HARP Open Call for Submissions

For Immediate Release: January 24, 2018

Hilarie Spangler & Sami Pyne /[email protected]/ 212-647-0202 x 32

“In these times, it's become increasingly hard for artists to find a place to take risks, a safe haven where they can develop daring new work. One theatre has regularly bucked the trend, making its mission to ensure that artists have a home for their R&D, and that theatregoers can sample the exciting results.”

- OBIE Committee, Ross Wetzsteon Award to HERE

HERE is thrilled to announce the opening of the annual application period for the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP). One of the most robust residency programs of this nature in the country and serving as a national model, HARP provides a commission, development support, career planning, and a full production to hybrid artists, all within a collaborative environment of peers working across disparate art forms – including theatre, dance, music, puppetry, visual art, and new media. HARP provides significant long-term support, as well as $50,000 in cash and $50,000 in space, equipment and services over 2-3 years to tailor each residency to each artist’s individual needs. Through significant investment of time and resources, dynamic work within a strong community is created.

The HARP application is due February 2, 2018 and can be found: http://here.org/programs/harp/

Since HARP’s founding, HERE has supported the work and career development of 165 lead artists and hundreds of their collaborators. Through HARP, HERE has developed such highly acclaimed works as Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, Basil Twist’s Symphonie Fantastique, Trey Lyford and Geoff Sobelle’s All Wear Bowlers, James Scruggs’ Disposable Men, Young Jean Lee’s Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, and Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge. Over the years, HERE’s artists have received 18 Obie Awards/Grants, 2 Bessies, 5 Drama Desk Nominations, 2 Pulitzer Prizes, 4 Doris Duke Awards, and 2 MacArthur Fellowships.

HARP nurtures the development of 9 –11 hybrid artists and their audiences, through cross-disciplinary exchange, monthly meetings, peer-driven workshops, and panel discussions. Created nearly 20 years ago to address a compelling need in the field—the void of artistic, administrative, and financial support for artists with certain professional accomplishments, but without breakthrough recognition—HARP assists artists who are developing distinct artistic voices and experimenting with new approaches that expand the parameters of performance work. HARP is unique in that it offers a meeting ground where artists from varied disciplines share diverse perspectives, and where works developed represent a hybrid performance aesthetic.


As the works being developed are complex hybrid projects, each residency lasts 2-to-3 years. Each artist in the program receives the following:

• A commissioning fee of $5,400 and a minimum of $4,000 creator fee for production phase

• $2,000 for work-in-progress showings

• $3,000-4,000 for workshops in two CULTUREMART festivals

• Time, technical support, & equipment for developmental works-in-progress in our spaces

• Rehearsal Space at HERE, Governors’ Island and with partner organizations

• Food, lodging and space at our annual out-of-town week-long HARP artists retreat

• In-depth one-on-one guidance and support from entire HERE staff throughout their residency

• A world premiere produced by HERE in one of our the two theatre spaces, including a

minimum commitment of $30,000 in HERE funding in addition to show-specific fundraising and

significant in-kind resources (average production costs are $100,000)


Over a 3-year residency, HERE invests over $50,000 in cash in each project and an additional $50,000 in space, equipment and staff resources.





About HERE:

“HERE still manages to be the forum for fresh talents” - Ben Brantley of The New York Times

From our home in Lower Manhattan, HERE builds a community that nurtures emerging and career artists as they create innovative hybrid live performance in theatre, dance, music, puppetry, media and visual art. Over 25 years, HERE has come to occupy a unique and essential place in the landscape of downtown theatre, and to be known as a destination for audiences who are passionate about groundbreaking contemporary work and the creative process behind it. Since 1993, HERE has been one of New York’s most prolific producing organizations and today stands at the forefront of the city’s presenters of daring new work

“Best Off-Off Broadway venue” - The Village Voice