The Festival Academy calls for application for the 14th edition of the Atelier for Young Festival Managers, taking place in Gothenburg, Sweden, 23 - 29 August 2018, hosted by and co-organised with Kultur i Väst, the cultural administration of the region Västra Götaland.  Some ten renowned festival directors will guide up to 40 participants through the 7-day training programme. Young festival managers from all over the world are invited to apply before 15 April 2018.

The Atelier for Young Festival Managers is an intense 7-day training programme addressed at emerging artistic festival directors or those who have ambitions to get involved in programming or in related departments within a festival. It is about sharing experiences and passing on knowledge to the next generation of festival makers: knowledge about programming a festival, while focusing on the very essence of art festivals – the arts and the artist.

“The true role of a festival is to help artists to dare, to engage in new projects,” is the motto of the Atelier, coined by Bernard Faivre d’Arcier, longstanding Director of the Avignon Festival, President of the Lyon Biennial (France).

Explore festival issues in different formats

Up to 40 young festival managers from all over the world will be selected to participate in the Atelier. Around 10 distinguished festival directors, will each attend for at least two full days and work together with participants throughout the 7 days. In lectures, one-on-one talks, group discussions as well as intense workshops on case studies, issues such as artistic vision, public responsibility, creation and coproduction, internationalisation, networking, renewal and sustainability will be explored. Have a look at the list of presenters of the previous Ateliers.

“Gazing from the airplane window on my way back “home” I caught myself thinking the Atelier, for me, was like the first time I took a plane. Full of expectations – you prepare, buckle-up, accelerate, take off, penetrate the hazy clouds and gain clear vision of the immensity of the sky. Feel it, experience it and learn from it.” said Martin Kadinov, participant of the Atelier Beirut 2015 

Join a unique new network

All participants of the training programmes of The Festival Academy will become part of a unique global network of young festival makers and production managers that counts 528 alumni from 70 countries to date, after 13 Ateliers for Young Festival Managers since 2006 in Görlitz, Varna, Singapore, Izmir, Ljubljana, Edinburgh, Poznan, Beirut, Gwangju, Budapest, Chiang Mai, Merano and Johannesburg, one Atelier for Young Festival and Cultural Managers in Shanghai, 2017, and three editions of the Festival Production Management Training (2016, 2017, 2018).

Programme details

• Dates and place: 23-29 August 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden
• Application deadline: 15 April 2018
• Procedure: Submit the application form. For selection criteria, application procedure, fee, etc. check the Atelier Gothenburg 2018 website.