Grace Surman is a Yorkshire-based artist who dallies around the terms performance (art), live art, theatre and choreography. She is interested in how we live and experience the world through constraints and conditions around us.

Grace was initially selected as one of 5 artists to work on the first Sketch programme.

Through Sketch, Grace was able to progress her initial project idea for a new solo work Things Stack Up, exploring the subject of education and ideas around creativity, capitalism and physicality with Dutch dramaturg Peggy Olislaegers.

The project was then further developed as part of Amplified, a two-year programme supporting artists. Amplified supported Grace in her application for a grant from Arts Council England to create Things Stack Up.

The work was presented at four showcase events for audiences and programmers of festivals (including Edinburgh Fringe Festival), pop up spaces, community settings (including rural touring) and traditional studio theatres in order to test and position the work for future touring.

Grace has developed a duet with her 9 year old daughter, Performance with Hope, to sit alongside the solo as a double bill premiered at Transform Festival 2017 in Leeds.

In addition to a new performance work, Grace is planning to create a film to complete her body of work investigating and reflecting upon relationships between parent and child in all stages of life.

“Amplified has given me the opportunity to make my work as part of a team. Having support for your work as an independent artist over an extended period of time has been incredibly valuable to me, and has enabled me to focus on the work I make and the contexts it is shown. The practical administration & producing support around writing funding bids, discussions around all the choices being made outside the rehearsal room, which can be all consuming and support with working relationships (expectations / possibilities / negotiations) has shifted my work into another gear.”

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21 March 2017