We're thrilled to announce Jo Feijó as the Moving Parts Scratch Space 2024 bursary artist. The 2024 Scratch Space is being trialed differently this year - we have increased the amount of the singular bursary to invest more in a project, but in doing so have had to reduce the number of artists we can support in this year's Scratch Space. We will review the positives and negatives of this at the end of the 2024 festival and decide the right direction to move towards for future years.
Jo Feijó takes the story...
I am genuinely excited for this opportunity from Newcastle Puppetry Festival, as it will allow me to build a project I’ve been creating and designing for a long time. ‘The Wild Beasts of Silly’ is a beautiful walkabout show focusing on the serious importance of silly play. In this way, the Moving Parts Scratch Space bursary fits it perfectly, as the essence of a scratch space is facilitating artists' exploration in a no pressure environment. I'm also incredibly excited to debut it at Newcastle Puppetry Festival 2024, as puppetry itself speaks to the story of the beasts: transported from another dimension, coming in and creating the unexpected. As an artist, this opportunity will allow me to debut and experiment with a project I intend to carry and grow in the coming years - one that will balance out the intensity of being a self-producing solo artist with some well-needed lighthearted fun.
'The Wild Beasts of Silly' will debut at Newcastle Puppetry Festival on Sunday 31st March 2024 as part of 'Puppet Valley' outside of Ouseburn Farm, The Cluny and Seven Stories. More details can be found here.
The Moving Parts Scratch Space is made possible thanks to support from Arts Council England.
