Art and Other Futures
A podcast about the potential of art and how people, organisations and communities are using it to change the world
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Martyn Evans - Creative Director, Landsec UK
07/09/2025
Martyn Evans - Creative Director, Landsec UK
In this episode I’m talking with Martyn Evans, Creative Director at Landsec with responsibility for developing and delivering the company’s public art and cultural engagement programmes. From the annual commissions on fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square to the Angel of the North or a Banksy appearing in Cheltenham, public art projects are the most visible and accessible manifestations of contemporary art practice in our society. They are also uniquely divisive, sometimes becoming well loved icons of communities and places, they can also be reviled stoking anger, protest or disenfranchisement. The evolving use and role of public art is equally fluid, shifting between temporary and permanent, memorial, celebration, social critique, decoration and activism. Public art also plays an important role in articulating how we define public space in an increasingly privatised world and the debates we have about our history and culture. I spoke to Martyn at Landsec’s head quarters in Central London, talking about the trajectory of his career and approach to developing cultural programmes - his priorities at Landsec and how he’s working to change the ways developers understand working with art.
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Francesca Anfossi - Rochester Square: art, garden, food
07/08/2025
Francesca Anfossi - Rochester Square: art, garden, food
In this episode I’m talking with Francesca Anfossi, artist and co-founder of Rochester Square in London. In 2016 Francesca and her partner Eric bought Rochester Square a derelict plant nursary in Camden, North London and established a dynamic Ceramics Studio and Garden dedicated to socially engaged projects and artistic collaborations. Drawing together the central elements of Francesca’s creative practice. Today Rochester Square is a thriving creative community supporting artists to make new work, encompassing a kitchen garden and community resource offering open days, schools workshops, ceramics library and Pot Shop. I spoke to Francesca at Rochester Square about what drives her creative practice, building cultural communities and power of ceramics to bring people together. We talked about the challenges of taking on a protected square, the value of not having a plan and letting things grow organically. LEARN MORE
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Caroline Norbury - Creative UK: Strengthening the Creative Industries
03/20/2025
Caroline Norbury - Creative UK: Strengthening the Creative Industries
In this episode I'm speaking with Caroline Norbury CEO and Founder of Creative UK. Creative UK as founded in 2021 with the objective of supporting creative businesses across England by connecting them to the money, markets and networks they needed to grow. The Creative Industries are among the most successful sectors in the UK’s economy contributing more than £124bn gross value in 2022 and employing more 15-29 year olds than any other sector. Despite this value and success the future of the creative industries is under threat from the dismantelling of primary and secondary arts education provision, lack of developmental funding and limited pathways to employment and experience for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Caroline joined Creative UK with a background in film and the creative industries and I spoke to her at their offices in London about their recently published manifesto laying out a framework of support for the creative industries, education and business development, her work with government and the ways culture can shape the social and economic future of the UK. LEARN MORE
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Leslie Ramos: Philanthropy and Fundraising for the Arts
03/20/2025
Leslie Ramos: Philanthropy and Fundraising for the Arts
In this episode I'm speaking with Art Historian and Philanthropy Advisor Leslie Ramos. Leslie's extensive experience around philanthropy, fundraising and patronage for arts organisations led her to found The Twentieth - an arts and philanthropy advisory. Alongside numerous roles working with non profits, in 2023 she published Philanthropy in the Arts: A game of give and take with Lund Humprhies. We spoke at her home in London about the ways arts organisations of all sizes can better attract private giving and the importance of supporting grass roots culture. LEARN MORE:
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Elinor Morgan, Artistic Director Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art: Museum Communities
03/31/2025
Elinor Morgan, Artistic Director Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art: Museum Communities
In this episode I'm speaking with Elinor Morgan, a writer and curator and Artistic Director at MiMA - the Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art. For more than 10 years MIMA, part of Teesside University, has been at the forefront of producing ideas and programmes transforming the ways that museums operate and interact with their communities and publics, radically changing approaches to working with collections and mission of the museum. In 2014 under the directorship of Alistair Husdon, the institution apodted the principals of Arte Util – useful art – a conception of art and institutional operations devised by artist Tanya Brugera and curators at the Queens Museum, New York, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and Grizedale Arts in Coniston which seeks to develop new methods and social formations to address societal issues traditionally considered the domain of the state that are part of an interconnected historical trajectory shaping the contemporary world from social justice and inequality to education and mental health. Under the leadership of Elinor Morgan and Laura Sillars the programme at MIMA has evolved a ground breaking approach to community collaboration and placing the story of the region and its people at the heart of their work; creating generative opportunities for change through art, learning, social engagement and professional development. Prior to MIMA, Morgan curated international public art projects, residencies, exhibitions, public and learning programmes, working at OUTPOST, Wysing Art Centre, Eastside Projects as well as independent projects. Elinor joined MIMA in 2015 drawn to the organisation’s reputation for placing the communities that surround it at the centre of it’s programmes, thinking and mission. LEARN MORE
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