plattform11+ » Emergency Exit Arts

EMERGENCY EXIT ARTS
London | United Kingdom

Emergency Exit Arts is an organisation with the vision, imagination and capacity to deliver unforgettable and engaging theatrical events.

Formed in 1980, EEA, based in Greenwich, is one of the leading celebratory, outdoor arts companies in the UK, creating high quality and innovative artistic work that is both challenging and accessible.

We devise and produce outdoor performances and community based arts projects on a grand scale. These involve communities in local, regional and national festivals, animating and enhancing public and private spaces and creating spectacular touring shows.

EEA has a successful track record of using the arts to bring communities together in large, well-attended, public events that combine lantern processions, carnival and visual arts, new technology, street theatre, music, dance and pyrotechnics. Often the work has acted as a catalyst for long-term initiatives in partnership with regeneration programmes and annual festivals. Through participative arts projects, EEA provides an exciting and enjoyable way for people to explore personal, local, national and global issues. The creation of art develops shared values and experiences that lead to greater understanding of one another and the world around us.

In 2007/8 we worked with over 100 clients and partners, and with 170 artists, musicians and technicians, who helped us:

• Deliver 540 workshops with over 187,500 participants, over 60% of which were children and young people.

• Collaborate with 43 schools, creating public art and outdoor celebrations.

• Perform and run 90 events in the UK and in Europe.

• To be seen by an estimated audience of over 900,000.

The company has a national and international reputation for excellent touring work throughout the UK and Europe, including the Bollywood Brass Band and one of the UK’s most successful outdoor touring shows, Runga Rung.

Clients include local authorities, festival promoters, the business sector, arts centres, schools, colleges, community groups, environmental, tourism and regeneration agencies.

EEA is based at Rothbury Hall, on the Greenwich peninsular in East Greenwich, London. The premises provide office accommodation plus indoor and outdoor workshop space for:

• The planning, design and preparation of visual and performing arts materials for multi-disciplinary participatory arts activities.

• The invention and fabrication of large, mechanical puppets and animated structures, carnival floats and mobile performance platforms.

• The creation of theatrical and carnival costumes, banners and flags.

• Offices and rehearsal space for the Bollywood Brass Band.

The company sees the role of the artist as central to its ethos: it has always been, and remains, an organisation where the ‘chemical’ reaction between artists from different disciplines creates EEA’s culturally diverse, visual, theatrical and musical style of celebration and performance.