A study of dirty money in the art world, poems on the female body in pain and a contemporary update of Thomas Hardy are among the projects that will be explored by the 2022/23 cohort of the Genesis Jewish Book Week Emerging Writers’ Programme.

After a successful inaugural programme last year, culminating in a full-house event at the 70^th anniversary Jewish Book Week in March, the 10 writers for this year have now been selected. Drawn from across the UK, other projects will include the story of the four young legal graduates who took on the establishment to allow women to become lawyers in the early 20^th Century, a short collection as told by queer British Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent and a novel exploring issues of identity, sisterhood and influencer culture.

The emerging writers will receive mentorship from established authors, bursaries of up to £1,500, peer support and specialist seminars. In the category of non-fiction Caroline Gardiner, Tilly Rubens and Aaron Taylorthe mentors will be Bidisha, Anne Sebbaand Dominic Selwood respectively; in poetry Oakley Flanagan, Rachel Lewis, Amelia Loulli and Natalie Perman will be mentored by Wayne Holloway-Smith, Ruth Padel, Clare Pollard and Jack Underwood; and for fiction Amy Abrahams, Helen Bain and Leeor Ohayon will work with Charlotte Mendelson, Ashley Hickson-Lovence and Philip Hensher.

Non-fiction mentor Bidisha, said of her mentee Caroline Gardiner’s Slow: “A very original study of two things which dovetail together beautifully: first, prejudice, fear and loathing of those who are divergent or differently abled, terror of loss of ability or loss of effectiveness within capitalism; and yet at the same time the concept of slowness may be exactly what saves society and the planet. Slow living, slow thinking, slower development and exploitation of resources. It’s an exceptionally clever idea and I can really see how Caroline could develop both her argument and her ideas and experiences into an idiosyncratic, powerful and extremely original work.”

John Studzinski CBE, Founder and Chairman of the Genesis Foundation, said:“The Genesis Foundation is pleased to partner with Jewish Book Week for a second year on the Genesis Emerging Writers programme. The topics tackled by this new cohort of emerging writers are promising in their relevance, diversity and complexity. The mentor/mentee relationship is vital to an artist’s development and Jewish Book Week have selected outstanding mentors to guide this new group of writers in their work. This project goes to the heart of what we have been doing for 20 years: supporting and nurturing creative and emerging talent.”

The programme will run over the next 10 months including a panel discussion at Jewish Book Week 2023 at Kings Place next March.

Find out more about the Writers’ Programme

The Genesis Foundation is pleased to announce that David Lan has joined its Board of Trustees, effective 30 June 2022, a move which takes a long-established partnership into a new phase.

As writer, producer and director, David Lan has won acclaim from critics and audiences in the UK and around the world. Throughout his career, he has made a priority of nurturing the careers of younger theatre-makers.

During his tenure as Artistic Director of the Young Vic (2000 to 2018), he spearheaded the redevelopment of the theatre and produced a stream of pioneering shows; many of these transferred to the West End and New York and won major awards. He recently acted as producer of The Walk, the ambitious travelling festival which in 2021 followed the journey of the 3.5 metre puppet Little Amal, a symbol of the world’s young refugees, from the Turkish city of Gazantiep to Manchester.

The association between David Lan and John Studzinski, Founder and Chairman of the Genesis Foundation, dates back more than 20 years, to Lan’s early days at the Young Vic. Together they established the theatre’s Directors Program, its Genesis Fellowship and the Genesis Future Directors Award, all with the aim of enabling the Young Vic to champion the training of emerging theatre directors. The Genesis Network, which now connects over 2,000 theatre-makers countrywide, became the first organisation to bring artists together on this scale for training, professional exchange and mutual support.

David Lan said:

“I’ve known the Genesis Foundation since I was writer-in-residence at the Royal Court in the mid-1990s.  The Court’s International Writers Program, enabled and supported by John, was an early example of his willingness to take big risks on big ideas – large-scale, highly imaginative ways of offering support to young artists.  Many of those who were part of the various directors’ projects we dreamed up with John and Genesis at the Young Vic over almost twenty years are now running their own theatres all over the country.  I was touched to be asked and am very happy to join the Genesis board in the hope and expectation that many new ideas will emerge through which young people can be supported to find their unique way to flourish as artists in our ever changing world.”

John Studzinski, Founder and Chairman of the Genesis Foundation, said:

“The Genesis Foundation believes in backing visionary artistic leaders who mentor and nurture talent, and over the years we couldn’t have asked for a more inspiring partner than David. In his work at the Young Vic and beyond, David has created a culture that allows artists to face challenges, to fly, and even to fail, while always giving them experience that has enriched and emboldened them. Such passion and vision is rare, and I am honoured to welcome David as a Trustee of the Genesis Foundation. This is a new phase in our relationship; David will bring an astonishing wealth of experience, skill and generosity of spirit to the Genesis Foundation’s mission.”

Chiizii, Digital Research Residency (Yinka Shonibare Foundation & Guest Projects Digital), Revoiced (Corvus Consort), MATCH/PLAY (tiata fahodzi)

Theatre

Creative Exchange | The Mono Box  

Creative Exchange, a 2-day festival celebrating cross-disciplinary artistry on stage and screen, will take place on 25 & 26 July at The Kiln Theatre.  

Hosted by The Mono Box, emerging artists will have the opportunity to attend workshops, panel talks and screenings, as well as network with theatre practitioners and film-makers. The festival aims to kickstart a new way of creating within the industry.  

View the programme 

MATCH/PLAY | tiata fahodzi 

tiata fahodzi has announced its 25th anniversary season, featuring its Genesis Kickstart Fund project tf MATCH/PLAY, a series of commissions where three pairs of artists based in Watford and the South East will work in their local area to produce a 15-minute piece that pushes the boundaries of what theatre is. 

tiata fahodzi is a touring theatre company, centring the work of British African heritage artists. 

Read more in The Stage 

Music

Blue Sky Counterpoint | The Cumnock Tryst 

Blue Sky Counterpoint, a collaborative project at Hillside School in Cumnock, Scotland, has now completed its preparatory phase. The project is run by The Cumnock Tryst, founded by composer and conductor Sir James MacMillan, and is designed for pupils with complex additional support needs.

The young people have been participating in workshops and last week, they were joined by eight singers from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

On 30 September, Blue Sky Counterpoint culminates with a performance by the Hillside pupils, Sir James MacMillan, composer Matilda Brown, and singers from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Book tickets 

Revoiced | Corvus Consort 

Corvus Consort’s debut album Revoiced will be released on 1 July 2022.  

The disc explores the blend of saxophones and voices, bringing new colours to music from the Baroque and Renaissance. The group has released Das Wort ward Fleisch (Heinrich Schütz), the first video from the Revoiced sessions recording, which was made in collaboration with the acclaimed Ferio Saxophone Quartet. 

Pre-order the album 

Treephonia:Live | Treephonia 

Treephonia hosted its first pop-up concert at Southall Park in Ealing, as part of Treephonia: Live, one of two strands of its Genesis Kickstart Fund project, which uses a series of concerts and educational workshops to encourage people to engage with natural spaces.  

Taking place at Ealing Tree Festival, the first Treephonia:Live performance gave audiences an experience of classical, contemporary and new music in a natural outdoor space.

Stay tuned for Treephonia:Live events 

Visual Arts 

Digital Research Residency | Yinka Shonibare Foundation & Guest Projects Digital

Chiizii, an interdisciplinary artist, designer and researcher, has been announced as the recipient of the Yinka Shonibare Foundation and Guest Projects Digital’s Digital Research Residency. 

The three-month initiative was created with an aim to provide an emerging, UK-based African and/or Caribbean diaspora curator or artist, with the opportunity to lead a collaborative research project investigating the intersection of art and design, ecology and food, or migration and identity. 

Born in London and raised in New York and Igbo, Chiizii’s work centres on the specificities of Igbo, Nigerian and African experiences and histories. 

Read more about the Residency 

View all our Genesis Kickstart Fund projects

Nancy Medina, 2017 recipient of the Genesis Future Directors Award, has been named the new Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic. She will take over from Tom Morris in Spring 2023. 

Originally from New York, Nancy has lived in Bristol for 14 years, and is the current Co-Artistic Director of Bristol School of Acting. In relation to her new position at Bristol Old Vic, she said “I feel a great sense of awe and excitement to be embarking on a journey that will contribute to the great legacy of leading England’s oldest working theatre”. 

Nancy directed Yellowman (2017) at Genesis Foundation partner the Young Vic, as part of her Genesis Future Directors Award. She then went on to direct Trouble in Mind (2021) at Genesis Foundation partner the National Theatre, and Strange Fruit (2029) at the Bush Theatre. Next month, she will direct The Darkest Part of the Night by Zodwa Nyoni at the Kiln Theatre, which runs from 14 July to 13 August 2022. 

The Genesis Future Directors Award was established in 2012. It was created to support and nurture emerging directors by providing them with an opportunity to explore and develop their craft, as they create their first fully-resourced stage production. 

Bristol Old Vic is also where Genesis Foundation Prize winner George Turvey will be developing a large-scale new play with playwright Samuel Bailey. Listen to the two artists discuss this project on our podcast. 

Find out more about Nancy’s appointment 

Read more about the Genesis Future Directors Award 

On Saturday 2 July, Genesis Foundation partner The Sixteen will premiere three new Genesis Foundation commissions, joined by amateur singers from across the UK in their concert, Writing for Voices, at St Stephen Walbrook in London. 

 The performance will be the culmination of a day of workshops and rehearsals with Genesis Sixteen Conducting Scholar, Olivia Tait, and conductor and founder of The Sixteen, Harry Christophers. In addition to the new pieces, The Sixteen will perform a selection of complementary renaissance and contemporary repertoire in an hour-long programme. 

The three new pieces, written by Anna Semple, Eoghan Desmond, and Lisa Robertson, are featured on The Sixteen’s new choral album A Meditation alongside Genesis Foundation commissions by Sir James Macmillan and Will Todd, which received their world premiere in June 2021 as part of the live-streamed concert Newman: Meditation and Prayer. 

The Genesis Foundation has commissioned more than 30 pieces of sacred choral music in its 20 year history. The new pieces in Writing for Voices were commissioned to cement the Foundation’s commitment to providing new choral works for future generations, and in celebration of the writings and philosophies of St John Henry Newman. They were designed to be performed by professional and amateur choirs alike. 

Later in the month, singers from The Sixteen and Genesis Foundation’s training and mentoring initiative Genesis Sixteen will perform at The Sixteen’s Sounds Sublime festival, alongside other groups including Exodus Ensemble and Corvus Consort. The day-long event will take place on 23 July and will feature a number of performances and workshops on the theme of connections.  

Sounds Sublime will also be celebrating choral music on The Sixteen’s social platforms on 24 July, where audiences around the world will be able to watch specially curated performances from Genesis Sixteen, as well as Exodus Ensemble, Corvus Consort, Cantus Firmus, Capella Caecilliana, and Queenes Chappell. 

Purchase The Sixteen’s ‘A Meditation ’ album  

View all the Genesis Foundation’s commissions 

Images: Jungle Book reimagined cr. Ambra Vernuccio (Akram Khan Company), Brookland School (JAM), The Forsythe Evening cr. Laurent Liotardo (English National Ballet)

Dance

The Forsythe Evening | English National Ballet

English National Ballet presents The Forsythe Evening at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. The show honours master choreographer William Forsythe, in a special programme celebrating his enduring love and curiosity for ballet. The Genesis Kickstart Fund supported vital behind-the-scenes work,commissioning 10 freelancers to create over 75 costumes for the performances. The production runs until this Sunday (10th).

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “A dazzling joyride” – The Times

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Left a packed house on its feet, tipsy with delight” – Financial Times

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “All the dances are performed with precision, speed and an incredible amount of energy” – Jewish Chronicle

⭐⭐⭐⭐ “You won’t get a more feel-good night at the ballet than this” – Guardian

Purchase tickets

Jungle Book Reimagined | Akram Khan Company

Akram Khan Company’s Jungle Book Reimagined closes tomorrow at the Curve Theatre, Leicester.

Jungle Book Reimagined is a brand new dance-theatre production based on the original story of Rudyard Kipling‘s much-loved family classic. Akram and his team reinvent the journey of Mowgli through the eyes of a climate refugee.

The Genesis Kickstart Fund supported the production’s research and development.

Find out more

Theatre

LAMDA Mish Mash Festival | LAMDA & Emily Carewe

The LAMDA Mish Mash Festival, a 3-day theatre festival celebrating the self-created work of LAMDA Alumni and their contemporaries, opens on 29 April until 1 May. Founder and director Emily Carewe has created the festival in partnership with LAMDA and supported by assistant producers, and fellow LAMDA Alumni, Leanne Henlon and Selina Jones.

The programme features 26 brand new commissions, ranging from 10-40-minutes in length, in addition to 4 industry-led workshops and 3 panel discussions. It focuses on the empowerment of artists at every level.

View the programme

Photography

The Trace Mentorship | TRACE

TRACE has launched the inaugural TRACE Mentorship today, a year-long mentoring programme of workshops, masterclasses and industry networking opportunities for 24 female photographers over 35, led by Sian Bonnell, Sebah Chaudhury and Haley Morris-Cafiero. The programme will run from June 2022 – June 2023.

Learn more about TRACE

Music

JAM Education Resource | John Armitage Memorial Trust (JAM)

JAM’s Virtual Education Resource, a free teaching aid that helps young children to sing and enables enthusiastic amateurs to play instruments to a high level, has been in development.

The multi-arts organisation has been running after-school singing workshops to test the resource. These workshops, led by singing coach Rebecca Lodge, have been taking place at two Romney Marsh primary schools.

The project will culminate with a performance during JAM on the Marsh in July 2022, alongside the London Mozart Players, professional singers and conducted by Michael Bawtree.

Keep up to date

Horizon Project | DEBUT

DEBUT has announced its Horizon Artists. The group of emerging singers and instrumentalists will participate in a fully funded development programme, which includes filmed performances & artist spotlight interviews at Shoreditch Treehouse, a masterclass with Grammy-award winning pianist & festival director Christopher Glynn, 1-1 musical coaching, interview training and marketing consultations.

Read more about the programme

Total of 95 projects supporting more than 1,000 freelance creatives in the UK

In the final phase of its rollout, the Genesis Foundation has awarded a further £360,000 in grants through its Genesis Kickstart Fund to 36 arts projects run by creative freelancers throughout the UK. Since it started its distributions last year, a total of 95 future-facing projects have benefitted from the £1million fund, which was established during the pandemic to enable outstanding freelance talent to thrive in paid work. The first phase of grants, announced in 2021 and totalling £640,000, marked the Genesis Foundation’s 20^th anniversary.

The projects, running across the UK and involving more than 1,000 freelance creative professionals, embrace the visual, performing, digital and screen arts. They were nominated and selected by an advisory council of artists and cultural leaders including Barbara Broccoli, Farooq Chaudhry, Rupert Goold, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Kathryn McDowell and Rufus Norris. While representing a diversity of genres, subject matter, social causes and objectives, the projects are all marked out by their focus on quality. Their themes include climate change, inclusivity, migration, mental health, queer activism and ableism.

John Studzinski, Founder & Chairman of the Genesis Foundation, said:

“The Genesis Kickstart Fund grew out of our response to the pandemic, but we have always been looking to the longer term. Beyond enabling paid work on worthwhile, innovative projects, the grants are about nurturing resourcefulness and resilience – and developing ideas and momentum in a dramatically changed environment. 

“As we finally emerge from two years of Covid-19, our lives are now being shaken by a war. The creative community faces the prospect of a new and precarious world order and punishing economic pressures.  The Kickstart Fund clearly continues to have an important job to do. It has already mitigated society’s risk of losing outstanding creative talent through lack of opportunity, and it will continue to encourage some of today’s most inspiring artists to create the cultural memory of tomorrow.”

In addition to the £10,000 grant (£20,000 for the freelancers in projects led by Genesis partners) the freelancers involved will gain access to Genesis Connect, a network to enable artists and producers to meet, foster new collaborations and benefit from mentoring opportunities. The grants awarded apply to projects running for a maximum of two years and must be completed by March 2023. On completion, the impact of all projects will be assessed according to the following criteria: quality, innovation, value for money and benefit to society.

Rupert Goold, Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre, says:

“It’s been a privilege to be on the advisory council for the Genesis Kickstarter Fund and inspiring to be part of the process. It’s an amazing range of recipients being supported from across the cultural landscape and crucially these projects will provide opportunities for hundreds of freelancers. Enormous credit must go to John Studzinski for his commitment to supporting artists as the sector continues to get back up and running.”

Anna Coombs, Artistic Director of Tangle, says:

“Winning a Genesis Kickstart Fund grant will afford Tangle, an award-winning touring theatre company championing African and Caribbean artistic excellence, a vital platform to expand and develop AMPLIFY over a two-year period. This important project, which addresses a chronic and historic lack of opportunity for Global Majority theatre makers to progress careers in offstage roles, will engage more than 30 freelance professionals and multiple national partners to pioneer genuine change in our sector.”

The 36 projects receiving grants in the final phase of awards are:

View all the Genesis Kickstart Fund projects

Find out more about the Fund

Images: Tangle Theatre, Amma (Tara Theatre), Isadora Now {Viviana Durante Company)

Visual Arts

Hussina Raja | Station

Visual-artist & performer Hussina Raja collaborates with award-winning poet Zia Ahmed and, renowned musician Sarathy Korwar on Station, an interactive live-performance installation that is set in a traditional South-Asian living room, combining film, music and performances and celebrating diasporic histories, heritage and culture.

The installation is the first phase of a larger project that will archive the oral histories of diasporic communities, documenting their journeys, their authentic voices and rich cultural contributions to British society and establishing the UK as one of the most diverse countries in the world.

The installations runs from 17 – 31 March at Brixton House. Purchase tickets for Station

Music

Oliver Zeffman | Ives: The Unanswered Question

Ives: The Unanswered Question is a film, in which Oliver Zeffman, Simon Höfele, the strings of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the winds of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, perform this piece by Charles Ives.

Watch the film

Theatre/Spoken Word

Stupefaction | August 012

August 012 makes ambitious contemporary theatre in Wales and beyond the border, working with professionals and non-professionals together to create bold productions for today’s audiences.

Stupefaction is a direct response to 2020’s winter lockdown and a continuation of August 012’s exploration of online theatre-making. It investigates washing, cleaning, parenting and our relationship to stupefaction through the prism of Emile Zola’s seminal novel l’Assommoir.

The Genesis Kickstart Fund supported the R&D for this project, in which August 012 sought to find a format, online aesthetic and sonic language to best convey the lockdown period through Zola’s lens.

Watch the 3 videos that August 012 and its collaborators created based on the R&D:

The Drink

The Dirt of Others

Tremors

AMPLIFY mentoring scheme | Tangle 

AMPLIFY is an innovative talent development programme providing paid mentoring and workplace training opportunities for backstage and technical freelancers at any career stage. The programme, produced by award-winning theatre company Tangle, addresses the historic lack of opportunity for African Diaspora and global majority theatre professionals, to progress careers in off-stage roles, nurture new leadership, and promote better sector representation.

In addition to mentoring sessions, a career step-change programme, and paid work-based placements, the scheme also gives all mentors and mentees the opportunity to join its Community & Alumni Network, allowing them to meet industry peers.

Tangle accepts applications for AMPLIFY on a rolling basis. Read more about the scheme

In Tangle’s latest AMPLIFY community meeting, alumnus Shivaike Shah discussed how the scheme opened doors for his career and continues to offer ongoing support as he embarks on new projects. Watch video.

Amma | Tara Theatre 
Founded over 40 years ago, Tara Theatre is the UK’s longest established Asian, Black or ethnically diverse led theatre company. We have supported the emergence of generations of South Asian artists and companies.

This Spring Tara Theatre will present AMMA, a VR performance which puts the Bangladeshi women’s experience in centre stage. The extensively researched and thought-provoking production allows audiences to experience first-hand what it was like to experience the war and in turn, leave for the UK in the 1970s and 80s to build a new life in a new place.

Fateha Begum and Nasima Begum have been leading workshops with local Bangladeshi women groups in Birmingham and Manchester. The two artists have been collecting stories about the women’s experiences of the Bangladeshi War of Independence. These stories and memories will form the foundation of AMMA’s script.

Learn more about AMMA

For Such a Time as this R&D | Young Identity

Young Identity is a network of creative freelancers, redefining the parameters of poetry and performance with young people.

It hosted a screening of three new short poetry films by Young Identity poets (finalists of BBC Words First 2020) to a sold-out audience. The Genesis Kickstart Fund supported the films’ development.

Find out more about Young Identity

Dance

Isadora Now | Viviana Durante Company 

In its triple bill Isadora Now, Viviana Durante Company took up the challenge of capturing the impact of dance innovator Isadora Duncan for a new generation. Beginning with a striking reconstruction of Isadora’s own choreography, Dance of the Furies, followed by Frederick Ashton’s magical channeling of Isadora’s spirit in Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan, the show climaxes in a stunning new group work by Joy Alpuerto Ritter that blends the triumphs and tragedies of Isadora’s insistence on a woman’s right to express herself physically on her own terms with her legacy for future generations of female dancers, ending in an explosively affirmative climax.

Isadora Now premiered at the Barbican Theatre in February 2020, delivered by an all-female company of dancers and musicians, choreographer, composer and lighting and costume designers. Viviana Durante Company used its Genesis Kickstart Fund grant to reunite the team and remount and rework the show ready for touring. This led to an appearance at the Bolshoi Theatre’s DanceInversion Festival in Moscow this October, and future dates in the UK and abroad will shortly be announced.

Look out for updates on Isadora Now

George Turvey has been awarded the 2022 Genesis Foundation Prize. The Genesis Foundation Prize, formerly the Genesis Prize, recognises an outstanding mentor of young artistic talent whose work has effected real change in the practice and careers of arts professionals or graduates.

Through the Papatango Theatre Company, George Turvey will use his £25,000 prize to pilot a new scheme called the Playwright-Player Commission. Offering an innovative model for championing rising talent, it will create a pipeline of ambitious new work for major stages. The inaugural Playwright-Player Commission, to be hosted at Bristol Old Vic, will connect a hugely promising early-stage playwright, Samuel Bailey – winner of The Times Breakthrough Award at the Sky Arts South Bank Awards for his play Shook – with Olivier Award-winning director Sally Cookson, and a yet-to-be-confirmed actor. They will collaborate on a brief to create an ambitious, large-scale new play for Bristol Old Vic’s celebrated main stage.

Described by the Evening Standard as a “remarkable unearther of new talent”, George established the Papatango New Writing Prize in 2009. It has provided a launchpad for an impressive roster of artists who would not otherwise have found a pathway into theatre, attracting more annual entries than any other playwriting award in the UK and discovering future winners of BAFTAs, Royal National Theatre Foundation, Critics’ Circle, Alfred Fagon and OffWestEnd awards.

Recently named by The Stage as one of the 25 theatremakers to watch out for in 2022, George made a striking impact with his resilient and ambitious response to the Covid-19 crisis: within 12 hours of lockdown theatre closures in March 2020, he had launched Isolated But Open: Voices From Across The Shutdown. A programme designed to generate paid work and foster creativity, it inspired 2,004 plays and Papatango went on to produce/publish 12 of them in free recordings/playtexts. These have so far been watched free of charge by over 14,000 people and were recently enshrined in the British Library as a major cultural achievement.

Commenting on his award, George Turvey said:

“I am truly incredibly honoured to receive the 2022 Genesis Foundation Prize in recognition of my work mentoring playwrights. For 14 years, we at Papatango have had the privilege of supporting and launching some immensely talented writers and, through the Playwright-Player Commission, this Prize will allow us to push further than ever in our quest to get the brightest new talent onto the UK’s biggest stages.  

John Studzinski, Founder & Chairman of the Genesis Foundation, said:

“George provides an object lesson in nurturing talent in a dynamic and sometimes volatile environment. Since 2009 he has been opening up career-changing opportunities for a diversity of writers, and his response to the pandemic has been nothing less than exemplary in its agility and resourcefulness. In a changed world, arts leaders of all kinds can learn from his approach and his achievements for the creative community and for audiences.”

Listen to George Turvey and Samuel Bailey discuss the inaugural Playwright-Player Commission on our podcast

Find out more about Papatango Theatre Company