NEU NOW 2017 Call for Emerging Artists Nominations

ELIA - The European League of Institutes of the Arts is pleased to announce the call for nominations of artistic projects from emerging artists for the 9th NEU NOW Festival taking place 14-17 September 2017 at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

What is NEU NOW?
NEU NOW is an innovative international platform and showcase for talented graduating students and recent graduates (within one year of graduation) – of Higher Arts Education Institutions and Universities across Europe and beyond – from all artistic disciplines to present themselves to a wide international audience.

NEU NOW is:
+ an online and a live event that promotes artistic excellence through cutting edge presentations and activities;
+ an opportunity for selected emerging artists to show their work, meet each other, and create new international partnerships;
+ a space where informed audiences, producers, and curators can see the most excellent artists and innovative projects coming from art schools and universities across Europe and beyond;
+ a forum where artists, producers, curators, cultural operators, and policy makers can discuss future developments in the arts and share views on the cultural role of higher arts education institutions;
+ a means of presenting a new international generation of upcoming artists to the attention of a wide audience;

From the nominated projects, a maximum of 100 projects will be presented online to a wide range of arts professionals and publics. From these projects, a further selection of 25-30 projects will be presented at the live NEU NOW festival, which will take place in Amsterdam.

In addition to the main event in September, a series of outreach activities promoting alumni of past editions of NEU NOW will happen throughout the year. Selected artists are invited to show their work and participate in residencies with partners of NEU NOW including:
+ FOAM Amsterdam
+ FHNW at Art Basel
+ Prix Europa Berlin

Kindly note, the dates of NEU NOW were originally announced as 20-24 September at the ELIA Biennial in Florence and have since been changed to 14-17 September 2017.

NEU NOW is an initiative of ELIA – European League of Institutes of the Arts.

Who can participate in NEU NOW?
NEU NOW is open to arts students in their final year of study and recent graduates (within one year of graduation) of Higher Arts Education Institutions across Europe and beyond, which are ELIA members, ELIA associate members or ELIA non-European members. The call for entry to this competition is also open to members of the following partner networks: + AEC – Association Européenne des Conservatoires, Académies de Musique et Musikhochschulen
+ ALIA – Asian League of Institutes of the Arts
+ CILECT – The International Association of Film and Television Schools
+ Cumulus – International Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media
+ FEDEC – Fédération Européenne des Ecoles de Cirque professionnelles

Who can make a nomination? Artists (as individuals or groups) are nominated by a representative of their (former) institution within one of the following five categories:
+ Design/Architecture
+ Film/Animation
+ Music/Sound
+ Theatre/Dance
+ Visual Arts

Please note, artists cannot apply directly but must be nominated by a representative of their (former) institution such as a professor, department head, responsible of international relations, etc.,

How will artists be selected? An international jury of 15 experts, representing each of the five categories, will select work that:
+ engages with, and makes a bold contribution to, leading edge practice in the international field of the category;
+ demonstrates clear potential as work that is likely to achieve a good professional standard of presentation;
+ is likely to stimulate the interest of promoters, curators, festival organisers, and/or producers working in the professional field of the discipline;
+ is suitable for presentation and likely to stimulate the interest of an international audience;
+ together with the other work selected within the discipline, contributes to the presentation of a diverse range within the category.

How many artists can I nominate? There is no official limit to the number of artists that can be nominated by any one nominator or institution. Nominators are free to nominate as many artists as they like in as many categories as they like. However, in the interest of geographic and cultural diversity, it is only in exceptional cases that more than one artist (or ensemble) from any one institution will be selected for the live festival in Amsterdam within a given discipline. Although not common, it is possible that multiple artists from one institution may be selected for the live festival if they’re nominated in different artistic disciplines.