croatia, organised in collaboration with Rijeka 2020 - European Capital of Culture, to engage in a collective reflection on the most relevant matters for the performing arts sector and the society at large. The focus and topic of this year‘s IETM autumn meeting is Audiences. IETM Rijeka will challenge the most common approaches and biases related to that theme and will create a space for finding new, truly relevant perspectives.

Each day will focus on a different aspects of the main theme: this includes participatory governance, relation between artists and funders, sustainability in the arts, rural audiences, immersive creative process, programming with audiences,  art & activism, and more. The Keynote Speech and Talks of the Day will address democratisation of cultural policies, phenomena of subjectivation of spectatorship and "programmed" audiences, and the concept of "non-audiences".  The programme will offer more than 30 sessions: keynote speeches, panel discussions, roundtable debates, interactive working groups, artistic walks,  info cells, networking sessions. The meeting will provide participants with a space to present their future projects and ongoing initiatives, thus facilitating networking and the emergence of cross-border partnerships. The artistic part of the meeting, compiled by the local organisers, will illustrate the richness of the Croatian contemporary performing arts scene.  

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We live in an age in which valuing the status of the artist is becoming increasingly acute. At the same time, we are confronted with the urgency of involving communities and being socially relevant. IETM Rijeka will trigger the collective reflection on how we can create a space where respecting the professional artist coexists with celebrating the everyday creator, where highlighting the social responsibility of the arts is not paired with their instrumentalisation, and where audience development is understood and rethought in a variety of ways and not solely in funders’ jargon.

Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture, the main partner for IETM Rijeka, has developed a programme which puts the theme of audiences at its heart. It provides a platform for Rijeka artists and citizens to bring their values to the process of shaping the programme and take an active part in it. Rijeka 2020 nurtures a strong cooperative and participative perspective as it strives to connect the future audience in various parts of the main programme’s decision making process. Expertise and vision of Rijeka 2020 in relation to the theme of audience development are a great contribution to the content of IETM Rijeka.  

Speakers include

Goran Sergej Pristaš, Dramaturge, Co-founder of BADco performing arts collective, Croatia
Dea Vidović, Director, Kultura Nova Foundation, Croatia
Zvonimir Dobrović, President, Domino, Croatia
Irena Ristić, Co-Founder of Hop.La!, Serbia
József Kardos, Programme Director, Sziget Festival, Hungary
Luca Ricci, Artistic Director, Kilowatt Festival, Italy
Goran Tomka, Independent Researcher, Serbia
Vuk Ćosić, Contemporary Artist, Slovenia
Alma R. Selimović, Development Director, Bunker, Slovenia
Jan Goossens, Artistic Director, Festival de Marseille, France

More information: www.ietm.org/rijeka

Organisers:
IETM: www.ietm.org 
Rijeka 2020 - European Capital of Culture: www.rijeka2020.eu

Media contact:
Elena Polivtseva: elena.polivtseva@ietm.org, +32 2 201 09 15