“time to change the story”
Blog – how can we hear more and different voices about the future of funded culture?
Sat 23rd May 2020
“time to change the numbers”
Blog – looking at how Arts Council England’s investment could be used to directly fund 3,000 artists and 500 community venues
Sun 10th May 2020
“time to change”
Blog – as well as thinking through the challenges of next few months, we need to think about longer-term and how subsidised culture emerges in a way that better supports communities and artists. Some thoughts on how…
Sat 25th April 2020
“The switch in headspace between childcare and writing about creativity has proved to be…err…challenging”
BLOG – a quick update on book writing and news on starting a practical climate project with the kids – 2nd March
“I felt empowered and informed – it gave me the language and skills to have difficult discussions”
CHAPTER – this is the fourth ‘scratch’ for a book called Everyday Uses for Creativity in Public Life – Feb 1st 2020
This is a story about my general election and the search for a different kind of democracy.
“a boy in my class answered a question using his imagination and he got a warning”
CHAPTER – this is the third ‘scratch’ of some text for a book I am writing called Everyday Uses for Creativity in Public Life – Dec 1st 2019
“I want to better understand the value of our own creative thinking & our creative potential”
CHAPTER – this is the second ‘scratch’ chapter of a book I am writing called Everyday Uses for Creativity in Public Life – Nov 1st 2019
“I think there is less written about the role of creativity in transforming public life”
CHAPTER – this is the first ‘scratch’ chapter of a book I am writing. It’s working title is Everyday Uses for Creativity in Public Life – Oct 1st 2019
“the chances are that if there is a backlash then we won’t hear about it”
THREAD – showing my support for the new 10 year strategy by Arts Council England
“Leaving Battersea – things to pass on”
BLOG – sharing some stuff I learnt (slowly) as an artistic director. My personal favourite is thing four.
“Too many cultural organisations operate on a self-replicating model”
CHAPTER – this was for a book called What Would Joan Littlewood Say? Published by Gulbenkian with interviews conducted, edited and compiled by Lyn Gardner
“Meeting Sarah turned out to be a meeting that set a path for my 21st century”
PRESENTATION – in praise of Sarah Golding (creator of The Good Neighbour, Town Hall Cherubs and Return to Elm House) at her leaving do in April 2019
“My proposal is that we set up a network of citizen assemblies which take a creative approach”
PRESENTATION – this was for a NESTA conference in Bristol called “What could the future look like if creativity were at the heart of it?” I talked about creativity and policy-making.
“Because President Trump is coming on the same day we re-open the Grand Hall”
BLOG – about the picture we took outside Battersea Arts Centre
“We have let product rule over process”
PRESENTATION – to a conference which explored socially engaged practice – called Uncommon Ground at The Lowry in Salford
“As we look towards the Phoenix Season we’ve been thinking about 5 questions”
PRESENTATION – an overview of the programme to re-open the Grand Hall at a press event on 13 Mar 2018 three years after the fire
“Instead of TED talks perhaps we could have TED actions?”
PRESENTATION – this was a TEDx talk in Wandsworth about learning through doing rather than listening to bloody talks
“Cultural centres need to be led by the passions, interests and concerns of the communities they serve”
BLOG – exploring how cultural centres can also be community centres – describing the foundation of the Co-Creating Change network
“We have to take responsibility that we have all been complicit in creating a system which has led to this moment”
BLOG – reflecting on the fire at Grenfell Tower and making a commitment
“One by one we went round the table and each Trustee said it was terrible”
PRESENTATION – this is about Scratch, being told your idea is rubbish and the emotional process of change – at a symposium called Creative Museums at Battersea Arts Centre
“Generation Z: it’s not a great label…it’s as if you are the last of your kind”
BLOG – asking why we don’t do more to promote a leading role for young people in the way cultural organisations are run and developed
“The leader of the free world is now a CEO”
ARTICLE – in preparation for a season of shows called Cash, Capitalism and Corporations this was a contribution to Run Riot
“The simple idea – that we should support everyone in our communities to be creative – continues to be seen as marginal”
PRESENTATION – this was a contribution to an Arts Council England event looking at future strategy for the cultural sector
“If a theatre decides that it is not working out with their newly appointed Artistic Director then the Chair should also resign”
BLOG – my reflections on the departure of Emma Rice from The Globe
“is it little wonder that we have an ongoing problem with a lack of diversity in theatre?”
BLOG – to explore ways in which the Edinburgh Fringe could be opened
“As you walk out from this hall don’t wait for permission from someone else to get started on something”
PRESENTATION – this was when I received an Honorary Doctorate from Roehampton University and I got to speak to all the students who had actually worked (and paid!) to get their honours
“To be honest, my optimism partly sprang from a dawning realisation that I was part of the reason that REMAIN lost and that LEAVE won”
BLOG – a response in the days after the 2016 referendum about what Brexit means for culture
“Your knowledge and understanding of what it takes to run a theatre was second to none”
BLOG – a tribute to the late Nicola Thorold
“my contribution to this conversation is captured in the words of the 1982 hit by Fun Boy Three and Bananarama”
BLOG – I wrote this for the National Lottery Community Fund (formerly Big Lottery) in response to their question What is the future of doing good over the next 10 years?
“There are some old-fashioned hierarchies inside our cultural spaces”
ARTICLE – this was an article for The Stage a year on from the Grand Hall fire about we can rethink the role of our theatres
“the complexity of our ecology has fed in to our most interesting projects”
BLOG – which explores Battersea Arts Centre’s new purpose to inspire people to take creative risks to shape the future
“The show is made by The Freedom Theatre who are based in the Jenin refugee camp in Palestine”
BLOG – about the visit of The Siege to Battersea Arts Centre in 2015
“We should put the prosecution on trial for being elitist and for seeking to create boundaries”
PRESENTATION – this was a playful debate which put “participation on trial” at Goldsmiths University in London – I argued that the whole premise of the debate was unhelpful
“Yesterday there was a fire at Battersea Arts Centre that destroyed the Grand Hall and Lower Hall”
A series of blogs in the days after the Grand Hall fire, plus an annual update, which tell the story of the fire and its aftermath
“What would our culture look like if arts organisations all thought of themselves as change-makers?”
PRESENTATION – I was asked to respond to the question “What is the value of culture?” at a What Next? meeting at Young Vic in London
“I think it’s good to question whether critics are covering the right shows”
BLOG – a response to Lyn Gardner’s blog in Guardian
“how it can encourage more innovative regional and London partnerships”
PARLIAMENTARY SUBMISSION – by the Collaborative Touring Network – made up of partners in Hull, Darlington, Torbay, Great Yarmouth, Gloucester, Thanet and London
“There is a risk that the arts are going the same way as the supermarkets”
BLOG – responding to a question from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation about how to refresh its strategy Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF) is a significant investor in arts, education and social justice programmes. Their Director, Martin Brookes, has been asking everyone a question: what should PHF do? It’s a great way […]
“here are 8 pragmatic ideas for how we change the relationship between artists and venues”
BLOG – this is a contribution to the #IllShowYouMine debate about how we change venues for the better
“how can new ideas from the periphery take centre stage?”
PRESENTATION – at a conference about Talent Development in which I challenge the idea of “talent” and promote the idea of all our potential
“I love pan-outs”
PRESENTATION – responding to the question “how can we be stronger together?” at Northern Stage in Edinburgh 2012
“It was liberating in a first meeting with Steve Tompkins to admit that I was making it up as I went along”
PRESENTATION – about BAC’s capital redevelopment – made in partnership with Steve Tompkins at the Theatres Trust Conference at Pleasance Theatre London
“Ten, twenty, thirty men and women are running towards us, shouting, some are riding on six foot canons, all are dressed as soldiers”
CHAPTER – about the value of vulnerability – for a book called Proximo Ato published in Brazil
“When I was growing up what excited me about theatre was that I saw it as the ‘anything can happen’ art form”
PRESENTATION – responding to the theme The Epic and the Intimate at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London
“I am a foreword fraud”
FOREWORD – in Cultural Leadership Reader – published in UK
“The following confession will probably mark the end of my producing career”
CHAPTER – in The Producers: Alchemists of the Impossible – published in UK
