THE
ELGIN
GROUP

"The Elgin Fringe Festival is a lottery system, multi-disciplinary arts festival, featuring dance, theater, music, visual art, and the undefined at venues in downtown Elgin."

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THE MISSION

The Elgin Fringe Festival (EFF) is dedicated to investing in creators and talents within our city to better distinguish Elgin’s unique artistic voice. From the previous festivals, the EFF committee finds that the Elgin artist is underrepresented in the lineup of performances year after year. Therefore, the committee is dedicating more attention and resources to address this concern starting in 2022. This initiative is supported by Side Street Studio Arts and The Elgin Cultural Art Commission.

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This new initiative is focusing its efforts first on underrepresented and marginalized communities within our city; We highly encourage the application of BIPOC and Queer/LGBTQ+ people to this initiative. This equity investment will ensure a more diverse lineup of performances and enrich the EFF experience for artists and audiences who come from all over the country to participate.

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WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

The Elgin Group is searching for new voices to enter the Elgin Fringe Festival in 2023. These artists should be a reflection of the diverse community in Elgin and strive for artistic excellence in their productions. Eligible applicants should possess some experience in performing arts and have an interest in producing a 30–45-minute (but not exceeding 60 minutes) program, which they may perform 2 - 3 times during the run of the festival in September. The Elgin Group is prepared to award a stipend of $500 for artists who are appointed to benefit from this initiative. This stipend should be used to address the needs of the production and the artist’s creative process. 

 

An Ideal candidate for The Elgin Group must reside in Elgin, IL, and complete the application to be considered. Applications will be open from February 17 - March 10, 2023. 

 

As always this initiative is focusing its efforts first on underrepresented and marginalized communities within our city. We highly encourage BIPOC and Queer/LGBTQ+ people to apply to this initiative. We continue to look for artists who have experience in music, theater, stand-up/comedy, dance, spoken word, and other performing arts.

 

Please contact Adrian Mesino with any questions at adrianmesinocastrejon@gmail.com

 

 

RESPONSIBILITIES & EXPECTATIONS

Mentorship and Professional Development: The subcommittee will not only be built on the expertise and professional backgrounds of its members to provide support for its appointed artists, but also depend on its member’s unique experiences, interests, and passion for the arts to help develop this initiative further. Committee members are to act as artist mentors who are expected to provide critique and push the artist to meet their individual expectations. This will come in the form of rehearsal sit-ins, monthly check-ins, and collaboration. 

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Investigation and Documentation

This year The Elgin Group will be heavily documenting work via social media channels. The aim is to use the platforms and their explicit mechanism for virility to help promote and share the findings of the committee members' investigation of their choice of topics within performing arts. The purpose of this is to reframe these conversations through a current and intersectional lens. The use of video, audio, image and text post will be collected and distributed via the appropriate channels.