Artsadmin offers free one‑to‑one micro‑mentoring for UK‑based artists, producers and creatives working in contemporary performance, supporting practice at any career stage.
What happens in a creative support session?
Creative Support sessions are a dedicated space for reflection, conversation, and guidance tailored to your creative journey. Whether you’re developing a new artistic idea, navigating a funding application, or figuring out the next steps for a project, our producers are here to listen, offer insight, and provide constructive feedback to help move your practice forward. We offer one session, per artist, per year and each session lasts between 45 minutes and one hour.
Who is the service for?
Creative Support sessions are a free service is open to UK‑based artists, producers and creatives working in contemporary performance, at any stage of their career. Our team’s experience is in contemporary performance, theatre, interdisciplinary practice, dance and socially engaged practice. We recommend reading about the person you’d like to meet with before booking, as each member of the team brings different experience and expertise.
How are the sessions delivered and what access support is available?
The sessions can be delivered in person at Toynbee Studios and online via Microsoft Teams. Our Teams account can offer closed captions. 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
Before booking, please take a moment to read What to expect from your Creative Support Session.
I have worked across the arts and charity sectors for over fifteen years, on everything from local community festivals to large-scale international ones, for big public venues and with artists staging works in car parks, swimming pools and in warehouses. I’ve also worked as a consultant and trainer for charities working in asylum and homeless support, supporting them with strategic development, fundraising and co-creation.
My background is largely operational, thinking about how we practically make things happen in ways that are accessible and sustainable for artists, creatives and audiences. I can also support you with bigger strategic pieces including company set-up, governance, and how to navigate legal structures in ways that still feel true to your values.
I will be most helpful if you can come to me with a specific need or question and will help push you to consider different angles and apply some rigour to decision-making and planning.
I’ve spent most of the last 25+ years working in the subsidised arts sector in and around London, in general management, operations and finance, including multiple strategic leadership roles. My motivation has always been the artistic work these sorts of roles exist to support and enhance, and connecting as many people as possible with that work.
I care about arts organisations and projects making the most of the resources they’ve got, and approaching work with care, clarity, safety and support, at the right pace for everyone involved. So I’m really interested in how people work together, and in policies, systems and tools that enable everyone to do their best work rather than getting in the way.
I’m comfortable digging into the numbers and the data, and enjoy helping people build confidence around budgets, reports and systems – I’m a trained accountant, but don’t hold that against me!
For this kind of mentoring session, I think I can be of most value to you in helping you think through a question or issue, feel more confident about next steps, or helping you to demystify a spreadsheet.
I’m Jialin, a Chinese-born producer, curator, and interdisciplinary artist working across moving image and writing. I’ve worked in both non-profit and commercial sectors, including D-Fuse, Queer East, Screen South, ESEA Music, and 88rising. My practice spans screenings, workshops, visual arts exhibitions, and performances, with a special interest in digital storytelling, spirituality, queerness, diaspora, and climate justice. As a mentor, I support emerging artists and cultural workers—particularly migrants and those from Global Majority backgrounds—by offering guidance on developing audiovisual artwork, navigating self-producing, and shaping public programmes that are thoughtful, accessible, and inclusive.
I’m Kamari, a Queer Artist and Creative Producer based in London. I graduated with distinction in Creative Producing from the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama. I’ve had the privilege of facilitating and producing a wide range of projects—immersive, site-specific, and commercial—spanning theatre, cabaret, dance, and community work across both the subsidised and commercial sectors. My producing specialisms include site-specific events, project management, intersectional accessibility, and supporting the wellbeing of Queer, Trans, Disabled, and Racialised artists.
I’m an experienced producer with over sixteen years of working in the arts sector, predominantly in cross-arts, interdisciplinary and socially engaged practice. The work I’ve produced has appeared in all sorts of places and contexts like theatres, festivals, found spaces, vacant shops, parks and playgrounds and has toured Nationally and Internationally.
I have a particular interest in co-creation and place-based practices and approaches and have produced a range of work with, for and by children and young people. I love cross sector partnership working and have a strong background and experience in arts and health initiatives.
I have previously worked with organisations such as the Barbican Centre and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and most recently as the Programme Director for Fevered Sleep. I also work as an independent producer for artists and organisations such as Akshay Sharma, Fearghus Ó Conchúir, Victor Esses, Micro Rainbow and Wookey Works. I’m a Trauma-Informed Yoga Practitioner, a graduate of the Clore Leadership Short Course, and have been a Trustee for Entelechy Arts since 2017.
I’ve been doing this (being a cultural producer/programmer/facilitator/ creative director) for quite a few years, across slightly different roles in the publicly-funded arts sector, so my advice and support might lean towards the strategic/big picture (Why are you doing this? Who is it for? What do you think will change or happen as a result?) and this can be quite confronting if you’re simply looking for a kind ear to listen.
I will ask you what you’re needing/wanting at the start of a session, before getting stuck in. I really enjoy throwing around ideas that place people (as participants and audiences) at the centre of a project, or could help you think about your idea from this angle. I’ve also produced work with/for/by lots of different types of communities and can help bring some rigour to any thinking about work that wants to engage specific groups.
I LOVE a budget, and am very happy to spend all the time with this as a starting point if helpful. I also like a bit of governance, organisational structure.
One small request, is that you use our time together to make good use of my experience to get what you need, not to pitch an idea or project to Artsadmin. There are other/better ways to do that which help keep these slots available for artists who need them for support. Thank you, and I can’t wait to connect!
I am an experienced cultural producer, curator and interdisciplinary artist. I am also currently completing a PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London, in Decolonial approaches to curating contemporary art exhibitions and am a Stuart Hall Foundation Fellow. Previous organisations I have worked with include Paul Mellon Centre, CVAN Southeast, Marlborough Productions and the University of London. Most recently, I was the Head of Programme at ONCA Gallery. As a mentor, I can support people with building inclusive community arts programmes, navigating cultural leadership roles, integrating intersectional approaches into their creative or academic work, and strengthening funding applications. Drawing on my experience in arts programming, activist research, and interdisciplinary collaboration, I aim to help others confidently bring radical, justice-focused ideas into institutional and grassroots spaces.
Please sign up to the Artsadmin Anchor to get notified about any new sessions, if they are fully booked.
If you have any questions please email us at creativesupport@artsadmin.co.uk
Other support services for artists
For artists looking for additional or alternative support, including support outside contemporary performance, we recommend searching our Anchor Directory. The directory brings together a wide range of UK-based organisations, networks, funders, studios, and professional development opportunities. You can use the filter in the directory to find support relevant to your practice and needs.
| 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 |
