Commissions

Calling all artists and groups who are seeking to make work with ‘real world’ connections! Monash University Performing Arts Centres is reaching out to invite commission proposals from artists and groups.

WHO WE ARE

Monash University Performing Arts Centres (MPAC) is a unique creative organisation in Australia.

We are a public-facing performing arts centre comprising five venues located at the Clayton and Peninsula campuses.

We commission and present works by leading practitioners from Australia and around the world. Our audience includes Monash University students, staff and alumni, diverse communities living in Melbourne’s south east, and performing arts lovers from across the country.

We act as a research body within the University, reaching into the extraordinary community of thinkers and experts at Monash and linking them to artists and researchers to create a range of outcomes.

WHAT WE BELIEVE

We are aware that many artists feel the challenges that the planet currently faces.

We at MPAC believe that we can provide opportunities that empower both artists and experts from all fields. By linking them together we can generate new art works, new ways of communicating ideas and new thought paradigms. We will support the new works with our resources, venues, and personnel.

2023 SOUND GALLERY COMMISSION

Among our resources are our remarkable spaces for creating and playing music. The David Li Sound Gallery introduces artists and audiences to new possibilities through the Meyer Sound Constellation System. This extraordinary system works both as an extremely flexible Active Acoustic Enhancement system for presenting live music, and as a 3D spatial mapping environment for recorded music.

We are currently seeking expressions of interest from composers and/or sound designers for a musical work that will take advantage of the technological capacities of the David Li Sound Gallery. Your concept can do this in any way, can emerge from any musical/audio practice, and can be aimed at any audience.

Your work will be developed over the course of 2024 with the objective of being presented in the David Li Sound Gallery in a future MPAC program. We encourage musicians, composers, sound designers and sound engineers of all levels of experience to pitch us an idea for this commission.

Monash University is committed to principles of equity and diversity.

MPAC will provide:

  • Production support, including tech and lighting staff
  • Venue costs
  • Consultation and support to understand the Meyer Sound Constellation system.
  • Access to the venue to rehearse and prepare the work (times to be negotiated within available resources)
  • $15,000 commission fee to develop and present the work

HOW TO APPLY

Please provide the following:

  • 300 word summary of production requirements and concept
  • How will your work use the Meyer Sound Constellation and the David Li Sound Gallery? Please see this link for a more detailed explanation of the system’s capabilities.
  • Example material e.g. draft script, audio samples, images (no more than 2 pages as pdf, can include links)
  • Prior work portfolio. This can include your bio, images, media reviews (no more than 2 pages as pdf, can include links)
  • Budget – how will you use the fee? (saved as pdf)
  • Technical requirements, artist availability and rehearsal requirements (an estimate is OK)

Proposals are due by Sunday 25 June 2023 at 11:59pm.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

A selection committee made up of MPAC and other Monash staff, with external assessors will meet to consider applications.

Terms and Conditions:

  • Works must be original
  • Works must have their world premiere at MPAC and no further presentations can be announced until after the MPAC performances.
  • Artists must be available to develop the work in the venue during 2024
  • Applicants must declare any current and/or ongoing affiliation with Monash University.

PROGRESS LINK COMMISSIONS

MPAC will offer two successful applicants $5,000 plus a 5 – 10 day residency in 2023/24 in one of our spaces to develop a ‘proof of concept’ proposal that incorporates a field of knowledge or research outside the artists’ creative practice, for further commissioning and development within our program.

We may seek to present a work-in-progress showing as part of our program. You may also be asked to take part in a public talk or forum.

We are reaching out to artists who have or want to develop a practice that incorporates other fields of knowledge in a fundamental way.

That could be anything from artists working with digital imagery who want to deepen their knowledge via Monash’s VR and data imaging centre, The Cave; to children’s theatre practitioners wanting to work with early childhood development experts to test the impact of their work on audiences, to composers wanting to explore the ways in which bushfires are changing Australia’s ecology.

MPAC’s links to Monash researchers are still growing but already we have strong connections to researchers at:

HOW TO APPLY

We invite interested artists to submit a proposal via the form linked below. You will be asked to outline your project in broad terms:

  • A summary of your project (200 words)
  • An outline of the area of research that  interests you (300 words).
  • A draft timeline showing how you plan to develop your project over the next two years (300 words)

You will also be able to upload background material on the key artists taking part, their ideas and practice.

Proposals are due by Sunday 25 June 2023 at 11.59pm.

APPLY HERE

Two selected proposals will be funded and developed in consultation with MPAC. Support will include technical and logistical support from our operations team, and links to Monash University researchers with expertise in the required area and the interest to engage.

A selection committee made up of MPAC and other Monash University staff, with external assessors will meet to consider applications.

Applicants must declare any current and/or ongoing affiliation with Monash University.

For more information on either of these commissioning programs please contact Tom Gutteridge: tom.gutteridge@monash.edu

Previous Grant Recipient

Matthias Schack-Arnott – New work

Matthias Schack-Arnott is one of Australia’s most original and creative composers. In his new work he draws on his background as an elite percussionist to create a musical world where percussion instruments – both conventional and invented – trigger other sounds and acoustic effects as they are played. The work was commissioned specifically for the David Li Sound Gallery at Monash University to take advantage of the Meyer Constellation system – the first in Australia – that allows the composer to tailor the acoustic qualities of the room as well as to generate three dimensional sound worlds for the audience to experience. This piece will premiere as part of MPAC’s new Sunday in The Sound Gallery series in 2024.

Find out more about Matthias.

Previous Grant Recipient

Little Blue Dot – Lemony S Puppet Company

Working closely with Monash University’s Astronomy and Astrophysics research team, Lemony S had a two-week creative development in the David Li Sound Gallery. They developed ideas for a puppetry and performance work for 5-12 year olds and their families that tackles some of the world’s greatest questions about existence and our place in the universe along with the philosophical questions we must face as a species in the face of climate change. Little Blue Dot will be an entertaining and enthralling theatrical experience underpinned by accurate science. It is scheduled to premiere as part of MPAC’s Family Fiesta festival for families and children in July 2024.

Find out more about Lemony S.

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