Image/design Jeremy Bechtel

What we do:

> Work with festivals, galleries and artists

> Create critical writing and education programmes

> Publish writing online and in print

> Create new platforms to debate contemporary art

> Foster critical communities

Open Dialogues launched at the New Life Berlin Festival in June 2008, where we built a tailor-made programme of live events and writing published on and offline, on the socially engaged and collaborative work in New Life Berlin. Whilst in Berlin we developed a community of 20 international writers who continue to be an active part of the Open Dialogues Network.  In spring 2008 Open Dialogues acted as critical writing mentors on the Live Connections professional development programme. Later this year, Open Dialogues will be taking part in the Limoncello Punctuation Programme (London, September 2008), and presenting our model of critical writing at Writing Encounters York St. John University (York, September 2008).  In December, Open Dialogues is working with Performance Saga - Festival BONE 11 in Switzerland (Berne, December 2008). Throughout the year Open Dialogues will continue to post reviews, essays, interviews and announcements relating to critical writing and contemporary live art on the Open Dialogues blog.

About Us

Mary Paterson and Rachel Lois Clapham are the Directors of Open Dialogues. They were both writers with Live Art UK’s Writing From Live Art, 2006-2008, and have been published extensively in the UK and abroad. Together, they have developed blogs, education programmes, critical writing workshops, peer critiques, flash publications and open forums with The National Review of Live Art (Scotland 07 and 08), SPILL (London 07), Artsadmin (London 07), Vital (Manchester 07). They were both recently awarded an Arts Council England grant to become Writing Live Fellows for the Performa 07 International Biennial of Performance Art in New York.

Selected Bibliographies

Rachel Lois Clapham
Interview with Carlos Amorales Performa 07 Biennial Catalogue (US) Forthcoming 08
A Conversation about a Whisper: Marcus Young and Rachel Lois Clapham Vital Catalogue (UK) Forthcoming 08
Act Art 5: Til Death Do Us Art Dance Theatre Journal (UK) Issue 22:3 2008
Collecting Live Art A-N Magazine (UK) April 2008
A Chinese Frequency: Vital Festival 2007, Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (CAN) March 2008
Food for Thought in Contemporary Art AN Magazine (UK) March 2008
Liverpool Live 06 Total Theatre (UK) October 2006

Mary Paterson
Marcia Farquhar Its Not Hard (UK) Forthcoming 2008
History in the Making Total Theatre (UK) Spring 2008
Life Exchange Real Time Arts (Australia) April 2008
Christian Jankowski and Pablo Bronstein Real Time Arts (Australia) March 2008
A Performa Diary Fringe Report (UK) November 2007
Name In Lights www.nameinlights.com April 2007
Writing from Live Art: an Editorial Debate A-N Magazine April 2007