DETAILS:

1. This program is open to Minnesota-based, BIPOC artists or creative collectives who create from / within / across / through multiple mediums, genres and disciplines. This is broad, expansive, and self-defined. This is an opportunity for artists who cultivate live performance as part of their creative practice.

2. This is a modest offering over a period of two years.

3. Over the program period, November 2023-October 2024, two artists or collectives will each be offered: 

   • 50 total hours of process-oriented space at Red Eye Theater (25 hours per year)

   • A total of $4000 (disbursed $2000 per year)

   • 40 hours of administrative support and 20 hours of artistic support from Red Eye’s Co-Artistic Directors, over the two-year period. This may include dramaturgical or “outside eye” support, technical support, consultation on marketing, fundraising, producing, etc. 

4. Goals, outcomes, or intentions will be led by / formed by the participating artists. Red Eye will support an agreed-upon structure that the chosen artists propose for this time.

5. Red Eye will leverage its position as a small nonprofit organization to create partnerships that will gather additional resources for the OMNIVERS artists, such as access to tools and equipment, skill sharing, space partnerships, relationship building, etc. This will be driven by the needs and interests of the OMNIVERS artists and the available resources of Red Eye Theater.

6. This RFP is for the third cohort of two artists or collectives. They will overlap with the second cohort of OMNIVERS artists, Ritika Ganguly and Miré Regulus for one year, and then overlap with the fourth cohort of OMNIVERS artists in their second year with Red Eye.

ABOUT RED EYE THEATER

1. Red Eye Theater is a collective of working artists. These artists share all the work involved in the running of a small not-for-profit organization. Sometimes this is work we do or have done in our other lives, and sometimes it is not. We strive towards a horizontal rather than hierarchical structure, but we also know that the many layers of systemic oppression create unending complexity. We like consensus, but that could also look like agreeing to allow just one of us to make all the decisions around a given project. Most of all, we want our beloved Minnesota arts ecology to THRIVE and we want to be kind, responsive, and thoughtful.

2. Red Eye has, in its history, used the following language to describe the kind of performance work we support: experimental, risk-taking, contemporary, new, pioneering, boundary-breaking, collaborative, interdisciplinary. We have been unpacking the colonial, modernist, exclusionary implications of those words, and have not yet arrived at a term that fits. Perhaps we will never arrive. We understand that, through relationship with Red Eye, the OMNIVERS artist will intersect with this history and conversation. 

3. In fall 2021, Red Eye moved into and began programming in a space that is new to us, located on Dakota land and otherwise known as the Seward neighborhood in South Minneapolis. We are located in Seward ReDesign’s Focus Arts building, along with our neighbors FOCI Minnesota Center for Glass Arts, Threads Dance Nexus, Somali TV of Minnesota, Create Laser Arts, and Aesthetic Apparatus. Our artist space is a ~3000 sq ft flexible and accessible black box theater. We envision this space as a home for contemporary performance in the Twin Cities—a place for artists to exchange ideas, build networks of support, grow and deepen their practices over time, and share work with audiences. Red Eye understands this space as a shared resource and a community good, and intends to steward the space with inclusivity, invitation, and care. We are deeply engaged in learning how to foster this environment and live out these values through practice.

4. Our website is another iteration of us: www.redeyetheater.org.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Formats:

Red Eye invites applicants to share evidence of your artistic work in a format that you feel best reflects the work or yourself/yourselves as an artist or collective, rather than in a format that we design. We will learn about your work via the form you choose to express it. What is the format that will help the reader/viewer/listener understand your work on its own terms? Some application processes indirectly expect vulnerability, past trauma, and oppression to frame parts of an application. We invite you to speak to what would liberate.

Labor and time:

Applications generate too much unpaid labor for artists, so we are offering this parameter to reduce your application-labor. Please spend no more than two hours preparing your application for OMNIVERS, or alternately, spend no more than 20% of the time you would typically spend on an application. We understand that the relationship between work and time differs for everyone, and time is an imperfect metric. We encourage you to value your own time and to use what you already have! Expect for us to take about 15-20 minutes to review your materials. (Exceptions are possible for appropriate materials; please indicate if the format of your work requires additional time and we will be happy to consider.)

APPLICATION COMPONENTS

1. Basic information: Your name, pronouns, email address, mailing address, phone number

2. Sharing your practice: Materials can be in any formats. You may choose the format and components of your application. Here are some examples (though not an exhaustive list) of materials you may choose to submit: 

   • Video links: performance documentation, improvisation practice, video of you talking about your work

   • Written materials: performance text, process writing, project description, artist statement, scores, lists, references and influences, plans, text you submitted for another application

   • Images: photographs, blueprints, mockups, drawings, research material

   • Sound files: documentation, field recordings, recorded conversation

   • Something else: make us a proposal!

     → You may choose to share materials that illuminate your past work, or give a window into your process as it’s developing into the future.

     → Remember that we will spend 15-20 minutes total reviewing your materials. You may provide cue points for video materials; otherwise we will start at the beginning of the video. If you are submitting multiple pieces, you may indicate an order; otherwise we will go through the materials on our own.

3. Context (optional): Is there anything else you would like us to know about you? Share whatever personal and/or professional context you feel is relevant: worldview, priorities, accomplishments, influences, etc. These materials are optional; you can decide to let the work stand on its own.

How to submit:

How to submit: Please email the above components to staff@redeyetheater.org by September 30, 2023. If your application contains materials that require a mailing address, they can be sent to Red Eye Theater, 2213 Snelling Ave Minneapolis, MN 55404 and must be postmarked by September 30, 2023.

If you have questions about the program or the application process, feel free to reach out to staff@redeyetheater.org or to schedule a phone call.

SELECTION / MUTUAL CURIOSITIES

Red Eye has resources to support two artists or collectives this year, and we will identify those individuals or groups with these considerations in mind: 

1. There is relative clarity within the application materials around who the artist or collective is as a maker, as well as the types of making they are interested in, what mediums and disciplines come to the forefront in their work (and why), and there is a trajectory of the artist’s or collective’s practice that includes some open questions. 

2. There is evidence in the application materials that the artist or collective engages in performance as at least one of the ways they express themselves. 

3. OMNIVERS is open to BIPOC artists at all career stages. We encourage those who are LGBTQIA+, have disabilities, and/or have other intersecting marginalized identities to apply. IF YOU ARE APPLYING, WE ASSUME YOU ARE ELIGIBLE AND YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PROVE YOUR IDENTITY IN YOUR APPLICATION.

4. Red Eye is looking for artists who can propose a structure that serves their process. OMNIVERS is a flexible container, and we hope the artists in the program will take an active role in shaping it. We recognize that the capacity to identify directions for the process and create your own containers to hold that process requires significant self-knowledge. We learned through the first round application that this type of self-knowledge often comes through experience, but we recognize it may arise otherwise, and we wish to detach that capacity from a traditional understanding of career stage. 

5. Red Eye wants to work with artists who are interested to work with us. We strive to create a relationship as peers who are currently in a position to support your work.

TIMELINE

• Program announcement: August 21, 2023

• Application deadline: September 30, 2023

• Conversations between applicants, references, and Red Eye: October 15-30, 2023

  • After reviewing applicants’ materials, Red Eye Co-Artistic Directors will contact 5 applicants for further conversation. The interview will be an opportunity to speak to aspects of your work that were not reflected in the initial application materials, ask questions about Red Eye and the program, and talk about potential for collaboration over the project period. 

  • For these 5 applicants, we will request 2 references who know your process well (such as a collaborator, mentor, friend). 

• Applicant notification: October 31, 2023

• Program timeline: November 1, 2023-October 31, 2025

ACCESSIBILITY

Red Eye is committed to cultivating and promoting an organizational culture of equity, accessibility, and inclusion. We will be happy to provide resources to ensure individuals with disabilities are able to be full participants in OMNIVERS. To discuss participation options for an info session or request application materials in an alternate format, please contact staff@redeyetheater.org or 612.870.7531.

CONTACT

Valerie Oliveiro (flexible pronouns), Red Eye Co-Artistic Director, valerie@redeyetheater.org

Emily Gastineau (she/her), Red Eye Co-Artistic Director, emily@redeyetheater.org

Rachel Jendrzejewski (she/her), Red Eye Co-Artistic Director, rachel@redeyetheater.org 

Theo Langason (he/him), Red Eye Co-Artistic Director, theo@redeyetheater.org

Reach all of the Co-Artistic Directors at staff@redeyetheater.org or 612.870.7531.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. OMNIVERS is additionally supported by the Archie D. and Bertha H. Walker Foundation and the Jerome Foundation.