.
The role of the producer is a topic that risks becoming fashionable at present, but the place of the producer in the ecology of the arts is much too important and longstanding a theme to be a mere vogue. In this country, many would agree we have a considerable game of catch-up to pursue. Certainly, the unfulfilled potential is there.
My personal hope is that this book can help in a process where policy priorities include not just a focus on the individual artist and on institutional or organisational structures, but on the producer's role as well, whatever structural form that takes. My view is that there should be a greater producer-led infrastructure in this country across the arts, and that producing talent should be spotted, nurtured and responded to, much as artistic talent is.
The people profiled here are amongst those who make a real difference to what is created, experienced and understood in this country. We should all be eager to help the new generation of producers emerge across the range of landscapes, contexts and nooks and crannies which inspire them, and to create the structures that will empower their potential. They are amongst those who will help unlock the possibilities and complexities of the paths that lie ahead.
We would like to thank each of the producers featured in this book for their extraordinary generosity and openness.We have ourselves been inspired by their responses to Kate Tyndall, and with them we acknowledge all those other producers, many not in this book, whose imagination, bravery and integrity make great work happen. Thanks to Sian Alexander, Karen Bateson, Helen Sprott and Andrew Wolffe for their contributions to this publication. And to Kate Tyndall who channelled these fourteen compelling stories with enormous empathy, thoughtfulness and care -thank you.
Please visit the website and share your stories and responses to the book at www.the-producers.org
Roanne Dods
David Micklem
Kate Tyndall is an independent consultant and writer who works with artists and organisations across the contemporary performing arts. After working as a general manager in contemporary dance and with the London International Festival of Theatre, and as part of the Arts Council of Great Britain’s Touring Department, she became an independent consultant in the mid-1990s and has combined strategic consultancy and advice giving with periods of direct responsibility for running arts organisations, programmes and projects. She has worked in a number of ways with the Arts Council, helping to develop policy, running grant programmes, undertaking strategic reviews, and working as Acting Head of Theatre at Arts Council London in 2004. Throughout her career, she has worked alongside a number of extraordinary individuals and organisations striving to fulfil the producer’s role beyond the few established norms, and has a long standing belief in the significance and underdeveloped potential of what they do.