Liverpool Arab Arts Festival for Arab Artists Worldwide

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF) is inviting Arab artists all over the world to send their artistic proposals for the 2022 version of the festival. The festival will be held in July, 2022 and it will be twenty years since the first Liverpool Arab Arts Festival was held in the city. Whether in Liverpool or online, the festival works with Arab artists who are living and / or working in the UK, in an Arab country or within its communities, or identify as having Arab heritage.  The festival accepts works from artists across a range of artforms, including: music, performance, theatre, literature, spoken word, visual art and more.

Festival Theme:-

• The festival theme explores our languages, how they sit at the heart of our culture, but also how we use it to connect. How we understand each other, how we come together to engage and cross our cultural boundaries. This is how we create a bridge, connecting language and culture. It is how we discover what we have in common and how we communicate. 
• If language is at the foundation of our culture and identity, how we translate to understand each other provides a valuable meeting point.
• By its very nature, translation is not purely rooted in language. It can be how we navigate our mixed identities, how we code-switch, changing how we speak and appear when in different situations.
• In 2022, Liverpool Arab Arts Festival explores the meeting points for language, the intersections are the places the festival wants to explore.

• While the festival can support travel fees, the budget is limited. A large group of artists with international travel would not be appropriate.
• All the commissions are subject to funding. This means that while the festival will support the development of the work and artist time, it cannot fund rehearsals and space hire during its development.

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• The proposal/work must be artist-led. You could partner with another organisation or work within a community, but an artist must be at the centre of this piece.
• The theme is not prescriptive, but the festival would like it to be responded to. As long as you can articulate its influence.
• If submitting a proposal for a new artist commission, this must be a new, original piece of work that you own the rights to.
• The festival has compiled advice for artists to consider the environmental impact of their work and commission. You can read it from here.

Eligible Submissions:-

• New Artist Commissions
• Each year, the festival supports several artists in realising new creative ideas. This new work must be developed beyond the concept stage to feature in the 2022 festival.
• It must be a considered proposal that could feasibly be staged within the festival, either as a physical or digital event. It must be engaging and thought-provoking, relevant to the theme of Translations.
• Existing Work
• Do you have a piece of existing work that you feel would be ideal for LAAF and the festival theme? Could it be re-staged or re-purposed for the festival? Is it touring work?

About LAAF:-

Founded in 1998, Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF) is the UK’s longest running and most successful annual Arab arts and cultural festival, featuring the best UK and international Arab artists. The festival creates a dynamic between traditional and contemporary Arab artforms, encouraging informed debate that explores, and increases, appreciation of Arab people and their rich cultures. Liverpool Arab Arts Festival’s work continues throughout the year, with a wide range of events and participatory projects that bring together artists and diverse communities. From Liverpool to the Arab world, LAAF builds connections that help more people to encounter and experience Arab culture in Liverpool and beyond.

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