SUSTAIN
Embedding artists in the creative industry
We provide advice and support to ensure Black artists thrive in the industry, including industry talks, mentoring, Q&As and surgery sessions.
Artists need strong pathways into the industry and a few footholds to keep them there.
We are offering a range of activities, including industry introductions, mentoring, Q&As and surgery sessions.
Tailored Support and Mentoring
Each year we will select 3 artists or companies whose work we are excited by and who we think could benefit from extra support. Over the course of a year, we will work with those artists to help take their careers to the next stage. Support will be tailored to the needs of the artists, but may include:
- One-on-one meetings with the MAKE team
- Last minute rehearsal space
- Mentoring sessions with relevant industry experts
- Reading and providing feedback for funding applications
- Dramaturgical support
2018’s artists/ companies are:
Xana is a live loop musician, sound designer, installation artist and poet. Xanas past work includes sound design for the ancestors came directed by Cecile Emeke commissioned for the Soul of a Nation: Art in the age of Black Power, a sound piece on data and surveillance at Sound Acts Festival in Greece titled “Nothing to hide,” sound installation “De/personalisation” group exhibition The Other'd Artists at Transmissions Gallery Scotland and sound designing for Half-breed which was shown at Soho Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe and toured in India. Xana is one of the organisers of Afrotech Fest, one of the artist-in-residence for the Tate Schools Workshop Programme, and is a guest artist on the upcoming Seed Ensemble album released on Jazz Refreshed.
Yami ‘Rowdy’ Löfvenberg is a London-based artist with 20 years’ experience, is well known within the Hip Hop dance community as a respected director, teacher, performer, judge and host. Yami has choreographed and directed numerous shows including being a dance consultant for the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony. Solo performances include The Place & Re:generations Birmingham, and Talawa Theatre Company Studio Firsts. Yami has also been Movement Director for Company three ‘Assembly’, “Boat’, ‘Hercules’ and ‘Year 7’. Yami’s unique style of theatre work aims to tell thought provoking stories with socio-political content.
The S+K Project is a theatre and performing arts company with the objective to make the arts for everyone. Launching in September 2014, under the direction of theatre-makers Malakai Sargeant and Steven Kavuma, they have gone on to create work in collaboration with the Royal Court, Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, Battersea Arts Centre, Bush Theatre and Camden People’s Theatre. The company have a track record of producing inclusive, accessible and boundary-pushing work on a London-wide and national level. S+K aim to be the link for ambitious people of all backgrounds to develop their interest in the arts and related areas by delivering affordable, interdisciplinary and multifaceted work in professional environments. They are making the arts for everyone.