Participation, Engagement and Creativity in the Performing Arts

5th, 6th & 7th March 2025, Malta

Venue: Valletta Campus, University of Malta

Call for Proposals (extended deadline: 14th November)

Submit proposals by: 14th November 2024 (extended deadline)

Invited Keynote Speakers: Music - Prof. Dr. Alicia de Bánffy-Hall (University of Applied Sciences, Düsseldorf, Germany), Dance - Dr. ‘Funmi Adewole Elliott (De Montfort University, Leicester, UK), Theatre - Prof. Savas Patsalidis (Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece)

The performing arts serve as a powerful medium for participation and engagement, and play an important role in social and everyday life, despite the challenges facing them. Meanwhile, such values have informed recent cultural policy, such as in the EU Work Plan for Culture 2023-2026 (published 2022) which noted the role of cultural institutions in ‘strengthening integration and community engagement’. And yet, how we understand participation in performance in the present and historically, and what it means for the performing arts to ‘engage’ a diverse demographic in inclusive ways, are pressing and complex issues that are currently being (re)considered and evaluated.

This conference seeks to bring together contributions - theoretical and practical, historical and current, in the performing arts (dance, theatre, music) and in related fields - in an interdisciplinary dialogue broadly themed around participatory practices in the performing arts, spectatorship and audience, and the dynamics of ‘engagement’ with communities, in education and in various civic and social spaces. Additionally, the conference will explore the challenges and opportunities that arise when various sectors of the performing arts meet in collaborative processes. We are particularly interested in discussions on how such broad participation can be further leveraged to deepen audience engagement and to enhance the overall impact of the performance.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

The value and role of participation in the performing arts

The impact of audience/spectator engagement on performance creation

Participation in community engagement projects involving the performing arts

Participation in interdisciplinary performance collaborations

The role of institutions in mediating, shaping, controlling participation

Innovative methods of fostering participation and engagement in the performing arts

Cultural policies of participation and engagement and their political and institutional dynamics

Historical perspectives on participation and performance

Pedagogical issues of participation and engagement in performing arts training and education

Performing arts and participation in virtual and online media

Concepts and modes of participation in world performing arts

Building on the success of previous SPA Annual Conferences that have featured both conventional papers and practical sessions, the 2025 Conference invites a range of presentation formats:

Individual paper presentation (15-20 mins + Q&A)

Pre-organised panel (3 to 4 participants, 90 mins)

Practice-based presentation/ Workshop (30 mins/ 60 mins/ 90 mins)

Short film/ documentary/ screendance

We also welcome and encourage proposals from Masters students and Doctoral candidates.

There is a strong possibility of a publication linked to the conference.

Please submit your presentation proposal to the conference e-mail address by Thursday 14th November 2024 in a single document (preferably in PDF) including the following information:

First name and surname (for each presenter)

Institutional affiliation(s) (if any)

Contact e-mail address (for each presenter)

Title of presentation

Type/format of presentation (one of the above options)