Hand2Mouth is thrilled to announce that we are currently accepting proposals for participation in our spring 2027 New2You Festival! For this edition we will be commissioning a small number of works from local artists to be performed over a 9-day festival in early March.

The festival is tentatively scheduled to run March 5-13, 2027 at PICA Annex (Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, 15 NE Hancock St, Portland). Works should be 30-60 minutes in length and will be performed alongside a second work by another festival artist(s). Works chosen will receive a stipend of $750. 

Deadline for proposals is Oct 15 at 11:59pm.

For 2027 we are exploring VERSUS as a theme. Artists are open to interpret this theme as they wish. We look forward to seeing how our collective investigation into this theme will uncover untold stories, new ideas, and offer a reflection of human nature, our allegiances and loyalties, and the ways in which we address differences in our communities.

The festival will not only present original works by local generative artists but will also include a devising workshop and panel discussions.

About Versus:

The impetus for creating VERSUS is prompted by the time we are living in where party over country has become the rule in politics, where media pits the conservative right against the liberal left and everyone in the middle is lost. Working in collaboration with our company of artists, we began thinking about the ideas that shape us and guide us through life and how much of that is based on a tribal mentality. Our parents, friends, and culture all contribute to who we are as people and at the same time often leads us to a similar mindset. This tribalism feels good. We are in it together. We are working towards a common goal because our ideas are aligned. It would be easy to spend your life following these beliefs, but what happens when you are exposed to the rest of the world? What happens when you are challenged by new ideas?  

Today we are living in a disjointed American society where politics have become central to debates at the holiday table and conservatives and liberals are finding each other at odds. Could this binary be part of our versus mentality? Might we be losing the nuance of human feelings, the exceptions to the rule, the things that lie in the grey rather than the black and white? We will explore human nature and the how and why of the divides that both make us part of a greater cause and also bring us at odds with our neighbors.

History of New2You Festival

Hand2Mouth introduced the New2You Festival in Spring 2026 with the theme BODY & TECHNOLOGY.  

Artist in the first year of the festival included: Trick Pony (Emily Laue, Adam Fleming, and London Bauman); Olga Kravtsova and Piper Francis; Rui Dun with design and direction by Rachel Zimmerman; Maia McCarthy; Pepper Pepper; Nurys Herrera; Nathalie Owen FitzSimons; Daye Thomas and Dylan Hankins; and Hand2Mouth’s 2026 Youth Devising Residency ensemble.

The New2You Festival premiered at PICA and ran March 27-April 4, 2026. Photos by Sarah Marguier.