The Flea Resident Company
2024 Open Submissions

We support and invest in experimental art by Black, brown, and queer artists.
We provide space, financial support, producing partnership and other resources so that they may develop and share their vision in community with audiences.

 

The Flea is seeking proposals for its 3-year Resident Company Program. The new cohort will begin Jan 1, 2025. We are looking for companies who produce performing and/or visual art that asks genuine and challenging questions and resists status quo thinking, binaries, and moralizing;  work that invites us into deep consideration while embracing humor or absurdity; odd, strange work that inspires awe and unique ways of seeing and being.

One company will be chosen as the Key Resident Company and two additional companies as  Resident Companies. 

 

The Key Resident Company program is a reparative grant and partnership offered to a nascent company that centers Black, brown and queer artists and leadership. The company will function as an autonomous company and will receive:

  • $10,000 unrestricted cash support each year
  • $36,000 space rental credits each year
  • Printing and office supplies 
  • Some production resources (i.e., costume shop usage, long-term storage, etc.) 
  • Digital Marketing support
  • Quarterly fellowship activities with the cohort of Resident Companies
  • The Key Resident Company commits to presenting a minimum of two (2) productions each year at The Flea
  • The Key Resident Company must fairly compensate all artists, contractors and employees who work with them.

 

The Resident Company program offers two mission-aligned artistic companies the ability to leverage The Flea’s in-house support system—creative, technical, and producing—to further their artistic reach. The company will function as an autonomous company and will receive:

  • Three (3) weeks of free development space in the Pete theater
  • One (1) rent-free fundraising event for the year at The Flea (galas, benefits, funders briefings) 
  • Quarterly fellowship activities with the cohort of Resident Companies
  • Discounted rental rates for production weeks
  • Printing and office supplies as needed.  
  • Some production resources (i.e., costume shop usage, long-term storage, etc.) 
  • Digital Marketing support
  • The Resident Company commits to presenting a minimum of two (2) productions, exhibitions or installations each year at The Flea
  • The Resident Company must fairly compensate all artists, contractors and employees who work with them.

 

Submissions are now closed. Please look here next Fall to apply.

 

Submission components:
  1. Written Statement/ Description that addresses the following:
    • Your Mission
    • How you embody your mission in ways that explicitly support the leadership of and experimental art by Black, brown and queer people
    • Your history of producing and/or presenting art, including notable successes and learnings
    • How you have connected to and built on relationships with audiences and communities
    • Your approach/philosophy to creating and/or supporting new work
    • How would you use this residency to expand your company’s bandwidth, capacity and reach
  2. Demographics
    • Names, titles and demographic(s) of your current Administrative Team and Board membership if you have one
    • Number and demographic(s) of the artists and contract workers you’ve worked with in the last three years
  3. Two samples of previous projects. That can look like:
    • Unedited video of performance or presentation 
    • Photography of an exhibition
    • Press, reviews or company profiles
    • Project or Organizational budget
    • any other kind of document that helps us to know your organization and its impact on artists, audiences and staff. 
Other Criteria:
  1. As our mission suggests, we are seeking experimental art that finds itself somewhere in the intersections of Black, brown, and queer identity and led by artists who identify with those intersections.
  2. We believe in projects that cross/blend/subvert genres and disciplines
  3. We are looking for compelling art that requires virtuosity and that is participatory/active for audiences in some way
  4. This is a residency opportunity; we are looking for companies that are ready to capitalize on a residency at The Flea to bring artists and audiences together in community.

The final companies will be chosen by April 2024. The chosen companies will be invited to start their first year in residence January 1, 2025.

Submissions are now closed. Please look here next Fall to apply.