CALL FOR PROJECTS

OPEN CITY

Live Arts Miami invites South Florida-based artists to propose new works for OPEN CITY, our inaugural public space performance festival taking place in Downtown Miami in spring 2027.

As a presenter and producer of contemporary performance, Live Arts Miami is interested in work that reimagines the relationship between artist, audience, and place. We are drawn to performances that move beyond conventional audience-performer dynamics – work that is participatory, relational, immersive, site-responsive, or otherwise creates unexpected ways for people to encounter one another and the spaces around them.

For OPEN CITY, we are looking for original, audience-centered projects created in response to Downtown Miami and its public spaces. Selected artists will develop their work with support from Live Arts Miami through feedback, workshopping, rehearsal, production development, and opportunities to test ideas in the spaces where they may ultimately be presented.

Project funding will be allocated based on the scope and needs of each selected work.

For questions, please contact us at liveartsmiami@mdc.edu.

CURATORIAL THEME

Live Arts Miami’s 2026-27 season explores THE ART OF TOGETHER: what becomes possible when we gather, participate, listen, move, make, and experience something alongside one another.

For OPEN CITY, we invite artists to interpret this theme broadly.

Togetherness might emerge through movement, music, play, ritual, storytelling, conversation, collective action, stillness, celebration, disagreement, or experiencing a familiar place differently. It might ask strangers to collaborate, transform an ordinary public space into something unexpected, or shift the way an audience understands its own role within a performance.

We want to know: What does togetherness make possible? What changes when an audience is not only watching, but is part of the conditions that make the work happen?

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are looking for original works created specifically for OPEN CITY that consider the audience as an essential part of the experience.

Proposals may be site-specific, interactive, immersive, participatory, mobile, interdisciplinary, relational, or otherwise unconventional. Projects might invite direct participation, create new relationships between strangers, transform the use or meaning of a public space, or reconsider where and how performance can happen.

Audience-centered does not necessarily mean asking everyone to participate. It means thinking intentionally about the audience: Where are they? What are they doing? How are they positioned in relation to the work? What are they experiencing? What changes because they are there?

Artists are encouraged to respond creatively to Downtown Miami and its possibilities – from plazas, terraces, breezeways, walkways, and gathering spaces to overlooked or unexpected corners of the city.

Think of the city not as a backdrop, but as material: a place to experiment, connect, disrupt routines, and make something happen.

HOW IT WORKS

Selected artists will develop their projects between fall 2026 and spring 2027 through a series of feedback, development, and workshopping sessions with Live Arts Miami.

The process will make room to test ideas, take creative risks, respond to the site and audience, and allow the work to evolve through experimentation.

Selected projects will receive:

1. Project funding, allocated according to the scope and needs of the proposed work.

2. Facilitated development, mentorship, and feedback.

3. Rehearsal space and opportunities to workshop and test the work.

4. Site, production, and material development support.

5. Marketing and promotional support.

6. Public presentation as part of OPEN CITY in spring 2027.

VISIT THE SPACES + LEARN MORE

Curious about OPEN CITY or thinking through what your project might become?

Join us for an in-person information session and site visit at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus. We’ll talk through the call, answer questions, and walk together through potential performance sites in and around the campus.

Come with an idea, a question, or your curiosity about what the spaces might spark.

INFO SESSION + SITE VISIT
Saturday, October 10, 2026 at 2 PM
Art Lab, Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus
RSVP HERE: [LINK]

Attendance is encouraged but not required to apply.

WHO CAN APPLY

South Florida-based artists working across performance, dance, theater, music, visual arts, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary practices, socially engaged performance, and other forms are encouraged to apply.

We are interested in artists who are curious about working beyond conventional presentation formats and who want to think intentionally about audience, place, and encounter.

Applicants should be open to experimentation, feedback, and adaptation and interested in developing work with a specific place and audience in mind.

IMPORTANT DATES

• Info Session + Site Visit: October 10, 2026 at 2 PM
• Application Deadline: October 19, 2026
• Award Announcements: Anticipated by October 27, 2026
• Development Sessions: Required sessions will be scheduled collectively with selected artists.
• OPEN CITY: Spring 2027