Artist Support

Art In Isolation

During the pandemic, we worked non-stop to gather funds from a range of sources, and then direct them straight to Artists, paired with free space, to provide paid residencies to artists across art forms. Our Art In Isolation residencies began in September 2021 and continued throughout the month.

Our Donors Circle and The Inner West Council contributed to funding the residencies, and 5 Eliza and The Old 505 contributed to housing artists.

If you would like to contribute funds or space to the programme please contact artists@sydneyfringe.com to open a conversation.

Made In Sydney Program

Our long-planned Made In Sydney program had it’s first year in 2020 – somewhat adapted for the lockdown climate! Through this program, we fostered and invested in leading Sydney-made independent work, provided artists and ensembles with the opportunity to dive deep into the practice, present it in their home environment and then take it to the world.

In 2020 we supported five Sydney companies & creators to make new work or adapt a previous work – either for film, or for a hybrid screen & in-person presentation. In 2022, we supported three local Sydney woman present three unique and innovative monologues, all pivoting around their experience as a woman in the world, whether that was through sex toys, music or clowning.

The works are featured within the Global Fringe program, and some will be presented in a digital tour to Stockholm Fringe, Brighton Fringe, Melbourne Fringe and more to be confirmed.

Expressions of interest for the 2023 Made In Sydney program will open in early April.

First Nations Program Consultation

We have continued our community consultation towards our inaugural First Nations program to take place in 2022. Over the coming months, First Nations leaders and community will be leading the planning, and we’ll be facilitating the rollout, of a dedicated program by and for First Nations artists and audiences.

Rocks Residencies

Similar to our Art In Isolation residencies, Our Rocks Residencies in partnership with Place Making New South Wales (PMNSW) provided month-long space-only residencies to artists across all artforms to explore their practice and exhibit their work in a covid-safe way.

The residencies were hosted in the beautiful heritage buildings of the Rocks precinct – a harbourside ‘working stay-cation’, providing beautiful inspiring space for artists.

Best Practice in A COVID-Present World

The Sydney Fringe have been working with artists and venues to develop new modes of best practice that work for our COVID times. We’ve developed recommendations to help practicing independent artists get back to work safely, working with venues to provide COVID-safe spaces, in turn providing performance opportunities for artists and ensembles, and we’ve been pioneering combined digital and in-person events, to provide artists with greater reach and new income generation opportunities.

In May 2021 we convened a working group of Sydney’s leading independent theatres to create industry best practice reopening strategies and plans. We worked closely with Old 505 Theatre to create a safe working environment for our Global Fringe program and we were thrilled to be able to present some of the very first theatre performances in Sydney since March.

This work continues, and we will be sharing some of our learnings publicly in our annual reports.

Podcast

On The Fringe,was a podcast from The Sydney Fringe and supported by the City of Sydney and Aeono Content Studios, is giving a broad range of Sydney artists paid digital performance opportunities, and paid opportunities to discuss work and practice. In doing show we’re sharing a few of the inner workings of our industry with our audience, and creating a cross-pollination of ideas between artists. Listen here or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Ongoing Advocacy

We’re in regular contact with the government, the corporate sector and a huge range of other partners and stakeholders, and we continue to advocate for you in those rooms. Recently, our CEO Kerri Glasscock contributed toward the creation of the National Arts and Cultural Policy, which advocates for a place for every story, and a story for every place.