We are always interested in new ideas from wherever they come. Excavate projects are nearly always partnerships. Sometimes we develop a project concept and look for those who will be interested in helping us to shape and deliver this, and at other times organisations come to us with an idea. We have worked with all sorts of groups of many different sizes – local councils, universities, the Church of England, arts festivals, Boots and local community organisations.
Generally we like to plan a project a year in advance, although if the bull does need to be taken by the horns then we can do that. We can help to identify funding sources and make any applications that will be necessary to fund the work. Much of what we do up to now has been funded by Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund, although these are not our only funding sources.
We can deliver all aspects of a project and once we begin work we rarely need much in the way of support around us. Of course if the most important part of a project is community engagement and participation – and this, along with artistic quality are usually the reasons for being engaged to work with people – then the more help you or your organisation can do to promote this the better. Having bodies on the ground is often the best way of letting people know what is happening.
There are no fixed budgets for this type of work. Outside performances do have technical and staging costs attached to them. Participation projects do have costs attached to the amount of time it may be necessary to work in and with a community to develop trust and create the quality of work that will ensure there is a thirst for similar projects in the future.
If you have an idea, or would simply like to know more about who we are, what we do, and the ways in which we may be able to work alongside the communities you are a part of, then please email andy@excavate.org.uk
Excavate is part of several networks, both regionally and internationally, that look to develop and investigate community and participatory arts. We have been contributors, as part of the East Midlands Participatory Arts Forum, to the International Community Arts Festival in both 2011 and 2014 and are currently developing a project with the Rotterdam Wijktheater which organises the festival. We are increasingly developing links with other theatre companies that create heritage, site specific and community based theatre, both in the U.K and abroad. And we are developing research links with universities and academics across the world.
If you are interested in developing a closer link with the company then please let us know. We are looking to run a symposium at some point in the future that will bring practitioners from across the world to Nottingham, and in the meantime are always interested in sharing knowledge of the work that we do.