TestArt – Testing new skills for the circulation of innovative co-creation methods in the performing Arts sector, the project co-financed by the Creative Europe community funds – medium-scale cooperation projects for the Cultural sector, aims to support the creative, economic and social dimension of performing arts at European level, stimulating innovation, mobility and transnational cooperation in cultural and creative industries. The EU co-financing amounts to more than 600,000 euros.

TestArt, counting a total of 15 partners from 5 different countries, will be coordinated by Consorzio Marche Spettacolo and will involve local and international entities, such as Welcome Aps, AMAT – Marche Association of Theatrical Activities, Pergolesi Spontini Foundation, Asini Bardasci Cultural Association, Cultural Association Centripeta, CollegaMenti APS and MALTE Cultural Association from Italy; Teater Nu and PotatoPotato from Sweden; Kulturanova, Misholovka Theater and Led Art Multimedia Center from Serbia; Bunker from Ljubljana (Slovenia) and the Dresden-based Zentralwerk (Germany).

“Starting from the success of TrainArt, TestArt pushes for artistic collaborations between different realities that are predominantly oriented at a local level, increasing their potential at a European level and defining a concrete opportunity to create international networks for the co-production of shows and cultural initiatives – states Katiuscia Cassetta, President of Consorzio Marche Spettacolo.

From January 2024 to December 2026, TestArt will develop the skills of cultural and creative micro-organizations for the activation of a network of transnational cooperation, which aims at the exponential expansion of the range of collaborations, also beyond the conclusion of the project.

“The range of TestArt partners is particularly interesting because it is active in different fields of the performing arts sector. However, they all pursue the objective of stabilizing their international network by operating transversally within the cultural and creative sector” declares Lucia Chiatti, Director of Consorzio Marche Spettacolo.

TestArt will develop in 3 phases: an initial mapping of the needs of the artists and operators involved, which will include study visits to Dresden and Ljubljana for the capacity building of cultural operators and artists; the artistic residency period where partners will collaborate and co-create new transnational artistic productions, which will then debut on a European tour touching all partner countries in the final phase.

“For Zentralwerk, TestArt is a stimulating networking and organization development experience to take home. We will be tutors and students at the same time thanks to the incredible network of entities involved in the project” concludes Barbara Lubich, Head of International Cooperation of the German partner Zentralwerk.

UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT

The TrainArt project

To effectively comprehend the origin of TestArt, the TrainArt project and its aims and results should be looked at. TrainArt was a 3-year small scale cooperation project, ended in September 2022 and involving 5 partners from 4 different countries (Consorzio Marche Spettacolo and Welcome Aps from Italy, Kulturanova from Serbia, Haceria Arteak from Spain and Teater Nu from Sweden), with the aim to strengthen the competitiveness of the European Performing Arts sector and to shape new skills for those cultural operators interested in developing innovative business models in the CCIs.

The project focuses on two particular fields: A) new management models for cultural spaces and B) artistic interventions in non-conventional contexts. After a transnational capacity building programme, the 24 selected beneficiaries have had the opportunity to test the skills acquired, experimenting with new business models and new artistic interventions aimed at public or private organisations.

Given this context, the project idea for TestArt stems from the necessity to give a follow-up to TrainArt, which represents a successful first step towards an actual international cooperation, focusing on capacity building for and best practices exchange between artists and cultural operators. In fact, TrainArt activities led to mutually-contaminated mindsets that allowed an upgrade to the resulting pilot actions implemented locally.

Now that the partners know each other and had the chance to influence one another transnationally, our aim is to create a favourable condition for them to actually work and co-create together.