YoPro Collective – get involved with the creative arts in London
London creative arts: The YoPro Collective are putting on amazing grassroots events and want emerging artists to take part. Get involved!
Johanna is an arts producer for the YoPro Collective. It formed from a group of arts students who met on a training programme, put on three successful arts festivals and didn’t want to stop working together. They’re now hosting an event as part of the Rich Mix Youth Takeover festival and are putting out the call for emerging artists to take part! Over to you, Johanna…
What is an arts producer? Um, well… that’s a good question, actually. I’m an art producer, and I don’t think any of us are entirely sure. Some days we’re administrators, sending hundreds of emails to artists and venues, typing up contracts and handling budgets. Other days we’re members of the tech crew, or hunting down props and costumes. Basically, when it comes to supporting artists you have to be a jack of all trades – and a master of every single one.
Don’t you just want to sit in a room with these people and blitz ideas with them forever?
I first started producing at the beginning of this year (2016). To be honest with you, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I wanted to take my first steps into the arts industry, and wasn’t sure how to begin. I stumbled across an upcoming training programme at Battersea Arts Centre in London called Young Producers; thought it sounded interesting and whacked in an application. I was selected for an interview and made it onto the course. Step one complete!
My coursemates and I all came from different artistic backgrounds. I’m a musician, and I found myself working with poets, performing artists and craftspeople. However, we now all had the same creative goal – to produce a festival taking place at Battersea Arts Centre over Easter.
Working as a team, we were able to source artists, budget and market our events, schedule running orders and back up plans and basically every nitty gritty job that’s involved in putting together a show. And we pulled it off! We hosted three successful events across the festival, which everyone who attended loved and I’m sure will cherish in their hearts forever and ever.
When the programme was over, we decided that we didn’t want to stop working together. Ten of us formed the YoPro Collective. Our aims are to produce exciting events, collaborate with artists and to establish a creative community.
Our events will have a variety of themes across the next year, so that there will be something for everyone. We want to give a voice to emerging artists, and provide a platform for them to demonstrate their work in a supportive, safe space.
Get involved with YoPro Collective
Our first event is taking place at Rich Mix in London on Sunday 14 August 2016. It’s a scratch night and part of their Youth Takeover festival. A scratch night is an opportunity for emerging artists to demonstrate some work in progress and get some feedback from an audience.
If you’d like to submit an application to take part, then we’d love to hear from you.
The deadline for submissions is Monday 18 July 2016 at 5pm.
All you have to do is email us at [email protected] with answers to the following questions:
- A summary of the idea you’re exploring
- What medium of performance is it? (eg. dance/music/play etc)
- How will participating in this scratch help your artistic development?
- What questions are you looking to answer by presenting this work?
- Who is your artistic team and what have they done before?
- Any links to previous work
- Do you have any special tech requirements?
You can also follow us on our Facebook page at facebook.com/yoprocollective or on Twitter/Instagram at @yoprocollective. We look forward to seeing you at a show!
