Arts Council England and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation are delighted to announce the publication of The Producers: Alchemists of the Impossible. This new book celebrates the lives of fourteen extraordinary individuals working in the arts and aims to provide an inspiration to an emerging generation of arts practitioners who see themselves reflected in the qualities and attributes of the producers described here. In looking at a few remarkable individuals, the book seeks to celebrate the many producers who have played a central role in the development of the arts in the UK and beyond.

Arts Council England, the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and a number of our partners and stakeholders are engaged in on-going debate about how the role of the producer can be better recognised and how individuals with the vision and energies of the producer might be located more centrally within an arts ecology. It is hoped that this book will resonate with artists and arts practitioners, policymakers, cultural thinkers and funders and contribute to conversations about the unique place of the producer within our changing cultural landscape.

This book marks a moment in time. We have chosen to focus necessarily on just fourteen producers who we hope represent a range of perspectives from across different areas of arts practise and stages of career. We could have chosen many others or selected fourteen different individuals who align themselves with the talents expressed in this book. To capture further contributions and stimulate dialogue www.the-producers.org has been set up to provide a longer-term forum and repository.

Roanne Dods

David Micklem

June 2007