APPLICATIONS DUE: September 11, 2025.
We are seeking applications from artists to participate in Blindside x Next Wave’s 2025 Emerging Curator Program with Rasha Tayeh. We are looking for artists who work in performance-based arts including; theatre, live art, music, sound, and dance.
Project Title: compost : compose
About the project:
compost : compose is an arts project, created by artist-curator Rasha Tayeh, hosting a series of discussions, exhibitions, performances and pop-up events across various ecologies and geographies. Taking inspiration from the soil, Rasha invites artists to make meaning of how we can compost old structures, let go, tend to grief, and decompose old ways of thinking, doing and being to find ways to compose new imaginaries for reparative futures and collective liberation.
About the Emerging Curator:
Rasha Tayeh is a transdisciplinary artist, writer, curator, researcher, herbalist and founding director of Beit e’Shai Teahouse. Her practice is land-based , focusing on telling stories about people’s relationships in community & ecology. With over 20 years experience as an exhibiting artist in Australia and abroad, and through her pop-up teahouse since 2017, Rasha has curated and hosted a range of art exhibitions, workshops, community events, live gigs and listening sessions, tea ceremonies and poetry nights.
About Blindside's Emerging Curator Mentorship program:
Each year Blindside supports an emerging curator to develop a project under the guidance of an established local curator. In 2025 Blindside has partnered with Next Wave and Rasha is being mentored by Next Wave CEO Elyse Goldfinch.
Key Dates:
Applications close: 11th September 2025
Development period at Blindside: Monday 1st December - Sunday 21st December 2025
Presentation at Next Wave (including additional rehearsal period): Late February 2026, dates TBC
Fees: Each artist will be given a participation fee of $500 AUD (+ superannuation)
Support:
Artists will be supported with curatorial guidance from Rasha Tayeh, with further support from mentor Elyse Goldfinch. Blindside will provide space for rehearsal and exchange from Monday 1st December - Sunday 21st December 2025, with the opportunity to prepare a work in progress showing to peers. Next Wave will present the live performance at Brunswick Mechanics Institute in February 2026, with the support of professional technicians and producers. Next Wave will also provide professional documentation and promotion of the performance to their networks.
Do you have questions or need assistance? Please email Josephine Mead, Blindside's Community Coordinator: community@blindside.org.au