Open Call: TVE 5 2024

Imporant dates:

  • Start of application period: Tuesday May 14th, 2024
  • End of application period: Sunday June 30th, 2024
  • Community of curatorial practice workshops: July/August, 2024
  • Public announcement of results: September, 2024
  • Polish Screenings: September, 2024
  • Caribbean Screenings: November, 2024
  • Online Exhibition: December, 2024

Call for Works:

The Fresh Milk Art Platform (Barbados) and the Centre for Culture in Lublin (Poland) as part of Lublin’s bid for the European Capital of Culture 2029 title are pleased to welcome submissions of recent film and video works – screenings, installations, new media, time-based media and expanded cinema – by contemporary artists, to be included in the fifth edition of Transoceanic Visual Exchange (TVE), a series of programmes taking place this year between Barbados and Poland, with an accompanying online exhibition. 

Submitted works must have been completed in the last five years and must be made by artists practicing in the Caribbean, Poland, Ukraine and their diasporas. 

TVE 5 will be a collection of recent artists’ films and videos from each region. However, the final shape and content of the programme will be informed by a community curatorial process, which aims to involve and promote discussion within the wider creative communities of each participating initiative.

Working between the Caribbean, Poland and Ukraine, TVE 5 aims to negotiate the in-between space of our cultural communities outside of traditional geo-political zones of encounter and trade. TVE intends to build relations and open up greater pathways of visibility, discourse and knowledge production between the regional art spaces and their publics.

Submission requirements:

  • Must be work from artists practicing in the Caribbean, Ukraine, Poland or their diasporas;
  • Must be work that has been completed/made in the last five years;
  • Can be films of any length (shorts, experimental, features and video artworks);
  • Can be in any language (films originally produced in regional languages are welcome);
  • Up to 3 submissions per applicant are welcome;
  • Must be accompanied by a description of the work (500 words max), a bio (200 words max) and details of any technical requirements i.e. audio, installation, equipment required, preferred setting etc.;
  • Works must be mp4 files no larger than 100MB, or Vimeo/Youtube links with passwords if applicable;
  • Works must not have been submitted to the previous edition of TVE;
  • Please specify whether your submitted works have permission to be exhibited on an online space.

Selection Process:

One of the core values of TVE is the model of community curatorial practice as opposed to one of solely contracting curators or hiring a jury to review submissions in isolation. This has taken the shape of open roundtable conversations with interested members of the community in each partner’s country/region, where current trends, concerns and interests in the areas of video art, film and new media are discussed. After these conversations, the partners will convene to select works which align with and reflect the research gathered, including the community’s input in the design of the final programme.

What TVE 5 Offers:

  • Each selected artist will receive a stipend of $250.00 USD for their participation in the programme;
  • Artists’ work will be showcased in a series of events in Barbados and Poland and a virtual exhibition on the TVE website, facilitated and promoted by the TVE partners;
  • The artists’ profiles will be permanently housed on the TVE website, and their work will be widely promoted throughout Fresh Milk’s and the Centre for Culture in Lublin’s networks in the Caribbean and Eastern Europe;
  • The artists will have the opportunity to grow their own networks and knowledge regarding video arts and filmmaking practices across the Caribbean, Poland and Ukraine, deepening understanding between the regions and opening up greater possibilities of collaboration.

Deadline for submissions: June 30th 2024

Click here for the online form for Caribbean submissions
Click here for the online form for Polish submissions
Click here for the online form for Ukrainian submissions

For more information on TVE and its first four iterations, visit the website transoceanicvisualexchange.com

This edition of TVE is also supported in part by TEOR/éTica, our partner organisation for TVE 4, from whom we received a 2023 Catalyst Grant with the generous support of Arts Collaboratory, and by a grant received from the Mellon Foundation.

About the Partners:

Fresh Milk

Fresh Milk is an artist-led, non-profit organisation founded in 2011 and based in Barbados. It is a platform which supports excellence in the visual arts through residencies and programmes that provide Caribbean artists with opportunities for development, fostering a thriving art community.

Fresh Milk offers professional support to artists from the Caribbean and further afield and seeks to stimulate critical thinking in contemporary visual art. Its goal is to nurture artists, raise regional awareness about contemporary arts and provide Caribbean artists with opportunities for growth, excellence and success.

The Centre for Culture in Lublin

At the Centre for Culture, our “home of imagination” we want to manage human talents wisely and create favourable conditions for artistic work, education and presentation of art and artistic activities. We want to be open to new people, new projects and phenomena. We believe that we will have the courage to take creative risks.

Lublin 2029 – European Capital of Culture Candidate City

The project is part of Lublin’s bid for the European Capital of Culture 2029 title. Re:Union, the bid’s motto refers to the historic concept of the Union of Lublin (1569), a commonwealth treaty signed by the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It is understood as reintegration, reconnection of broken ties, cross-generational, cross-cultural and intersectional dialogue.

 

Open Studios: Tilting Axis Fellowship 2024, Klieon John

On Thursday, May 16th 2024 in a hybrid online and offline meeting, Tilting Axis and the Nieuwe Instituut will discuss the research project of this year’s fellow, Klieon John. Researcher Federica Notari and Tilting Axis co-founder Annalee Davis will discuss his project Nieuwe Bohío, in which he ultimately seeks to translate indigenous Caribbean history, culture and mythology into a cinematic augmented reality experience.

RSVP to the session here

A New Mapp of the Island of St. Christophers being an Actual Survey taken by Andrew Norwood Surveyr. Genll. / A New Map of the Island Guardalupa / A New Mapp of the Island Martineca London. 1698 circa (1750 ca)

Writer, filmmaker and creative director Klieon John from the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis is the fourth participant in the fellowship that Tilting Axis and the institute have been offering to selected candidates from the Caribbean since 2019. The Nieuwe Instituut is once again the main partner and host, collaborating with the Amsterdam Museum, De Appel, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Kunstinstituut Melly.

This presentation focuses on the Nieuwe Bohío project. In this, Klieon John is researching the indigenous Taíno and Kalinago cultures of the Caribbean, which he hopes to translate into an immersive AR experience that will have a transformative effect on the viewer. Based on the results of the research, John aims to develop practical applications that can be used in architectural research and social work. Past and present, European and Indigenous Caribbean culture, traditional and contemporary storytelling, building and play techniques come together in a whole that combines innovative design practice with a respectful way of dealing with (Indigenous) heritage and the communities that inhabit it. Read more in the jury report.

A joint programme

Nieuwe Instituut and the art platform Tilting Axis teamed up for a joint programme in the autumn of 2019, offering a fellowship each year to a candidate – a researcher, designer, curator, artist, writer or other cultural practitioner – from the Caribbean. The Tilting Axis Fellowship is open to candidates living and working in the Caribbean and offers the opportunity to combine research and practice.

 

Fresh Milk makes a donation to the Fine Arts Division of Barbados Community College

The story of Fresh Milk has always had its origins in the Division of Fine Arts at the Barbados Community College, the only institution offering tertiary level education in visual arts in the island.

Allan Lowe (Coordinator, Graphic Design BFA programme), Katherine Kennedy (Fresh Milk representative & part-time tutor, Fine Arts Division), Zann Taylor-Ward (Head of Fine Arts Division), Ewan Atkinson (Coordinator, Studio Art BFA programme) and Terry Edwards (Studio attendant, Fine Arts Division)

FM’s founding director Annalee Davis taught at the college as a part-time tutor from 2005-2018. Seeing the incredible artwork and creative potential of the emerging artists coming out of the programmes, and the desire to support their continued development were catalysts for the birth of the space, and everything we have worked on in an effort to stimulate the local and regional contemporary arts environment is done in the hopes that artists will have the opportunities, support and motivation to keep their practices going.

Thirteen years in, and with FM’s communications & operations manager Katherine Kennedy also now a part-time tutor in the division, it’s Fresh Milk’s honour to be able to make a donation of some much needed equipment to BCC’s visual arts department as our first major contribution after receiving a grant from the Mellon Foundation this year.

Huge gratitude to the tutors and staff that persevere and go above and beyond for Barbados’ emerging artists 🙏🏽✨🙏🏽🫶🏽 we look forward to continuing to support you as best we can over the next three years.

The Fresh Milk Art Platform awarded a $350,000 USD grant by the Mellon Foundation

Barbados-based Fresh Milk, an artist-led initiative founded in 2011, has been successfully awarded a grant for the 2024-2026 time-period by the US-based Mellon Foundation’s Arts and Culture programme in support of operating and programming expenses.

The visual art platform initially worked to counter the then high attrition rate of BFA students at Barbados Community College, the only institution on the island offering a BFA programme. With the aim of supporting excellence in the visual arts,  Fresh Milk has been offering artist residencies, lectures, screenings, workshops, conferences, exhibitions, projects, etc to provide Barbadian and Caribbean artists with opportunities for development while fostering a healthier contemporary visual art community and cultural ecosystem for over a decade.

Founding Director, Annalee Davis is honoured that Fresh Milk’s work has been recognised by Mellon. “After twelve years of working on a shoestring budget alongside my colleague Katherine Kennedy, it is both a relief and an immense privilege to have the endorsement of Mellon which recognises the need to support organisations of this nature. We hope that this vote of confidence by an esteemed international foundation will endear potential partners in the local and regional landscape to feel confident in coming on board as financial investors in support of Fresh Milk’s ongoing programming.”

Katherine Kennedy, Communications and Operations Manager adds, “This generous gift allows us to develop a re-granting programme that will put unrestricted funds directly into the hands of artists over the next three years.”

In addition to this re-granting programme, and in alignment with the Mellon Foundation’s belief that “Art and artists are essential to human connection,” Fresh Milk will continue to contribute to the local contemporary visual art community and the region’s creative network, while seeking new allies, partners and collaborators. Furthermore, the organisation plans to augment its archive, and expand the resources it has amassed over the years, such as the Colleen Lewis Reading Room and an upgraded virtual map of Caribbean art spaces.

Fresh Milk continues to nurture, empower and connect Caribbean artists, raise regional awareness about contemporary arts and provide international opportunities for growth, excellence, and success. Its work in the cultural sector has spanned creative disciplines, generations, and linguistic territories in the Caribbean by functioning as a “cultural lab” – a dynamic space for artists locally, regionally, and internationally.

About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the USA’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.

For more information please contact Katherine Kennedy at freshmilkbarbados@gmail.com

Fresh Milk’s 2023 Highlights

Thank you for your continued support of Fresh Milk!

Fresh Milk is pleased to share our 2023 highlights newsletter, including our work with amazing partners locally, regionally and internationally, while celebrating grants that have us bursting with gratitude and happiness! 

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In Barbados, we collaborated with the Future Centre Trust on our project for the Healing Arts Initiative (a programme by UK-based organisation Culturunners), while regionally we worked on an offshoot of the Caribbean Linked residency programme with Ateliers ‘89 Punto di Beyas Arte Aruba, the BIAC-Réseaux and Campus Caraïbeen des Arts (CCA) in Martinique, and participated in the inaugural FUZE Art Expo in the Bahamas. Internationally, our relationships with Rotterdam- and Amsterdam-based partners have grown deeper through the Tilting Axis Fellowship.

We’re also beyond delighted to celebrate with all of you the most amazing news of Fresh Milk having been successfully awarded a grant for 2024-2026 by the US-based Mellon Foundation’s Arts and Culture programme in support of our operating and programming expenses.

Mellon believes that “Art and artists are essential to human connection,” and we couldn’t agree more. We go into action this year to work on elevating the local contemporary visual art community in exciting ways, continuing to support the region’s creative network, while also looking for new partners to come on board. Stay tuned for more information as we focus on the local and Caribbean contemporary visual art community with some exciting plans for the next three years!

Read the full newsletter here

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If you would like to support the work we do in Caribbean arts, go ahead and click on the donate button below! It’s very easy to support us and the artists we work with by making a donation through this PayPal link. Your contributions make our programmes possible, and gifts of any size are welcome.

Thank you for your continued support, and we’d like to express gratitude to the many artists who we have had the honour of working with across the Caribbean as we continue to find ways of celebrating and nurturing creativity.

We look forward to continuing our creative journey together in 2024, and hope for peace and the cessation of war and conflict the world over.