COLLECTIVE PRACTICE – ARTIST CARE SERIES

A series of knowledge sharing sessions focusing on artist care for artists and the industry. The role of art is to reflect the present. Here an intentional ethic of care becomes important, because we know that the local and global context affects artists differently depending on identities and experiences. During the spring of 2026, HAUT will run a knowledge program on artist care, based on practices founded in a black feminist ethics of care.

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Artist care series
‍COLLECTIVE PRACTICE – ARTIST CARE is a newly developed knowledge framework that takes its point of departure in our context here and now, recognizing a lack of a common language to articulate lived experiences of inequality in Denmark – in Danish. At HAUT, we seek to create the best conditions for artists and artistic development, and we have hired the duo Elizabeth Löwe Hunter and Phyllis Akinyi as part of a focused effort on the development of intersectional* care and knowledge sharing for performing artists.
COLLECTIVE PRACTICE – ARTIST CARE thus draws on Hunter and Akinyi's long-standing care practices, and offers presentations, conversations and somatic exercises.The prioritization of care emerges from HAUTs recognition that the artist's life is often precarious. This means that the artistic process coexists with and is influenced by the artists' material circumstances in everyday life. In addition to the material frameworks and resources we provide, we strive to be present with an attention to how structural inequalities shape the artists we invite to residencies.
COLLECTIVE PRACTICE – ARTIST CARE aims to help us – artists and institutions alike – develop a common vocabulary and a conceptual framework to better identify our challenges. The idea is that we must be able to name our needs in order to be able to address and accommodate them, and at HAUT we believe that it is necessary to recognize differences in order to work towards social justice.
Parts of the program will be for both artists and institutions, while others will be for artists alone.
Photo:
Name of Artist
Program

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March 17th, 3–5 p.m. - ABC: intersectional notions of needs

For artists and industry professionals. 30 participants.

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March 24th, 3–6 p.m. - Dreaming Aloud

This event focuses on artists. Vi can host 10 participants and will prioritize those who can join for both events on March 24th and 31st. Sign up via phyllis@hautscene.dk.

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March 31st, 3–5 p.m. - Needs and Experiences

This event focuses on artists. Vi can host 10 participants and will prioritize those who can join for both events on March 24th and 31st. Sign up via phyllis@hautscene.dk.

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April 9th, 5–7 p.m. & April 16th, 5–7 p.m. - COLLECTIVE READINGS

Facilitated by Sall Lam Toro with a focus on care practices. Sign up via Billetto.

Kreditering

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Concept:

Phyllis Akinyi (she/they) is a choreographer, performer, and flamenco researcher whose practice is rooted in rhythm, storytelling, and vessel work, centering care, embodied knowledge, and strategies of resistance.

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Elizabeth Löwe Hunter (she/her) is an independent researcher, educator, and cultural analyst whose work examines racialization, belonging, and representation in Denmark, specifically through Black feminist ethics of care.

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Theoreticians:

We credit Patricia Hill Collins for a Black feminist ethics of care and Audre Lorde for notions of caring for oneself. And we recognize Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Combahee River Collective, Angela Davis, bell hooks, all of the above mentioned and many, many more for analyzing intersectionality before it was coined by Kimberly Crenshaw in 1989. Importantly, we credit Ylva Habel, Lena Sawyer, Philomena Essed, Gloria Wekker, Fatima El-Tayeb, and Françoise Vergès, among others, for anchoring intersectional approaches within our European context.

Note om intersektionalitet

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Intersectionality is a concept developed by Black feminists that we adapt to our context from the US-American context. Through a feminist starting point, we make space for multiple perspectives and artistic expressions that lie outside the norm across both society and the Danish performing arts scene. When we express the importance of an intersectional approach, it means that we acknowledge the ways in which different forms of oppression operate simultaneously – ways in which artists experience interlocking inequalities. We work from the notions that if we take good care of the most vulnerable among us, everyone benefits. Therefore, we take as our starting point a Black feminist ethic of care and cite, for example, Patricia Hill Collins, Audre Lorde, Kimberly Crenshaw, the Combahee River Collective, and others.

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