Profile
I am a co-founder and the Director of the Live Art Development Agency (LADA) and co-teach across MA Live Art, a unique postgraduate taught programme in the Department of Drama at QMUL.
I was Director of Live Arts at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London from 1992 to 1997 where I devised a year-round programme of new performance and initiated numerous new ventures for established and emerging artists. Prior to the ICA, I was responsible for national policy and provision for Performance Art and interdisciplinary practices at the Arts Council of Great Britain, and before that, I led on programming and marketing for the Midland Group, Nottingham and Theatre Workshop, Edinburgh. I was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Dartington College of Arts in 1999 and an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Gothenburg in 2015.
I was made an Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary in 2009. LADA has collaborated closely with QMUL Drama for two decades on projects including the annual East End Collaborations and Fresh platforms for emerging artists, and 2006’s Performance Studies international: Performing Rights programme; this relationship was consolidated in the signing of a formal Memorandum of Understanding between LADA and QMUL in 2018.
Postgraduate Teaching
I have contributed to teaching across MA Live Art, including the seminars Live Art Histories and Disciplines of Live Art.
Research
Research Interests:
My primary research interests include:
- Live Art in the UK, Europe and internationally
- Cultural industries and arts management
- Live Art, activism and social change
- Live Art and archives
Recent and On-Going Research
I contribute articles on performance to journals and publications and give presentations on performance at festivals and conferences in Britain and internationally.
I edit a range of publications as part of LADA’s work in publishing. LADA is one of the world’s leading Live Art publishers, specialising in titles on influential ideas and practitioners, artist-led publications and editions, Box Set artworks, resources and tools, and free online publications. LADA also partners with leading publishing houses and, in collaboration with Intellect Books, publishes the ‘Intellect Live’ series on influential artists working at the edges of performance; the series is characterized by lavishly illustrated and beautifully designed books, created through close collaborations between artists and writers, each of which is the first substantial publication dedicated to an artist’s work
Publications
Edited Books
Because of Love: Franko B’s Story, LADA, 2018
(with Harriet Curtis and Aaron Wright), The Live Art Almanac Volume 4, LADA/Oberon Books, 2016
(with CJ Mitchell), Programme Notes: Case Studies for Locating Experimental Theatre, revised and expanded second edition, co-editor, LADA/Oberon, 2013
(with Aaron Wright), The Live Art Almanac: Volume 3, co-editor, LADA/Oberon, 2013
(with CJ Mitchell), Access All Areas: Live Art and Disability, co-editor, LADA, 2012
(with DASH), M21: From the Medieval to the 21st Century, LADA/DASH, 2012
Essays
I have recently contributed essays to the following books and exhibition catalogues:
Ostojić, Tanja, ed., Lexicon of Tanjas Ostojić, introduction, LADA/Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka, 2018
Kühl, Christiane, ed., Where Are We Now: Positions on the Here and Now, essay, Steirischer Herbst, Graz, 2017
La Ribot: Occuppatioon!, essay, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin 2017
Holly Revell, David Hoyle: Parallel Universe, essay, 2017
Wee, Cecilia, ed., Perform, Experience, Re-Live, London: Tate Publishing, 2016
Harvie, Jen and Lois Weaver, ed., The Only Way Home Is Through the Show: Performance Work of Lois Weaver, Intellect Live, Bristol and London: Intellect/LADA, 2015
Katherine Araniello, The Dinner Party Revisited, LADA/Unlimited, 2015
Evans, David., ed., Manuel Vason: Double Exposures, Bristol and London: Intellect/LADA, 2014
Calonje, Teresa, ed., Live Forever: Collecting Live Art, Konig, 2014
Connolly, Mary Jane, ed., Throwing the Body into the Fight: a Portrait of Raimund Hoghe, Intellect Live, Bristol and London: Intellect/LADA, 2013