Mix-MATCH Arts Festival 2025 Application Guidelines and Information
Introduction:
Thank you for your interest in the 2025 Mix-MATCH Arts Festival, an event dedicated to celebrating creativity, originality, interdisciplinary arts, collaboration, and artistic diversity. These guidelines are designed to provide a framework for your application to the Festival, ensuring a vibrant and inclusive experience for all involved.
1. Theme:
The Festival will have a broad and open theme to encourage diverse interpretations and expressions of creativity. The theme will be inclusive and allow for a wide range of artistic disciplines to participate. The goal of the Festival is to create an environment where experimental works may be seen alongside more traditional artistic expressions and experiences.
2. Interdisciplinary Approach & Collaboration:
We encourage participants to explore and incorporate multiple artistic disciplines in their projects where possible. Collaborations between artists from different backgrounds are highly encouraged to foster a rich and varied creative environment.
The Festival places a strong emphasis on collaboration. Artists are encouraged to collaborate with each other, fostering a sense of community and shared creativity. Collaborative projects will be given special consideration during the selection process.
3. Originality:
Originality is at the heart of the Mix-MATCH Arts Festival, though it is not required. Groups are encouraged to create new works, or new interpretations of existing works. New works will be given special consideration during the selection process, but participants proposing existing works, or existing projects will be taken into consideration as well.
4. Artistic Diversity:
Diversity in artistic expression is celebrated at the Festival. The goal of the Festival will be to reflect a broad spectrum of styles, genres, and cultural influences. The Festival will strive to include a diverse range of voices and perspectives in the final lineup.
5. Submission Guidelines:
All submissions must be sent by March 31, 2024. Application should be submitted via email to festival@matchouston.org.
The decision for final approval of Festival participants will be on or around April 29, 2024.
6. Selection Process:
The Festival applicants will be part of the selection process, where they will rate the other applicants based on a scale provided by the Festival. This will be a blind process where applicants will not know who the other applicants are while rating. There will be an online form to fill out to provide ratings. The Festival Director will select the overall highest rated applicants from the various disciplines to create a balanced and complimentary festival experience for the patrons. Please see Festival Scoring Guidelines for additional information regarding the scoring and selection process.
8. Exhibition/Performance Spaces:
The Mix-MATCH Festival will utilize all 4 performance spaces, and may also include the gallery for visual arts.
Participants may request specific spaces, but the Festival Director will make final space assignments based on the overall schedule and needs of the individual participant groups.
9. Performance blocks:
Performance blocks will be 30 or 60 minutes. Participants that have works shorter than 60 minutes will be grouped with another participating group (or groups) to create a full 60 minute performance block. Best efforts will be made to create cohesive and complementary performance blocks.
10. Financial Sponsorship & Future Support
Each approved participating group will receive a $1000 stipend to help with costs associated with creating new works or remounting existing works. Details on payment schedule are still to be determined, but should be available shortly after the final festival participants are approved.
Groups that want to continue to develop their project after the Festival will be allowed to petition MATCH for free use of an available theater space for up to 2 days (Monday or Tuesday). Participants will be responsible for whatever labor costs are associated with this performance, but the space will be complimentary as part of the benefit of participating in the Festival.
11. Total Participation
The final number of participants will be determined by the number of available time slots and how the various proposed projects fit together as a whole. The estimated number of participants is between 15 – 20.
12. Tech and Performance Dates
Tech for the Festival will take place on Thursday, January 16 and Friday, January 17, 2025 between 12pm – 11pm. Participant must be available during those hours to allow flexibility of scheduling. Total tech time for each participant group will ultimately be determined by the total number of participants, but should at least be 1 hour, but likely not longer than 90 minutes. Tech needs will need to be realistically achievable within the time available.
The Festival itself will take place on Saturday, January 18, 2025. Festival participants must be available between 11am – 10pm to allow flexibility of scheduling.
13. Tech requirements
The Festival will make best efforts to accommodate tech requirements with approved participants, but the Festival Director will have final approval of any technical element. Please be sure to include any details about special technical requirements you may have in the Festival application. Approved projects will need to update the Festival Director throughout the creative process on any additional technical requirements that will need approval. Participants may be asked to attend a production meeting to discuss technical requirements prior to final approval of technical needs.
DOWNLOAD these guidelines HERE.