Our steering group are made up of individuals from specialist professional backgrounds who support us in our artistic vision and company development. A key function of the steering group is to experience and evaluate performance work in progress and act as a sounding board for creative and organisational ideas. Potentially forming part of a future board for 11:18, they provide a platform for learning from a range of professionals from relevant and specific sectors. They are there to discuss our ideas, provide targeted feedback and support us on our creative journey.

 

Performance Industry Specialist 

icon-doc75 Nathan Curry, Artistic Director, Tangled Feet

Nathan Curry is the Co-Artistic Director of Tangled Feet and the Associate Director of The Greenwich+Docklands International Festival. He was previously the Associate Director at The Bush Theatre. Nathan has directed all of Tangled Feet productions across the UK and in Europe, as well as a freelance theatre maker in New York, Egypt, Cambodia and Libya. Nathan has directed work at The Bush Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Unicorn Theatre and Lyric Hammersmith and worked with writers Steve Waters, Howard Brenton and Bryony Lavery. He has created many projects with the National Theatre Studio. Nathan has recently created the first outdoor theatre project in Libya working with the British Council. He regularly teaches at RADA, East 15 and Middlesex University. 

 

Digital Specialist 

icon-doc75 Sam Billington, Interactive Design Manager, Antenna International

Sam is Global Interactive Design Manager at Antenna International and is responsible for the company’s global digital media production, Interactive design project management, client relationships and overseeing a team of in house interactive designers and external technical development suppliers and partners. He is also part of the central Digital Media team creating and maintaining global standards in all interactive content and managing schedules and budgets on an array of highly complex multilingual projects for major cultural and commercial clients.

Sam’s worked on content based and technical projects for a diverse range of cultural client’s from the Tate to the Louvre and more commercial entities such as NASA. Sam’s part of the Antenna Lab Team and works on some of the Lab’s R&D projects. He was project manager and product owner on the recently launched Antenna Lab Talking Statues project in the UK. This project was run in conjunction with the NESTA digital R&D fund for the arts and Sing London, a public engagement/events 3rd sector company. The aim was to explore creative ways of digital story telling using mobile technologies, with the view to reporting the leanings back and advise the cultural sector.

Prior to Antenna Sam worked in audio restoration at Ascent media in Soho, working with major clients such as Fox, Warner bros and Disney, the mastering department at Sony music studios Whitfield street and also co founded and ran an independent record label.

 

Business Specialist

icon-doc75 Jessica Stockford, Head of Board Development: Arts & Business

Jess leads on partnerships at Arts & Business. This role focuses on leveraging business resource and commercial expertise into arts and cultural organisations to create powerful interventions at organisation and governance level that contribute to sustainability. Jess is also responsible for Board Bank and Young Professionals on Arts Boards’ – initiatives that since 1988 have placed over 5000 business people onto the boards of arts organisations in the UK. Her key clients include Deutsche Bank, Bloomberg and BSkyB among others. Previously, Jess worked as a business adviser at the Creative Enterprise Office in Glasgow, for Komedia in Brighton, The Almeida in London and as an arts festival and venue programmer. Jess is a founding board member of The Basement, a live arts venue in Brighton and is an associate tutor at Goldsmiths University. Jess is member of the Prince of Wales’ ‘Good Governance Group’ and contributes to the NCVO’s Governance and Leadership committee. Jess has a BA (Hons) in Arts Management from De Montfort University.

 

Educational Specialists 

icon-doc75 Catherine Howett, Head of School of Performing Arts (BA, MA, MA, PGCE), Kingston College

Catherine has been growing the School of Performing Arts at KC for the past 3 years where she promotes interdisciplinary work. Previous performance projects/research range from a yearlong Applied theatre HIV/AIDs narrative-sharing bicycle ride project, to research around Applied theatre and behavior change, to exploring issues relating to the Queer-body on a number of international performance art platforms.  In her role as curriculum lead and Manager of the Arthur Cottrell Theatre she has a proactive interest in working with new theatre companies, promoting cross-disciplinary engagement, facilitating new conversations and offering opportunities for enduring partnerships between the education sector and the arts.

 

icon-doc75 Rebecca Benjamins, Assistant Headteacher, in charge of creativity and the creative curriculum at Bessemer Grange Primary School

I have worked at the school for the past 12 years gradually raising the profile of the arts. We currently deliver a broad and balanced curriculum, which holds the arts at the center. Children learn through art, drama, dance and music as well as being taught the subject skills in their own right. We are a state funded school and currently have 520 pupils on roll. Our school is mixed in class, ethnicity and ability.

We are always interested in joining new projects and getting involved with new ideas. 11:18 links audio and installation performances, which is a new way in which our children can learn. We are always seeking ways in which to support the teaching and learning of creativity, by working in partnerships with art groups we feel that we are able to improve the quality of teaching and learning.