Dutch consortium Stage IX awarded grant to transform Immersive Art

Stage IX aims to transform the fragmented Dutch Immersive Experiences (IX) sector by building an artist-centered infrastructure unifying creation, production, exhibition, and education. The project creates open-source methodologies and toolkits, creates sustainable talent pathways, and reclaims imaginaries by challenging technology-driven paradigms.

Research through practice

At the heart of the project is an intensive artist-in-residence programme: intensive residencies structured around research through practice. In essence, this research project will be a two-year living lab. Following an open call, seven participants – ranging from emerging to established artists/collectives – will undertake practice-based research. The consortium functions as a true launchpad. Not merely as a springboard that propels artists outward, but as an interdisciplinary network and scaffolding system that combines the expertise of curators, producers, educators, makers, and venues.

New interdisciplinary knowledge

Stage IX bridges disciplinary divides. It connects artists with the spaces, audiences, and communities genuinely ready to engage with immersive work, rather than limiting opportunities to venues already actively engaged in the field. The primary research engine is the artistic creation process. The working stays (e.g. ‘residencies’) will generate insights across three research groups: ‘pedagogy, knowledge exchange & documentation’, ‘sustainable production workflows’, and ‘audience engagement & experience’.

Global collaboration

The Stage IX consortium will receive the support of several international collaborators, such as the ARTIS Planetarium, The Max Planck NYU Center for Language, Music and Emotion, Theater Dortmund (Academy for Theatre and Digitality), Zurich University of the Arts (Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology), IT University of Copenhagen (XTREME), CYENS Centre of Excellence, Venice Immersive, PHI, Society for Arts and Technology (SAT), and the Watermill Center.

About the CIIIC programme

This grant is awarded by the programme “Artistic & Design Research for Immersive Experiences (ADRIE)”, which is a part of CIIIC (Creative Industries Immersive Impact Coalition). CIIIC is the National Growth Fund programme of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science intended to establish the Netherlands as the leading international authority in the field of Immersive Experiences. Stage IX is one of the 5 consortia that was selected through phase 1a of the ADRIE process and is now allowed to build a full programme. ‘I am impressed with both the quantity and the quality of the plans that the IX consortia of makers and designers, producers, cultural organisations and researchers from universities and universities of applied sciences were able to create in a relatively short window, while collaborating with national and international partners. The selected five new collaborations will undoubtedly spark many new conceptual directions in IX, ’ says Syb Groeneveld, executive director of the Creative Industries Fund NL.