Co-producing
Many arts organisations play an active role in supporting artists’ creations.
Why do arts centres, music ensembles, dance and theatre companies, music theatre producers, visual arts organisations with a production mandate, contemporary art museums, creative festivals… do this? Because supporting creations is one of their goals. Or because it allows them to be the first to exhibit new work. Think especially of work created for temporary exhibitions, festivals, biennials and cultural capitals. Use our database to discover who is active in the arts in Flanders.
How? By making a financial contribution and by providing space or materials. This is arranged in a cooperation agreement. In many cases, the budgets provided by these arts organisations are insufficient to create a new work, so the artist or producer must find additional financial sources themselves.
This can be done through own investments and possibly recovering them later through sales. This can be done by applying for a grant or project subsidy. Finding another organiser who is willing to participate in the production costs of the work and also wants to show the work later can also be a solution. Involving certain organisations as co-producers in a production sometimes excludes other organisations, because they are physically too close to each other or because they want to profile themselves against each other. It therefore requires some preparation to decide which organisations the artist or producer contacts to act as co-producer.
The co-producing entity cannot acquire the work on the basis of a co-production budget. For example, the artist can guarantee the co-producer the premiere and the artist’s name as co-producer in the credits for all subsequent performances. It goes without saying that such co-production arrangements are best formalised in a written agreement. A co-produced work can then be sold by the artist, and the artist can make arrangements about this with the co-producer in a contract. In some cases, those co-producers who feel close to the creation and the artist may also play a role in the further dissemination of that work, although this is not necessarily the case.
