Team
LADA Staff
Mary Osborn │ Director
Before joining LADA as Director in 2024, Mary Osborn (she/her) built a reputation for bold projects and programmes as a producer and curator. As Senior Creative Development Producer at Battersea Arts Centre, she shaped BAC’s programme of commissions 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’. Mary co-led radical performance collective Steakhouse Live, and has a long-standing collaboration with Danish curator Emma Møller (osborn&møller). Mary is currently a Trustee at Fierce, and on the Buzzcut Advisory Board.
Image Christa Holka Photography
Jo Hughes (Blackdot) │ Accounts Manager
Blackdot is a bookkeeping and accounts management company specialising in the UK arts sector. Founded in 2008 by Jo Hughes, Blackdot has worked with Live Art Development Agency for over a decade, developing a strong understanding of its work and context. Jo’s background in arts administration informs the way Blackdot works, with a practical understanding of the sector. Blackdot is a small team of qualified bookkeepers, registered with the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers, and committed to supporting the work of arts organisations through long-term working relationships.
kane stonestreet │ Live & Digital Engagement Coordinator
kane stonestreet (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.
Image Theo Rumsby
Becky Plotnek │ Interim Administrator
Becky (they/she) is a creative arts producer who makes things happen. They support irreverent, joyful, experimental work that is resistant to the way things are. They have produced work for a wide mix of artists across Live Art, theatre and cabaret, including Midgitte Bardot (AKA Tamm Reynolds), an* neely & moa johannsson, and Hannah Maxwell. They are currently producing the UK’s first professional Jewish pantomime at JW3. They also are producer for Nick Cassenbaum’s REVENGE: After The Levoyah (Fringe First award winner 2024). Becky co-curated DICE Festival which presented at Summerhall (Edinburgh Fringe 2018) and Barbican (2021).
Image Moa Johansson
Miriam Al-Hussona │ Archives & Collections
I (she/her) am a LAHP PhD student in Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College London. My research focuses on issues of marginalisation along gendered, classed, racial and ethnic lines in south Iraq in the context of various power dynamics and state politics. Specifically, I use an ethnographic and historical approach to examine these issues within the cultural performance industry in Iraq. Prior to starting my PhD, I worked as a data analyst and data scientist for a few tech start-ups within the market tech industry. My last role also involved advising on ethical issues relating to the company’s data solutions.
Board of Trustees
Robin Deacon │ Co-Chair
Robin Deacon (he/him) is an artist, writer, educator and curator. His performances, lectures and videos have been presented at conferences and festivals in the UK and internationally, and his writings on the practice and ethics of performance reenactment and documentation have been published by Routledge, NYU Press and Intellect Live. Robin was Professor and Chair of Performance at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for a decade, and since 2021 has been the Artistic Director and CEO of SPILL Festival.
Image Jon Wright
Cat Sheridan │ Co-Chair
Cat Sheridan (she/her) is a disabled queer producer and programmer. As Senior Producer at Unlimited, she leads national and international commissioning, partnerships and strategy across 38 countries. She is also Managing Director of an award-winning queer therapy service. Having built a career over more than a decade as a senior leader and creative producer across Scotland, Cat is committed to building bold, equitable programmes that reimagine who gets to create, lead and thrive in the cultural sector.
Image Sam Wrighter
Gill Lloyd │ Treasurer
Gill Lloyd (she/her) was the Co-Director of Artsadmin for 33 years until she retired in 2018, having spearheaded the organisation’s £6 million building purchase and renovation among other initiatives. Currently she is Chair of People Show, Co-Chair of Madlove and a Trustee of Hay2Timbuktu twinning charity. Gill has specialist knowledge and extensive interest in Southern African arts and culture and has undertaken a lot of South African human rights campaigning activity on behalf of artists working alongside veteran politician Helen Suzman, both pre and post apartheid.
Gill with Murphy
Katy Baird
Katy Baird (she/her) is an artist, curator and producer. Her practice is centred around the desire to create a shared space that can be both welcoming and radical. As the Artistic Director of Home Live Art in Hastings, Katy is committed to developing new audiences for Live Art and building strong local communities. Her performance work explores the intersections of class, gender and sexuality, and has been presented in arts centres and performance festivals, as well as in squat parties, clubs and raves.
Image Maurizio Martorana
Angela Bartram
Angela Bartram (she/her) is an artist and artistic researcher working individually and collaboratively with objects, sound, video, print, curation, performance event and published text. She is Professor of Contemporary Art and Co-Lead of the Creative and Cultural Academic Theme and Research Centre at the University of Derby, and Vice-President of the Society for Artistic Research.
Ansuman Biswas
Ansuman Biswas (he/him) has an international, interdisciplinary practice ranging from living with wandering minstrels in India, being employed as an ornamental hermit in the English countryside, and organising grassroots activists in Soweto, to touring with Björk in New York, collaborating with neuroscientists in Arizona, and being Musical Director at the Globe theatre. He is Lecturer in Live Art and Contemporary Performance at Queen Mary University of London and a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Gabriela Román González
Gabriela Román González (she/her) is a curator and cultural strategist working across exhibitions, live programmes, and interdisciplinary art formats, with a practice centred on contemporary and process-led art, audience engagement, and more porous models of exhibition-making across disciplines. Her experience spans major institutions, festivals, and independent platforms, including Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto, Tate Modern, Galleria Continua, ZONAMACO, and Frieze London. She is Head of Exhibitions and Programmes at CASA, London, and founder of Not The Owners and Mentoras Creativas, two organisations through which she develops curatorial work and supports artists and cultural practitioners to deepen their practice, and build more sustainable professional trajectories across international contexts.
Jon Opie
Jon Opie (he/him) is Head of Artist Support for Acme, a London-based organisation providing over 500 affordable long-term studios for visual artists and a programme of awards and international residencies. He oversees relationships with artists, enabling them to sustain their studio practices. Previously he was the Deputy Director of Jerwood Arts, a funder offering grants for artist support programmes. He led on creating bursaries and fellowships, centring artists’ needs and inclusive practices. Previously he was a Trustee of Cardboard Citizens Theatre Company.
Image Hydar Dewachi
Julian Warren
Julian Warren (he/him) is an archivist based in Bristol. He began his career at Arnolfini, before moving to Bristol Archives where he became City Archivist. In 2017 he moved to the University of Bristol Theatre Collection to take up the role of Keeper of the live art and digital archives, before becoming Head of the Theatre Collection in 2023. Julian is committed to working towards the long-term preservation of the documents of live art and performance so these can remain accessible to everyone who may like to encounter them, now and in the future.
Image Hydar Dewachi
Former LADA Staff include:
Maria Agiomyrgiannaki, Katy Baird, Daniel Brine, Season Butler, Tania Camara, Uzma Chowdhury, Hannah Crosson, Rhiannon Davies, Alex Eisenberg, Vivian Chinasa Ezugha, Ben William Harris, Ruth Holdsworth, Justin Hunt, Lois Keidan, Jess Latowicki, Finn Love, CJ Mitchell, Andrew Mitchelson, Ankita Mukherji, Amy Poole, Ria Righteous, Joseph Morgan Schofield, Barak adé Soleil, Catherine Ugwu, Megan Vaughan, Aaron Wright.
Former LADA Board members include:
Laura Dajao, Susan Sheddan, Peter Law, Claire MacDonald, Amit Rai, Ansuman Biswas, Gini Simpson, Cecilia Wee, Marquard Smith, Stephen Cleary, Emmy Minton, Katherine Araniello, Mark Ball, Sonia Boyce, Chris Dorley Brown, Simon Casson, Andrew Caleya Chetty, Kelli Dipple, Isaac Julien, Keith Khan, Claire Hungate, Dominic Johnson, Jonathan May, Shaheen Merali, Caroline Miller, Alan Read, Katy Sender, Kate Stratton, Andrea Tarsia, Andy Wansell, Aaron Wright, Jacob Wright.
