CULTURAL PRODUCERS INITIATIVE

Nuart Festival's Cultural Producers Initiative is a knowledge sharing platform for a global community of curators, producers, writers and administrators working within the field of Street Art.

The growth in popularity of the Street Art movement has led to a proliferation of dedicated Street Art Festivals, galleries and events around the globe. This year, Nuart made the strategic decision to change how we mount our production by inviting cultural producers from across this fast-growing movement to join us for an intensive 7-day production period culminating in the opening of Nuart Festival on Saturday 10 September.

Nuart prides itself on cultivating a dynamic environment for the exchange of ideas between people whose interest lies in Street Art and its associated movements. Our international production crew comprises members from Australia, USA, Belgium, France, Ukraine, New Zealand, UK, Italy and more, allowing for the sharing of best practices and resources on a glo-cal (global/local) scale. 

We'll be profiling members of our international crew one by one over the coming weeks in the build up to this year's event. Sign up to our newsletter for weekly announcements and all the latest Nuart news and updates.

Marisa Molin is an Australian contemporary jeweller and artist. Her practice focuses on the appropriation and translation of textures and fragments, collected from island shorelines. Alongside being an artist, Molin is also an arts professional. She has worked within and collaboratively with many respected Arts Advocacy Agencies and Organisations in Australia, UK and Norway. She co-founded MoB Workspace in Brisbane and has held the position of Director in various ARI (artist-run-initiative) models, including Sawtooth ARI Gallery, and has extensive experience project managing diverse creative initiatives. This is the second year Marisa has worked at Nuart Festival.

Bjørn Van Poucke is the founder and curator of The Crystal Ship Festival in Ostend, Belgium. Bjørn oversees the production of over 25 installations, sculptures and murals per year from a select group of visual artists working across the ever-changing spectrum of Street Art. In April 2016, he published his first book, Street art / today: The 50 most influential street artists today through Lannoo publishers in Belgium with long-term collaborator Elise Luong.

Liz Ramsey is a professional 'enabler' - that is, someone who enables the artistic community to find opportunities, be challenged, and establish a healthier, stronger, and more diverse world to create in. Since founding Blank Space in Oslo over 3 years ago, Liz has spread her love for visual communication through countless collaborations, big and small, and is steadily becoming known as Oslo's go-to cultural advocate. Notable projects include founding the Why Not? Festival, leading the Oslo chapter of Creative Mornings, hosting on average over 20 diverse creative events each month, and collaborating with over 50 of Norway's cultural organizations in a shared vision of a more colorful Norway.

Saziso Phiri is an independent curator specialising in urban contemporary art and street art. In late 2015, she founded The Anti Gallery, a pop-up art gallery aimed at producing and exhibiting art outside of traditional art gallery environments. Based in Nottingham, UK, Saziso has worked with a range of individuals and organisations from local councils, small businesses, community groups, artists and art galleries in order to connect artists with clients and facilitate live art experiences and exhibitions for special events. As well as curating events locally, Saziso has also been involved with international projects exploring culture, contemporary art, graffiti and street art in Italy, Germany and more recently, Hungary, in which she was amongst an international group exploring street art as a tool of empowerment and education within communities. As part of the project, in which Saziso also worked as an artist, a live street art theatre was produced, along with two public murals in Budapest, and additional artwork on legal walls within the city. Alongside curating projects for The Anti Gallery and various clients, Saziso works as a Gallery Invigilator at The New Art Exchange, a Nottingham based contemporary arts space stimulating new perspectives on the value of diversity in art and society. 
 

Marie-Ange Baudin
French journalist of culture, Marie-Ange Baudin loves art and specially the urban art. She went to university of architecture of interior and then one of journalism. She works for some art's magazines like L'Officiel des Galeries et Musées. And she founds the website Urbanart-Paris about urban art. 

Chris Bondue has been following the street art scene for many years - watching artists add colour to the world while travelling extensively around the globe. His first experience with a street art oranisation was in Melbourne in 2013 but it was in his home country, Belgium, that he first came to work with some of the finest street artists in the world while participating in the Cristal Ship Festival in Oostende. It was such a great experience that Chris wanted straight away to jump into the next festival and so it's with a lot of pleasure that we welcome him to the Nuart team this year.

Noé Lebourg and Alexis Bernazeau (from Paris, France) discovered urban art fortuitously six years ago in the street. In 2010 they began to document the work. Soon, their collection was growing so fast that they developed a website to allow other people to discover street art around the world. After few months in development, Chilled Out Co was born in January 2011. Since then, the two have continued to travel worldwide to walk through cities; shoot, and share street art pieces that they find and enjoy. Chilled Out Co have also organized two exhibitions in France as well as numerous projects to encourage artists to get involved in street art.
 

Mary Butterworth is a Scottish artist and cultural producer. Self taught, she believes in the deeply human act of creating art and humanising the urban environment. Engagement with the public, creating opportunities, boosting artistic agency, increasing understanding, and involvement with art from the roots up have been some of her key aims. Mary has worked with Aberdeen Inspired BID on a number of projects including #painteddoorsabdn.
Breaking new ground in the city, the project raises public awareness of local artists from all disciplines and backgrounds already working and living in the area, with many artists let loose for the first time on the street – experiencing public interaction and human connection in place of the studio. This summer she has worked with the BID on creating a 'grass roots fund' to help independent creatives fund their own projects in the city centre and is currently developing an 'inspired space' initiative – a 24hr open access, uncurated public space for creative use for the people of the city.
She has also co-ordinated a number of major charity art projects and exhibitions.
 

Jon Reid is an artist and blogger based in Aberdeen. Over the last 9 years he's tried to push and promote artists and culture in the North East of Scotland and also to make connections with artists and organisations all over Scotland and the UK. The blog uses photographs, reviews, videos, artist studio visits and any other form of interaction to shine a light on the culture that exists and revealing a different set of values through making connections and creating moments for engagement. Along with constantly updating the blog page Jon has organised and taken part in numerous events, exhibitions, mural projects & short film screenings. Making connections and engaging with the local community has been central to Jon and many of the projects he’s under taken. Jon is currently leading the street art tours for Nuart Aberdeen, using his extensive knowledge and passion for street art to enlighten the masses!

Find Travel Grants!

If you would like to travel to Norway to work with Nuart Festival there may be funding opportunities available at a local, national or international level to subsidise your trip. Nuart is happy to provide a formal letter of invitation in support of any applications, just remember to read any guidelines carefully. Good luck!

Recommended fund:

ECF Step Beyond Travel Grant scheme: http://www.culturalfoundation.eu/step-beyond

The application form is quite simple but keep in mind NOT to write that you will be a ‘volunteer’. Unfortunately, this fund is not eligible for people travelling between EU/EFTA countries.

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