ADHOCRACY 2020
Supporting the development of new art and performance
Presented by Vitalstatistix
4 – 25 September

28 new works-in-development through micro-residencies across Australia

28 digital artworks publishing across 4 weeks in September – think artistic catalogue meets festival of ideas meets archive of a wild year

4 live mini-Adhocracy events for South Australian audiences – save your Friday nights in September for a trip to Port Adelaide

$110,000 investment in new Australian art

Adhocracy is Vitalstatistix’s national artist hothouse, supporting the creative development of new experimental and multidisciplinary arts projects from around Australia.

We are excited to announce this year’s cohort of artists – plus some other news, as it will come as no surprise that our annual lab is taking a major pivot in 2020 in response to the impact of COVID-19.

The amazing news is that we have selected 28 incredible new works-in-development for support, about three times more than a usual year.

However. We will not be going ahead with the four-day public lab in early September. We know this will be disappointing for many who love participating in Adhocracy each year.

Certainly, we feel that a socially-distanced event would be quite compromised as an experience; seated artist talks and shows are one thing (which we will be returning to very soon – stay tuned for our announcement on July 21) but Adhocracy is quite a different beast as those who attend each year know very well.

We and the selected artists would have needed to spend a large amount of money on uninsurable travel, handing a great wad of cash to Qantas rather than to artists themselves – and that’s even if many of the participating artists could even cross the border into South Australia. It all just didn’t feel in the spirit of our beloved Adhocracy, in its eleventh year.

However, the main factor to our decision was our desire to provide some support to as many artists as we could even as a small, under-funded organisation ourselves.

This year Vitalstatistix received over 100 applications for inclusion in Adhocracy, three times more than usual. They were also of a higher quality and diversity than usual (which is saying something, because they’re always ace). We won’t lie, as exciting for us as this might appear to be, the overwhelming feeling we had was actually shock and concern. It deeply confirmed everything we already knew about the current crises in opportunities, income and jobs for independent artists.

So, by pooling all of our Adhocracy funding from the Australia Council, including the dosh that would usually be spent on delivering and marketing the festival, with some additional Federal benefits and subsidies that we have been eligible to receive as an organisation affected by COVID-19, we have been able to support 28 projects and artistic teams. Rather than what would have been around 10 new works-in-development, or a -10% selection rate, which frankly felt unbearable to us. This decision means our selection rate is on par with a usual year. And it’s an investment of $110,000.

There will still be a public Adhocracy program both online and at Vitals, throughout the month of September.

The selected artists will be undertaking a four-day micro-residency wherever they are located and in whatever fashion works for them, between now and the beginning of September. Each project will create one small outcome for online publication (an image, a text, a short video or sound piece, a radio recording, a recipe, a set of instructions – the possibilities are endless) about their project’s key ideas.

Vitalstatistix will publish seven of these beautiful bite-sized offerings each Friday during the month of September; and we will hold a series of Adhocracy events at Vitalstatistix each Friday evening throughout September for our South Australian audiences.

So, hold those dates – 4, 11, 18 and 25 of September.

HERE ARE THE 28 PROJECTS AND ARTISTIC TEAMS PARTICIPATING IN ADHOCRACY 2020.

More details about the projects alongside the publishing and public event program for Adhocracy 2020 will be announced in August when we launch our new Adhocracy website.