Stobbs supports the Cambridge Junction to develop its commissioning programme with an initiative to enable new ideas and creative work to be developed, made and shared with new audiences.
Cambridge Junction is the welcoming home of original arts, entertainment, and creativity. Sharing the power of live performance since 1990.
- 25 commissions to artists and performance companies since 2017.
- £70k funding has enabled the creation of new contemporary theatre, performance and live art.
These works have not only been shared with audiences in Cambridge, but also with audiences nationally, internationally and online.
As with all our arts and artist development activity we strive to foreground the work of Global Majority, LGBTQIA+ and Disabled artists. The programme has always supported artists at different stages in their career development, with Troop New ideas commissions for those nearer the start of their career alongside larger commissions for more established artists.
Starting with an initial donation of £10,000 in 2017, together these commission have built an impressive catalogue of creative work. Importantly this support has enabled artists to extend their practice and to develop their reach as they make original and creatively disruptive new work.
The commissions can be used as match funding for further applications and leveraging additional investment in these artists and their practice, enabling them to tour projects nationally and international, gain greater recognition for their work, and sustain careers. Commissions also provide a valuable opportunity to take more time to nurture a new idea, and let concepts flourish over longer timeframes.
Specifically, the Stobbs New Ideas Fund offers artists and/or companies the opportunity to develop and present work at Cambridge Junction. The focus for the Stobbs New Ideas Fund is to support contemporary theatre, performance, live art and participatory, community and socially engaged work.
In addition to commissioning fees, artists and companies benefit from residency time and technical time and space in J3 at Cambridge Junction and producing and dramaturgical advice and guidance from Cambridge Junction’s programming and artist development team. Commissions lead to opportunities to present new work as work-in-progress, previews, or full presentations as part of our Arts Season or in festival contexts such as DISRUPT.