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Creative Support Sessions

Free one-to-one support for artists

An Artsadmin producer speaking to an artist
Photo by Saima Khalid

Artsadmin offers a unique and free one-to-one support service to UK-based artists working in contemporary performance, at any stage of their career

Sessions are informal and artist-led, offering an opportunity to talk about anything from artistic ideas and project development to funding and contexts for your work. The format of these sessions has been developed in response to artists’ feedback and research.

Who is the service for?
This is a free service that we offer to artists and creatives, which to us includes arts workers, producers, designers, production managers, curators, arts leaders, technicians, writers, dramaturgs, academics and thinkers.

What happens in a one-to-one support session?
This is a one hour session and you can meet with us once a year. These sessions are places of support, which means everything spoken about in these meetings is confidential. This also means this isn’t a place to pitch work that you hope to get produced at Artsadmin. The support team won’t share anything about you or your project with the rest of the Artsadmin producers.

What art forms can we support with?
Our team’s knowledge is in contemporary performance and live art.

How are the sessions delivered and what access support is available?
The sessions can be delivered in person at Toynbee Studios and online via Zoom. Our Zoom account can access Otter.ai captions embedded and we can offer BSL interpretation. Both will be provided upon request. Please indicate any access requirements when you book your session.

Read about access at Toynbee Studios here

What other organisations offer advice and support?
Not sure if our support is right for you? We’ve listed some other places below that offer artists support.

Book a session with one of our team

Please note: We’re fully booked for the rest of 2024. Keep an eye on our social media channels, where we will announce new Creative Support Sessions in 2025.

Please do take the time to read about the person you’d like to meet with before you book in. Each person has different experience, knowledge and expertise, and your experience will vary based on the person you meet.

Please only book one session. Due to capacity, we are only able to offer one session per artist each year.

I’ve been a Senior Producer with Artsadmin for 35 years, and have seen the organisation go from an ambitious dream to a reality in that time. I’ve produced a huge range of artists’ works; from site-specific, immersive, cross- generational performances to socially-engaged and participatory events and projects with an environmental focus or gallery-based exhibitions, performances, video installations and even festivals and conferences.

Some projects have been one-off commissions, whilst others have been co-produced and may have toured nationally/internationally. Alternatively some have been curated festivals or very locally based school or community focused. I’ve also coordinated festivals, produced artists’ publications and partnered on multiple European networks & initiatives.

I started my career as a Speech Therapist and trained and worked as a Dance & Drama Therapist. I also simultaneously informally trained in contemporary dance and dabbled in performance for a while as a founder member of a dance company with choreographers Jacob Marley and Liz Ranken.


Nora - a woman with mid-length curling brown hair
Nora Laraki

My name is Nora. I am a producer for Artsadmin and I use she/her pronouns. I am a Moroccan-German migrant creative producer, researcher, and curator. I speak German as well as English. I have worked in the art and community sector since 2015 and successfully delivered on a local, national, and international level producing a variety of projects: intergenerational-art projects, exhibitions, conferences, live art, film festivals, participatory community art projects and multi-disciplinary curatorial projects. I started my career working in grant-making for a community organisation funding a lot of community art projects, and also spent a couple of years working in a commercial visual art gallery in Mayfair. I have a PhD in Art History from the University of Kent focussing on the politics and responsibilities of corporate collecting. At Artsadmin, I am producing artist projects with significant international partnerships and touring. Aside from my work here, I am also part of the art collective Queering Space and a trustee for Koestler Arts.

I am passionate about de-colonial perspectives in art history and specifically interested in art and artists from the Middle East and North Africa. Though currently working more in theatre and live art, I’m very passionate about contemporary visual art as well. In the sessions I can be a sounding board for production, logistical, technical, and organisational aspects of your projects. I love a good spreadsheet, timeline and to-do list and may be able to help you with pragmatic advice on structuring your ideas into manageable plans and next-steps. If you are working on community art projects, I may be able to give you some ideas for organisations, trusts and foundations for collaborations or funding. 

Nene is pictured here smiling against a red background. They are person with a light brown complexion and they are wearing, a brown woolly jumper.
Photo by Holly Revell

I am the Interim Artist Support Programme Producer at Artsadmin, and my pronouns are they/them.
 
I am a producer and artist, and on a journey trying to learn to do both. Perhaps for this reason, I often find myself moving through and sitting in-between spaces and contexts.  

I have a background in contemporary performance, and I would wholeheartedly say this is where my passions and interests lie. I am also intensely interested in practices of communities that often under resourced but are offering unique perspectives whilst finding exciting and intricate ways to continue artmaking. 
 
I am queer person with lived experience of being Black, neurodivergent and fat which creates my frame of reference of how I live and work alongside people. 

I have an interest in transforming structures through engaging with artistic practice. I am dreaming of a sector that has a deep commitment to processes that challenge our systems and supports artist in demanding for more.  
 
About these sessions 
 
I will approach my time with you openly, as I am a curious person who can offer a listening ear and reassuring hand throughout our conversations. I’m prepared to give you room to think, dream and ask questions. If you’re willing, together, we can attempt to move deeper into your ideas and thoughts. 

I have experience in fundraising, building networks, project management, idea development, budgeting, facilitation and cross-collaboration.  

I welcome conversations with people who on verge of an idea, stuck, not sure what support is needed, unsure of where to go, in a shift of place or just looking for a chat. 

Please note: We can support you in idea developments and professional support, however this is not a place to pitch work to Artsadmin’s producers

If you can’t book using Calendly, please email us at creativesupport@artsadmin.co.uk or call 020 7247 5102.

Other support services for artists

Date Title Venue City
6–18 April 2021 Guest Artist Support Sessions: Nando Messias
23 March – 27 April 2021 Guest Artist Support Sessions: Vijay Patel
An Artsadmin producer speaking to an artist
Photo by Saima Khalid
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