Dan Koop
Dan Koop is an Artist, Curator-Producer and Facilitator working in public and unusual spaces. Creatively, he makes performance works in unexpected and public spaces that engage audiences to become participants. Professionally, he has worked for contemporary multi artform venues and festivals in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and London. As a Facilitator, he has hosted conferences for hundreds, lectured at several universities in Melbourne and works as a conduit between community groups and arts organisations. He holds a Masters of Public Art from RMIT University and is undertaking a PhD with Deakin University.
As an Artist, Dan has created covid-safe site specific performance works Hear Here (2021 Castlemaine State Festival) and The Market Record (2021 Fuse Darebin Festival); and previous works for Hotel Obscura (2016 FOLA), Going Nowhere (2014 Arts House) and the Green Room Award winning The Stream / The Boat / The Shore / The Bridge (2012 Next Wave). A special interest is working with young people with whom Dan has created several performance works including First on the Ladder (Polyglot 2018-19), Kids in Fashion (Adele Varcoe and 2019 Melbourne Fringe), The Children’s Party (House of Muchness and 2018 Melbourne Fringe), Small Voices Louder (2017 Perth International Arts Festival) and Kids vs Art (Field Theory and 2016 Melbourne Fringe).
As a Producer, Dan has worked at Battersea Arts Centre (UK), Brisbane Powerhouse, Sydney Festival, Theatre Works St Kilda, Dancehouse Carlton and was the Creative Program Producer for the 2015-17 Melbourne Fringe Festivals. At Melbourne Fringe Dan produced the Made By Fringe program (working with artists such Madeleine Flynn & Tim Humphrey, Robin Fox, All The Queens Men, Ben Landau & Alex Walker and Field Theory) and facilitated the Artist Development Programs for emerging artists (including Deadly Fringe with ILBIJERRI Theatre Co & Wilin Centre, Compass Mentor Program with Arts Access Victoria and the Forest Exchange Lab with The SUBSTATION, City of Maribyrnong and City of Hobsons Bay).
As a Facilitator, Dan has lectured undergraduate classes in Public Art, Festival Management, Artist Development and Creative Audio. With his collaborator Asha Bee Abraham, Dan co-hosted four Supper Club discussion events for Arts House in 2017-18. Dan has been trained in Open Space facilitation by Improbable Theatre’s Nick Sweeting and hosted numerous creative workshops for emerging and mid-career artists, discussions events for public audiences and cultural tours.
In 2021 Dan was the Senior Producer of Flash Forward, supporting a team of 16 Site Producers, to deliver a covid-responsive program of artistic commissions by Melbourne artists, including 40 public artworks in city laneways and the recording and release of 40 albums. The program paid commissioning fees to hundreds of out of work artists, employed dozens of arts industry professionals and provided the people of Melbourne with exciting reasons to re-visit our city so sorely impacted by covid restrictions and economic contraction.