Fertile Ground Festival 2022 Plans Announced

The 2022 Fertile Ground Festival, a program of the Portland Area Theatre Alliance, will be a virtual festival running Thursday, January 27 through Sunday, February 6, 2022.

The 13th annual festival will return to its uncurated roots and offer the new works showcase to all area artists. Additionally, instead of presenting Fertile Ground projects via their online distribution platforms as accomplished for Fertile Ground 2021 (FG21), the festival will return to directing audiences to producers' (virtual) productions. Producer registration for FG22 begins September 13, 2021.

"Our decision to go virtual again for FG22 comes after a great deal of deliberation, with regard to the Delta variant and beyond," said Nicole Lane, Fertile Ground Festival Director. "There are many unknowns the performing arts are facing in a landscape that continues to change. Additionally, the virtual format offers greater access to artists who may not be in a position to find and rent a physical space."

"Until last year, Fertile Ground was an uncurated festival - the only parameters being that the project is new work and that the artists involved are Portland-area based," said Dre Slaman, Fertile Ground Festival Managing Director. "Being uncurated is a feature that is unique to our festival, and we want to continue to provide a platform for all area artists to share their new work with new audiences. With that in mind, we are hoping to see as many new works involving Portland area artists as possible in this year's festival. "

The online and uncurated Fertile Ground 2022 will be different than last year's festival. In 2021, Fertile Ground released selected projects on a set schedule for public consumption on a donation-only basis via the festival's Facebook and YouTube channels. For the 2022 festival, Fertile Ground will return to being the marketing platform for projects of new works. FG22 producers will produce/premiere their work on their own platforms, at the times and dates of their choosing. Producers will set their own pricing and box office, and determine how they plan to distribute their work to audiences for online consumption. Producers will provide Fertile Ground content and links for their Fertile Ground website listings to be found at www.fertilegroundpdx.org.

Fertile Ground organizers continue to be intent on fostering a festival that is more inclusive of and conducive to the participation of underrepresented communities. The festival is continuing work from 2021 efforts to address equity and access barriers to participation in the festival that exist for underrepresented artists. Fertile Ground's GROW Panel will select five GROW Award recipients to receive $500 to be used in production of their Fertile Ground project. 2022 funding comes from prioritizing funds for this program in the Fertile Ground budget, and from The Think System Foundation.

In 2020, Fertile Ground was awarded Regional Arts & Culture Council Arts Equity & Access funding with the intention of expanding the organization's initiatives to address equity and remove barriers to participation in the festival that exist for underrepresented artists. That grant, along with private donations, allowed Fertile Ground to distribute $4,500 in funds to nine artists through a new GROW Award program. Each artist/producer received a $500 GROW Award.

For 2022, this 2021-formed body, will be 15-person community panel led by Samson Syharath. The GROW Panel will adjudicate the 2022 GROW Awards. New this year, the group will also designate FG22 projects as "selected" works if they meet the 2022 group's intention to highlight underrepresented communities,* artistically interesting and culturally relevant "acts of creation," and projects with an innovative concept for a recorded piece intended for a digital media platform. The aim of this endeavor is to inform festival-goers of key projects that involve aligned artists and stories, and encourage typically underrepresented artists to be a part of Fertile Ground and elevate that work.