TERRESTRIAL is a new socially engaged arts commissiong and producing organisation.
TERRESTRIAL means both ‘relating to the earth’ and ‘an inhabitant of the earth’, so it embraces both a place and the people who live there.
We believe that the towns, terrain and communities of the West of England (made up of the counties of North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Bath & North East Somerset, and Bristol) can support an arts ecology that is locally thriving, internationally valued, full of surprises, and open to all.
We believe strongly in the power of co-authorship - in the wonderful things that happen when artists and groups of local people work together to explore creative ideas.
From 2018 we will commission and produce a series of bold, socially engaged arts projects spanning music, theatre, dance, circus, visual arts and more. Each work we produce will be co-created by an innovative practitioner or company and a group of local people. Some of these projects will be focused towards an annual festival, which will take place in a different town within the region each year.
We want to provide opportunities for people living in, working in, and visiting the region to create and share extraordinary experiences. We’re particularly keen to collaborate with people outside city centres, with people facing barriers that make it harder for them to access cultural events, and with people who have been led to feel that the arts are ‘not for them’.
We believe that artists are great instigators: they are often brilliant at sniffing out underground stories, asking difficult questions, or getting the party started. We want to invest in artists to create bold, surprising experiences – from intimate encounters to large-scale outdoor adventures – in direct partnership with groups of local people. And we want to support artists to take risks, develop skills and learn from these experiences.
