After an introduction to the exercise, participants will break into 6 working groups of their choosing. Each group will approach a different topic: 

Group 1: Human values 

How to move from a situation where there are so many pressures on people, to a situation where the human fundament of our sector is being respected? 

This group will discuss how to strengthen the people in the ecosystem - the artists and art workers - with regards to the development of their careers, their socio-economic position, their working conditions, inclusion, access and recognition. 

Group 2: Social values

How to break out of our social bubbles and develop sustainable and long term connections to people outside of our current networks? 

This group will brainstorm on how to strengthen the social connections of the performing arts, paying attention to several elements such as all these co-verbs (to connect, to collaborate, to co-project, to co-create or to common), the societal impact and the way we develop networks with communities and audiences, etc.

Group 3: Artistic values 

How to create a future situation where the intrinsic artistic and cultural value are widely regarded and valued as a factor for personal and societal development? 

This group will not only look into the intrinsic values of the performing arts within society, but also the necessary conditions for artists and organisations to develop and create this value. 

Group 4: Ecological values

How to create a future situation where the ecological impact of our work is respecting the boundaries of our natural ecosystem?

This group will not only discuss the impact the energy and materials that we use when developing, producing and presenting our work, but also the need for a vision on the place of what we do in a broader, planetary context.

Group 5: Economical values 

How to create a future situation where the economic resources in our sector are fairly distributed, creating the right conditions for other values to flourish?

This group will discuss funding and other forms of public and/or private financial support, and ways we distribute and redistribute these resources among ourselves in the performing arts ecosystem (fair or unfair remuneration, sharing of spaces and infrastructure, etc.).

Group 6: Open space 

How to create a future situation where we start seeing that all these so-called value frameworks are in fact connected? 

This group is designed for those who think that it is way more complicated than this; those who want to discuss issues that are not represented in the groups mentioned above, and those who think it’s a really bad idea to separate all these issues.

Overview of the pressures and promises

In the framework of the brainstorm, we identified pressures (unsustainable practices) and promises (interesting experiments) for each of the five main value frameworks listed above. Please read this recap of the pressures and promises related to your working group before joining the brainstorm on Tuesday 19 May. For more information, you can read our blog posts about The Pressures Radar and The Promises Radar.