Since winning the 1st Royal Holloway Entrepreneurship Aard and being awarded the Santander Prize, Merge Art Collective has continued its mission to further the artistic lives of its artists and audiences. In the past year, the collective has had the opportunity to perform in such prestigious venues as the Whitney Museum of American Art and has drawn media attention with an article published in I Care If You Listen, an online new music blog and video platform for contemporary classical music.
With the prize money, Merge Art Collective was able to purchase a new lighting system designed by Audiolux, a Deaf-run LED lighting hardware company that designs light displays that recognise rhythm in music and creates visual displays that respond to audio stimulus. This hardware will be incorporated into future Merge Art Collective performances to create a more immersive and inclusive performance experience for its artists and audiences.
Additionally, we were able to purchase a custom-designed platform for our visual poets to utilise during performances. This wooden platform not only elevates the poet to create a more visually stimulating performance space, but it also amplifies the vibrations emanating from the instruments so that D/deaf performers are able to more readily feel the pulse of the music.
The Santander prize has provided Merge Art Collective with the opportunity to expand upon our mission to create inclusive and accessible performance environments for all people, and the impact of our investments into new technology made possible by the Santander prize will extend well into our future as an organisation. We extend such a big thank you to those who made this opportunity possible for us!
Thank you, from the artists of Merge Art Collective
post written by: Mia Hartley (Founder and Co-Artistic Director)
Picture credits: Filip Wolak
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