EPIC - Artist Capability Development

EPIC

Exposure, Participate, Innovate and Create

E.P.I.C. is The Artground’s artist development and international artist exchange programme developed to leverage on its international networks of art-makers. E.P.I.C stands for Exposure, Participate, Innovate and Create, and is targeted at local artists interested in developing their practise in work for young audiences.Locally, Theatre for Young Audiences are still in its infancy stage due to the scarcity in professional practices and companies in this area. But there is a growing interest amongst parents and artists for experiential content for the early years.

The EPIC programme aims to feed this hunger and nurture this desire to develop and design works that are developmentally appropriate. The EPIC programme provides tiered levels of engagement for the artists centred in a geographical location/festival. The programme aims to spark new conceptual practices in order to develop original content that are universal, by meeting The Artground’s EPIC objectives.

EPIC@Melbourne, 2018 EPIC@Edinburgh, 2019

In 2018, The Artground had the privilege of taking 15 Singapore based artists to Melbourne, Australia. TAG had partnered with The Melbourne Fringe Festival to bring artists on a 9 day programme that included private visits artspaces like National Gallery of Victoria, Gandel’s Children museum (Melbourne Museum), ArtPlay; artist networking and roundtable discussions with Australian artists; a 2 day masterclass with dramaturg Sarah Austin; as well as got to watch all the performance and presentations for Arts For Young Audiences as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival.

EPIC@Indonesia (Digital), 2020

In 2019, The Artground took 10 Singapore based artists to Edinburgh, Scotland as delegates of the Edinburgh Children’s Festival. In this 9 day programme, TAG teamed with Imaginate, and the artists got to attend many talks, networking events and wonderful performances for Arts For Young Audiences, as well as a Masterclass conducted by Christine Devaney from Curious Seed, alongside 5 Scottish based A4YA artists.

In 2020, The Artground was a part of Pesta Boneka 2020, in partnership with Papermoon Puppet Theatre where The Artground, together with 6 Singaporean artists, presented two performances digitally.
The initial plan for EPIC 2020 was to get artists from Singapore to do a residency at Papermoon Residency House, Indonesia. However, due to the pandemic, the festival became digital and the collaboration between EPIC artists and Papermoon was virtual. On top of presenting the two performances, the EPIC artists had a chance to be part of a panel discussion where the performance was discussed in depth together with other artists.