LADA Staff
Mary Osborn (Director)
Before joining LADA as Artistic Director in 2024, Mary Osborn (she/her) built a reputation for bold projects and programmes as a curator, producer and advocate for a more courageous Live Art and performance sector. As Senior Creative Development Producer at Battersea Arts Centre, she shaped BAC’s programme of commissions, productions and artist development programmes. Mary has worked closely with artists on significant projects such as Cade & MacAskill’s ‘The Making of Pinocchio’, Ama Josephine Budge’s ‘The Apocalypse Reading Room’, and the vacuum cleaner’s ‘Madlove Takeover’ as well as many others as a Creative Producer at Artsadmin and independently. During her time at Artsadmin she also developed the Toynbee Studios public programme including ‘What Shall We Build Here’ festival of art, climate and community. For 7 years, Mary co-led radical performance platform Steakhouse Live, and her long-standing collaboration with Danish curator Emma Møller (osborn&møller) who she met studying Theatre and Performance at Queen Mary University of London has resulted in international programmes including their own festival ‘Bodies Beyond Borders’ and three years as Curators-in-Residence with City of Women festival in Ljubljana. Mary is currently a Trustee at Fierce.
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Ruth Holdsworth
Ruth Holdsworth (Consultant) has been working in the arts for 20+ years, and has a background in supporting radical performance and inter-disciplinary practices, spanning live art, theatre and dance across live and digital platforms. Most recently she has been Director of Producing at National Theatre Wales (NTW). Prior to that she was Interim CEO at Chisenhale Dance Space, and Senior Producer at Chinese Arts Now. She has worked for organisations including MAYK, Theatre Bristol, London International Festival of Theatre and Artsadmin, and has freelanced with numerous artists and companies including Corali Dance Company, Thick & Tight, Impermanence Dance Theatre, and Whiskey Chow. Ruth has worked as producer, curator and writer and holds a PhD with Arnolfini and University of Bristol in ‘Curating Risk’, with a focus on the post-civil war practice of Lebanese artists. She is passionate about centring not only marginal but also marginalised voices, staying curious and engaged, and questioning the norm through theatre, performance and culture more broadly.
Willy Amott
Willy Amott (Operations Manager, they/he) joined LADA in October 2023. They are a project manager, producer and researcher whose work spans DIY drag cabaret, national artist development schemes, worldwide funding experiments, immersive experiential events, festival sets, club nights and community arts activities. Their practice centres care, wellbeing and accessibility through responsive and sustainable modes. They have a BA in English Literature and an MA in Film & Literature from the University of Birmingham, and have previously managed commercial venues.
Natalia Damigou-Papoti
Natalia Damigou-Papoti (Press & Communications Manager, she/her) joined LADA in December 2019. She is a writer and an independent cultural programmer and producer invested in feminist and queer frameworks and modes of collaboration. Natalia was working at CUNTemporary/Arts Feminism Queer and was a founding member of the interdisciplinary festival UNCENSORED (London 2019) which explored pornography at the intersection of art and activism. She has worked in press and communications for London-based events and festivals taking place in venues such as the ICA, Rich Mix, Camden People’s Theatre. Her background is in journalism and cultural criticism, writing mainly about gender, sexuality, feminist politics, and pop culture. She holds a BA in Journalism from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and an MA in Gender Studies from Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences.
Rosaleigh Harvey-Otway
Rosaleigh Harvey-Otway (Digital Projects and Resources, she/they) joined LADA in December 2019. She began her career in photography and production before moving into digital-focused roles, leading her to joining the team at LADA. Rosaleigh is also an artist and is currently studying an MA in Art and Ecology at Goldsmiths.
kane stonestreet
kane stonestreet (Unbound Co-Ordinator, they/he) re-joined LADA June 2024, having originally been a part of the team as an intern back in 2019. They have been active in Live Art for the past seven years, acting as an artist, collaborator, co-conspirator and producer. Their performance practice centres around transness and time, whilst their curation is preoccupied with dyke erotics and censorship. They hold a BA(Hons) in Sculpture and Environmental Art from Glasgow School of Art and studied Live Art (MA) at Queen Mary University of London.
