What is LEAP?
Baboró’s LEAP is a community-building project and artist development programme for creative individuals from underrepresented, ethnically diverse communities and/or migrant backgrounds curious about creating work for young audiences. It is one branch of our overarching artist development programme, GROW. The pilot LEAP programme launched in 2022 and involved a fourday workshop series led by Moonfish Theatre, with additional facilitation from Maeve Stone and Mufutau Yusuf. The workshop series was followed by an optional bursary to be used for mentorship or a gap day, and a paid visit to the 2022 Baboró Festival. The 2022 participants were Alexandra Craciun, Fernanda Ferrari, Justyna Cwojdzińska, and Justin Anene.
LEAP’s pilot programme was funded by the Arts Council’s Capacity Building Award with further support from the Irish Research Council’s New Foundations Scheme. The entire process was evaluated by Dr. Charlotte McIvor (Discipline of Drama and Theatre Studies, University of Galway) and her research team Jillian Kenny, Maia Purdue, Mikail Nimitz and Heidi Schoenenberger.
Why LEAP?
A gap exists between the diversity of our young audiences and that of the artists presenting work for them – LEAP was born from a need to eliminate that gap. Children deserve quality art that represents them, created by artists with whom they can relate. As a source of support for artists in Ireland creating work for children, we at Baboró realise our responsibility in ensuring our opportunities reach creatives of varying backgrounds, abilities, ethnicities, and identities, and acknowledge the need for us to break down barriers and actively seek and support artists who face disproportionate challenges. LEAP is Baboró’s first artist development support programme that solely and explicitly supports artists from ethnically diverse/migrant backgrounds.
LEAP is a vital part of our mission to support artists creating work for young people, strengthening the sector with varied voices and beginning to rectify the discrepancy between representation in the communities we serve and representation on our stages.
Reflecting on LEAP
In this podcast episode, recorded at the 2022 Baboró festival, the participants and stakeholders of Baboró’s LEAP artist support programme discussed the pilot project's development and execution.
The panel featured Rachel Baltz (Baboró, Ireland), Alexandra Craciun (LEAP Participant, Romania and Ireland), Fernanda Ferrari (LEAP Participant, Brazil and Ireland), Justyna Cwojdzińska (LEAP Participant, Poland and Ireland), Ionia Ní Chróinín (Moonfish, Ireland) Jo Cummins (Moonfish, Ireland) and Maeve Stone (Cracking Light Productions, Ireland). Chaired by Dr. Charlotte McIvor (Drama and Theatre Studies, University of Galway, Ireland).
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