FADO E-BULLETIN
March 2026

1. EVENT SOUNDOFF DEAF THEATRE FESTIVAL
   DATE MARCH 3–8, 2026
   LOCATION EDMONTON, CANADA
   SOURCE CHRIS DODD

SOUND OFF: A Deaf Theatre Festival is a collaboration with Edmonton’s Fringe Theatre

As Canada’s national Deaf theatre festival, SOUND OFF builds upon the rich legacy of Deaf performers and Deaf performing groups in Canada. SOUND OFF brings together Deaf performers from across the country for a festival dedicated to the Deaf performing arts. The festival returns March 3 to 8, 2026, both live and in-person, as well as fully accessible online from the comfort of your home. It’s for everyone!

SOUND OFF is dedicated to making theatre accessible for both Deaf and hearing audiences and to celebrate and appreciate Deaf performers on stage. All performances and SOUND OFF events are accessible for both Deaf and hearing audiences. Most shows are in American Sign Language (ASL) and all shows will have interpretation for both languages where necessary. In addition, ASL/English Interpreters are available throughout the festival to provide communication services for all patrons with their visit.

Featuring 5 mainstage performances, our improv collaboration with Rapid Fire, plus workshops, salon discussions, talkbacks and more. There’s something for everyone!

What SOUND OFF offers during its six-day extravaganza:
SHOWS: Experience SOUND OFF’s live theatre performances.
WORKSHOPS: Participate in online hands-on activities.
PANELS: Get up close with the artists and engage in talk-back discussions.
STAGED READINGS: Catch a new play in development.
IMPROV PERFORMANCES: Experience the hilarity as improvisors go head-to-head in a hilarious battle of the senses!

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1. EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY SAVAC | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
   DEADLINE DATE MARCH 4, 2026
   LOCATION TORONTO, CANADA
   SOURCE SAVAC

SAVAC is looking for a new Executive Director
Deadline: March 4, 2026

SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre) is the only non-profit, artist-run centre in Canada dedicated to increasing the visibility of culturally diverse artists by curating and exhibiting their work, providing mentorship, facilitating professional development and creating a community for our artists. SAVAC was founded to be an organization staffed by people of colour, committed to support the work of artists of colour. We champion and provide a platform for artistic practices informed by cultural identity, explored through diverse mediums and aesthetics. We support work that addresses the ways histories of people of colour are represented alongside the story of ongoing imperialism and post-colonial contexts of the global south.

For 30+ years, SAVAC has operated without a gallery space as an explicit, political choice. Instead, as a means of pushing diversity mandates within the Canadian arts ecology beyond the minimum, we partner with galleries, institutions and museums to integrate artists and curators of colour into the curatorial and programming practices of those institutions.

FULL CALL & JOB DESCRIPTION

3. CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS WESTERN FRONT WORKSHOPS
   DEADLINE DATE MARCH 6, 2026
   LOCATION VANCOUVER, CANADA
   SOURCE WESTERN FRONT

Designing Human-Generated Gameplay for the Playbox™️ v.0.1
Torien Cafferata, A
Deadline: March 6, 2026

We are seeking a working group of eight participants to take part in a series of free workshops led by Torien Cafferata and A of Playbox Studios.

Working together, participants will engage in a study of input-output game poetics, or “controllography,” taking turns as designers and human avatars. Using everyday materials, participants will create unique controllers, game mechanics, and avatar identities within a live-action, human-generated game system. These elements will form conditions for a series of simple mini-games centred on tasks or activities that explore poetics of delegated experience.

The workshops will take place in person at Western Front:
Tuesdays, March 17, 24, & 31
6:00–8:30pm

An open rehearsal of outcomes from the workshops will be presented:
Saturday, Apr 4
3:00–4:00pm

MORE INFORMATION & HOW TO APPLY

4. EVENT SONGS FOR THE HOUSE OF RETURNING BY MELATI SURYODARMO
   DATE MARCH 6–22, 2026
   LOCATION MALMÖ, SWEDEN
   SOURCE LILITH PERFORMANCE STUDIO

Melati Suryodarmo
Songs for the House of Returning

March 6–22, 2026
Lilith Performance Studio, Bragegatan 15, Malmö, Sweden

The year at Lilith Performance Studio opens with one of Asia’s leading performance artists, Melati Suryodarmo, renowned for her powerful and physically demanding long-duration performances, where the body is central. In the new work, Songs for the House of Returning, Melati Suryodarmo explores the growing distance between the human body and the natural systems that once structured collective life. Drawing on research into ancient temple sites across Indonesia, she approaches these structures not as historical monuments but as active spatial and sensory frameworks that propose alternative ways of inhabiting land, memory, and community. The work considers the body as a “human temple”—a site where sensation, memory, and attention converge, and where perception becomes a form of listening. Through durational actions and the continuous construction and deconstruction of objects, the performance creates a shifting environment that evolves over time.

Live sound and music, performed by Singaporean musician and artist Yuen Chee Wai, constitute a central architectural element of the work, shaping its spatial and emotional dimensions. Songs for the House of Returning unfolds over a total of 33 hours, presented in eleven cycles of three hours each, and brings together five dancers from Indonesia and Sweden. The work invites audiences to reflect on how embodied memory and sensory attention might reopen pathways of connection between body, land, and shared time.

Melati Suryodarmo (b. 1969 Surakarta Indonesia, works and lives in Surakarta) has presented her work at institutions including: Kiasma in Helsinki, MMCA in Seoul, the National Art Center in Tokyo, Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht, and QAGOMA in Brisbane. She founded Studio Plesungan in Solo and served as Artistic Director of the Jakarta Biennale in 2017. Since 2022, she has led the cultural programme Indonesia Bertutur and is currently participating in the Thailand Biennale in Phuket.

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5. CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS CURATING THE VILLAGE: OPEN SESSIONS
   DEADLINE DATE MARCH 13, 2026
   LOCATION TORONTO, CANADA
   SOURCE SHALON T. WEBBER-HEFFERNAN

Call for Contributions: Curating the Village: Open Sessions
Deadline: March 13, 2026

Curating the Village is a public symposium curated by Shalon T. Webber-Heffernan. It emerges from an ongoing research pilot developed through a study group of curators, artists, and cultural workers with caregiving responsibilities, supported by Balancing Act Canada and MOTHRA Artist-Parents Project as part of the Level Up! initiative (2025–2026).

The Open Sessions extend this research into a public and sector-facing context, creating space for shared reflection, presentation, and dialogue. The Open Sessions are conceived as two public gatherings in June 2026 that bring together contributors and audiences for presentation, exchange, artistic expression, and conversation. They are grounded in the understanding that caregiving is not peripheral to cultural production, but a structuring condition that shapes how work is made, shared, and sustained. Contributors are invited to share practices, artworks, ideas, and approaches that reflect sustained engagement with care in relation to curatorial, artistic, or cultural labour.

Contributions are invited from curators, artists, performers, and cultural workers whose practices have been shaped by caregiving responsibilities, whether for children, elders, family members, or others.

Proposed contributions may take a range of forms, including (but not limited to):
artistic or curatorial works
performances or performance lectures
media-based contributions or film screenings
short talks, panels, or practice-based presentations
case studies, tools, or curatorial models developed through care-centred work

This call is intended for practitioners with experience navigating caregiving alongside cultural work, as well as those interested in contributing to critical conversations about how care functions (or does not function)—practically, unevenly, and imperfectly—within contemporary arts contexts. Contributors are encouraged to propose formats that align with their practices, capacities, and the realities of caregiving.

The Open Sessions will take place over two public days in Toronto in June 2026, with multiple presentations and formats across each day. Some hybrid participation will be possible. Programming will be child-inclusive and structured to support focused engagement while allowing for flexibility in participation. Care supports and access considerations will be integrated wherever possible.

MORE INFORMATION & HOW TO SUBMIT

6. CALL FOR APPLICATIONS EXPLORATIONS / TO LIVE
   DEADLINE DATE MARCH 9, 2026
   LOCATION TORONTO, CANADA
   SOURCE TO LIVE

Supporting Toronto’s Artists: TO Live opens applications for 2026 explorations grants

TO Live is now accepting applications for the 2026 edition of explorations, its signature artist-led research initiative that supports greater Toronto and Hammilton area-based artists to push the boundaries of their practice and imagine what comes next.

Now in its sixth year, explorations invites artists from all disciplines to apply. Seven artists will be selected to each receive $7,000 to research, experiment, and develop new ideas without the pressure of having to deliver a finished work. Since launching in April 2020, explorations has invested more than $300,000 in 50 Toronto artists, providing vital time, space, and resources for creative discovery. The initiative was created in recognition that research is an essential part of artistic practice yet often falls outside traditional project-based funding models. Through explorations, artists are encouraged to follow their curiosity, test new approaches, and encourage the seeds of future work—whether that leads to a new performance, an interdisciplinary collaboration, or an entirely unexpected direction.

TO Live is one of Canada’s largest multi-arts organizations, operating three iconic venues: Meridian Hall, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, and Meridian Arts Centre. In addition, TO Live presents a full range of performing arts, theatrical, and concert events at these venues in both downtown and uptown Toronto. With these two hubs of creativity and content creation, TO Live has a unique place and perspective to activate creative spaces by inspiring local and international artists, connecting audiences, stimulating new ideas, and elevating artistic potential, becoming a catalyst for creative expression that is reflective of Toronto’s diversity.

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7. PERFORMANCE ART INTENSIVE CONSTELLATIONS OF CRITICAL BODIES II
   DEADLINE DATE MARCH 30, 2026
   LOCATION VENICE, ITALY
   SOURCE VESTANDPAGE

CONSTELLATIONS OF CRITICAL BODIES II
June 24–July 3, 2026
Venice, Italy

10-days Intensive Joint Summer Class on the Practice of Performance Art
With VestAndPage, Andrigo & Aliprandi, Sara Simeoni and Joseph Morgan Schofield

Applications are now being accepted on a rolling basis until March 30, 2026.
INFORMATION SESSION: Live on Instagram on February 3, 2026, at 7:00pm (CEST)

For this workshop, we seek up to 15 international performance artists, radical actors, movers, sound artists, and poets interested in performance practices centred on the body. This includes individuals of all experience levels and abilities who wish to deepen and challenge their performance practices further and collaborate with other international artists. Under the co-mentorship of our experienced facilitators, you develop your performance language or research. You will work through collaboration and co-creation processes and design your own itinerary of daily focus sessions on personal narratives and storytelling, intuitive movement, composition, sound, and site-responsive, more-than-human, and ritual forms of performance-making. We aim to give you the time, space, and tools to refine your practice, draw inspiration from collaborations, and forge new connections.

MORE INFORMATION & HOW TO APPLY

8. FRANKLIN FURNACE FUND FOR PERFORMANCE ART 2026
   DEADLINE DATE APRIL 1, 2026
   LOCATION NEW YORK, USA
   SOURCE FRANKLIN FUND

Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art 2026 funding cycle is open now until April 1, 2026.

INFORMATION SESSION: February 4, 2026 from 7pm–8pm ET

The Franklin Furnace FUND for Performance Art is supported by Jerome Foundation, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and biennially by the SHS Foundation in honor of Ruth Hardinger. FUND grants range between $2,000 and $10,000 based on the peer review panel allocation of funding received by Franklin Furnace. Artists from all areas of the world are encouraged to apply; however, artists selected by the panel are expected to present their work in New York City. Full-time students are ineligible.

Franklin Furnace has no curator; each year a new panel of artists reviews all proposals. We believe this peer panel system allows all kinds of artists from all over the world an equal shot at presenting their work. Every year the panel changes, as do the definitions of “early career artist” and “performance art.” So, if at first you don’t succeed, please try again.

Franklin Furnace FUND for Performance Art supported artists are early career generative non-student performance artists who actively generate new original work.

MORE INFORMATION & HOW TO APPLY

9. CALL FOR PARTICIPATION/EVENT SCRAPE PERFORMANCE ART RESIDENCY
   DATES APRIL 5, 2026 (ONCE A MONTH UNTIL SEPTEMBER)
   LOCATION TORONTO, CANADA
   SOURCE LO BIL

SCRAPE performance art residency
First Sunday of every month April 5, May 3, June 7, July 5, August 2 and Sept 6, 2026
12:00–2:00pm
Tranzac, Southern Cross Room, 292 Brunswick Ave, Toronto

Contact: scrapeperformance@gmail.com

This is an event series notice and a call for artist interest. We are a nomadic performance art venue run by a group of Toronto-based visual and sound artists. We have received a monthly space residency from the Tranzac. Each month we will offer a 2-hour public exhibition of performance art actions in this intimate concert setting.

We welcome a wide spectrum of approaches to performance art including artists who prioritize urgency over production value. Because this residency takes place in a music-oriented venue, programming will include a special emphasis on sound and sonic collaborations. What does performance art sound like? We hope to build an audience and a platform for conversation with community members who are interested in developing relations between sound and physicality within visual art performance.

You are welcome to introduce yourself by email if you would like to perform, or just join us on the dates above. There is no ticketing or registration link. The events are pay-what-you-can with the funds distributed to the artists who performed that day. We are applying for grants but at this time we have no resources to pay artists beyond what we collect at the door. We generally divide the time by the number of artists who wish to perform, often involving more than 10 performances. But because of the 2-hour constraint with this residency, we will try to limit the number of artists to host each month so that we can respect the space needed for each performance.

History: This nomadic performance event began in April 2024 with a site-specific performance event in an empty lot on Geary Street in Toronto. We have hosted 8 events at venues including Soybomb, Tranzac, OCADU Ignite Gallery, Starving Artist Restaurant, a second event at Geary St in 2025, Devonian Square ice rink, and Field Trip (Intersections) in the Annex area.

Scrape members are across ages, races, sexual orientations. We try to be inclusive and aim to offer a space that supports the participation of IBPOC artists.

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10. EVENT/RESIDENCY LIVING IN THE PLAY
    DATE AUGUST 9–23, 2026
    LOCATION UMBRIA, ITALY
    SOURCE MARK JEFFERY

nido v : LIVING IN THE PLAY Artist Residency in collaboration with Poor Farm Experiment, Wisconsin and International Centre for the Arts, IT.

August 9–23, 2026
Monte Castello di Vibio, Umbria, Italy
Residency Co-Directors: Mark Jeffery and Kelly Kaczynski

Living Within the Play: nido celebrates its fifth annual artist residency bringing together an international consortium of artists to Monte Castello di Vibio, a 15th century hilltown in the rural region of Umbria, Italy. This two-week residency culminates in an exhibition of artworks and performances. During the residency, we individually and collectively explore the relationships between the social historical landscape, use of land resources, and the narratives of Monte Castello di Vibio and the surrounding region.

QUESTIONS: please write to Mark and Kelly at poorfarmliving@gmail.com

MORE INFORMATION