AN OPEN CALL TO ARTISTS, ANIMATORS, PERFORMERS, EDUCATORS, AND RESEARCHERS.
A call for program proposals for the Play for adults. On freedom practices in culture conference organized by the Cricoteka, the Małopolska Region Institute of Culture in Kraków, and the A Sztuka? Foundation. The conference will be held on 16 and 17 November 2026 at the Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor CRICOTEKA in Kraków.
A conference. On what and why?
The idea to organize the conference stems from the experiences related to the Wild Frolics exhibition created by the Cricoteka and the A Sztuka? Foundation. Observing the adults who visited the exhibition and their reactions to the opportunity to play led to the questions which we now want to explore in-depth: Why do we find it so difficult to play? What do we need to have the space to play again and the social acceptance for it? How can artists and creative practices help us in this respect? And, finally, what can cultural institutions do to make it possible for us to reclaim this space?
Even though play is a childhood domain, we still need it long after we stopped being children. It provides access to the experiences that adulthood pushes to the margin: liberty, freedom of choice, imagination, spontaneousness, uncertainty, readiness to take a risk, and being a world where there is no need for constant measurement, assessment, and results. Perhaps this is why play can trigger such deep feelings, comparable to those we look for in art.
What, then, happens when play starts to miss from the lives of adults, especially those who work with children and the youth in the area of culture? Can you create with young people a world based on creativity, happiness, freedom, and empowerment if you yourself do not have the courage to go beyond the logic of productivity, control, and foreseeable outcomes?
Maybe it is worth having a look at what we have lost in culture by confusing play with entertainment. Entertainment is an invitation to consume ready experiences, play encourages you to co-create those experiences. This difference concerns not only the form, but also the role we have envisaged for those who our program is addressed to.
Play needs time, but also space. It needs rules, but also an opportunity to break them. Sometimes, it needs inspiration and an invitation. Today, perhaps, what is needs most is defense: arguments that doing something without a specific purpose, a measurable outcome, or a guarantee of success does make sense.
That kind of space is offered by art. Art is one of the areas of liberty, freedom, and experimentation. It allows you to enter a symbolic reality, to cross boundaries, to experience without knowing the result, to look for hidden meanings, and to explore imagination.
Who do we invite and why?
We would like to hear from artists, performers, and persons working in research, cultural animation, developmental psychology, anthropology, andragogy, and education offered in community centers, museums, and libraries. We are looking for intercricoesting and original practices, ideas, tools, experiments, practical models, tested solutions, and new ways of thinking related to the topic of adults playing, which can be presented in various forms, such as a workshop, a show, a presentation, or a panel. We are not looking for success stories only; we also want to use these stories to map challenges, intricacies, and potential obstacles and openly talk about the mental, managerial, and political changes that are necessary to make it possible to reclaim the lost space for play in the adult world.
The purpose of the call is to find projects or practices that meet the following criteria:
- they are (or could be) addressed to adults;
- their point of departure is play, understood as a voluntary and unrestricted form of activity, resulting from the need for freedom and allowing for going beyond the everyday; they are not intended to achieve a specific purpose or a material gain; the value is the experience itself: a meeting, a relationship, an exchange, the pleasure of acting, and the possibility of one’s presence in the world in a manner different from what happens on a daily basis;
- they open a space for spontaneousness, ingeniousness, risk-taking, and co-creation;
- they create a situation where, for just a moment, different rules apply and it is possible to enter an alternative reality;
- they are a way of experiencing, experimenting, and getting into relations; at the same time, they leave space for imagination, freedom to act, and the unexpected.
Form of cooperation
The ideas collected through the open call will be used to develop the conference program. After an analysis, we will pick the ones to include in the event. The remuneration for a workshop, a show, a presentation, or a panel will be PLN 2,000. The organizers will provide the invited authors with accommodation and transport.
How to apply
We are collecting proposals through the following form: [LINK]
The idea may have any form: a workshop, an artistic gesture, a performance, a presentation, an activity, or discussion.
The application should contain:
- a brief and precise description of the project/idea,
- the anticipated number of participants,
- technical, spatial, and materials-related needs.
Deadline for submitting applications: 27 September 2026
Announcement of results: 2 October 2026
Q&A: [LINK]
Do you have more questions? Contact us: Justyna Droń, justyna.dron@cricoteka.pl, phone number: 509644034.
The project is co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage through the Culture Promotion Fund, which is a state special-purpose fund, within the framework of the Cultural Education program carried out by the National Cultural Center.
