2011–2017
The You Are Here Festival began as a three-year commission by Robyn Archer as part of the program of activity for the Centenary of Canberra. From 2011 to 2017, we presented an annual You Are Here Festival, an entirely free, curated showcase of independent and experimental arts in the Canberra CBD and surrounds.
2018
In 2018, You Are Here producers took a year off running the festival to examine our place in the Canberra arts landscape. Reasoning that our true value lies in championing artist development, fostering critical community, and training creative arts producers in the unique You Are Here model, we created a program that radically shifted the focus of the organisation.
2019–present
You Are Here’s first artist and producer development program, Cahoots, was run in 2019. It proved to be hugely beneficial to all the participants in myriad ways, from creating a deep trust and critical community among the group, to a range of individual goals set by the artists.
We have run Cahoots annually since 2019. Despite Covid-19 interruptions throughout 2020-21, we have supported twenty-five artists and producers through this unique development program.
You Are Here Festival returned in 2019, featuring work by the Cahoots artists as well as a selection of curated work by local and interstate artists.
In 2020, we ran our inaugural Cahoots Lab – a season of events for Cahoots artists to show and test their work amongst Canberra’s creative community. From 2022 onward, Cahoots Lab will be run annually in April.
Our media team has captured the You Are Here Festival and Cahoots Lab in still and moving image from our first festival in 2011, creating a compelling archive of Canberra’s creative aspirations and achievements. Take a look at our Flickr and Vimeo, and browse our archive of You Are Here programs below.
