BLVR&D

BLVR&D: a laboratory for heads, hearts and hopes

For ten festival days the upstairs space at Theater aan de Parade is where we pair mental power with muscle power. All kinds of people and organisations get together to tackle big issues. A laboratory where heads, hearts and hopes come together.

BLVR&D has flexible work stations and drawing boards, clotheslines with design sketches, scale models in-the-making. Fingers tapping on keyboards and the smells of printing ink and coffee. The idea behind BLVR&D: living together is increasingly fraught with questions. Boulevard is not afraid of them. On the contrary: BLVR&D is open to questions from the city, professionals in the arts, and the festival itself. The [start of an] answer may well arise in Research & Development.

International guests
All kinds of people have been invited to ponder the BLVR&D questions: artists, visitors, citizens of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, professionals and international guests. The latter category includes participants in CAMP, Danse Mutante, Highlights from the Lowlands and Dance & Dare. The set-up varies: drawing boards, collective work sessions and learning-by-doing. The results of BLVR&D will be shared during the festival through festivalboulevard.nl and social media.

Welcome!
Festival visitors are welcome to enter BLVR&D and view the results of previous sessions. From Friday 2 to Sunday 11 August, BLVR&D is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

We also invite people to sign up - many heads and hearts make light work - and share knowledge and expertise. This is possible for the following work sessions (most of them are in Dutch):

Public space, for everyone?
Theme: Design an inclusive Festivalplein together.
Fri 2 Aug, 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Theater of the New Generation
Theme: What is needed to make theater in general and Boulevard in particular interesting for young people. People design a part of the festival program of Boulevard 2020.
Tue 6 Aug, 4.30 pm - 6.30 pm

75 years x 15 August - View of the former Dutch East Indies and Indonesia during Boulevard 2020?
Theme: on the occasion of the 75-year commemoration and celebration of the end of WWII in the former Dutch East Indies, those involved and those interested are designing the pillars of the program on Boulevard 2020.
Sat 10 Aug, 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

I see, I see what you do not see
Theme: training in orientation. The distinction between yourself and "the other" and the role that performance visits can play in this
Sun 11 Aug, 1 p.m. - 3.30 p.m.

The Big Butts Consultation
Theme: A smoking policy for Boulevard
Sat 3 Aug, 8 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Do you want to be present at one or more sessions? Mail to eline@festivalboulevard.nl and sign up.
Please have a look here for detailed descriptions of the work sessions in Dutch.

Special programme for performing arts professionals: CAMP.
CAMP is a 2-year participatory experiment on coproducing knowledge that questions the sustainability in the development, production and presenting of performing arts. After a successful first and second edition in Montreal and Gothenburg, the founders come together at Festival Boulevard this summer for the third edition of CAMP.

For this edition of CAMP, which focuses specifically on the Dutch performing arts sector and its current questions and challenges, we will work in sessions with artists, presenters, managers, agents, creative producers, and funders in order to speak about the role of the “middle hands“ (managers, producers, agents) in the performing arts sector.

On their third and final day CAMP leads a panel discussion on the sustainability of managers, producers, and agents in the context of a festival. 

Wed 7 Aug, 11.00u - 13.30u

Are you a performing arts professionals? Sign up, contact Line Rousseau at line@apropic.com.
 *Please note this event is specifically geared to performing arts professionals and will be in English