What we do

Values-Driven 

Artsadmin works with artists, communities and collaborators in the development of creative work and conversations. Ensuring the success of these requires us to be led by our values, and to live them across everything we do.

• We nurture vision from artists at all stages of their careers, with care and support.
• We take action to make projects happen locally, nationally and internationally with creativity and ambition.
• We cultivate connection, with and in-between artists, communities, programming partners  and funders with generosity and humility.
• We are actively interested in progressing equity, in the projects we produce and the ways we work with commitment and empathy.

What we do

We are a collaborative partner, working with artists as they explore and develop new projects, contexts and ways of working. Everything we do is part of a unique curated artistic programme, from one-off hour-long creative support sessions at our east London home Toynbee Studios to multi-year global partnership platforms.

How we do it

Project-Based Everything we do is project-based. Some are artist-led, and some are conceived and led by Artsadmin. We work to develop and produce these projects and, with venue and festival partners, bring them to audiences locally and globally. At its heart, our work is about collaborating with artists so their projects find the right context, partners and support.

We champion projects that speak to the ‘here and now’ really clearly, where artists are asking questions that feel urgent and essential. We value projects that align with our long-standing insistence that the arts have something to say about the climate emergency and social injustice. We are drawn to projects with an intuitive and rigorous enquiry rather than those making statements about the way the world is or should be. 

The work we produce is neither defined or confined by any one particular artform. We produce creative, risk-taking projects that connect with the DNA of Artsadmin and the post-punk political context in which it was founded in 1979.

The reach of our work

The Artsadmin team continued to support artists and deliver ground-breaking projects, despite challenges around the pandemic and Brexit.  From April 2021 to March 2022, we:

• Supported 745 artists directly.
  We did this through paid opportunities – from touring their work to new commissions like The Making of Pinocchio by Cade & MacAskill – and artist support programmes, such as free one-to-one creative support sessions, online skills development workshops and studio space to develop their work.
• Supported 168 artists and 102 creative freelancers with paid opportunities, continuing our commitment to support the cultural sector through this precarious time.
• Brought artists’ projects to audiences of 130,640 globally. Alongside our Toynbee Studios programme and What Shall We Build Here climate and community festival in east London, we toured to 13 towns, cities and rural locations in the UK and to 9 countries worldwide such as YARA + DAVINA’s Arrivals + Departures and Tania El Khoury’s As Far As Isolation Goes.  
• Delivered 158 artists’ events and were part of 18 festivals. 
• Remained committed to diversifying our artistic programme in line with our Anti-Racism Policy and Action Plan: 56% were led by artists who identify as Black and global majority people or involved majority participations of Black and global majority people. 
• Reopened Toynbee Studios as soon as it was safe to do so and welcomed back over 34,000 artists and creatives to our offices, rehearsal spaces, café and public events programme.  

Artsadmin is a lead partner on an international artistic fellowship, Another Route, in collaboration with Forest Fringe, Total Theatre Network and a consortium of UK independent performance companies.