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Biography

Laura McDermott has been Creative Director at Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts since the refurbished arts centre reopened in May 2016.  The space (formerly Gardner Arts Centre) is an interdisciplinary arts hub connecting University of Sussex to Brighton & Hove and the wider national and international arts and research community.

Previously (September 2017), Laura worked as a Creative Associate with public art producers Situations on The Tale – a journey of discovery across three coastal towns in Torbay, unfolding through the landscape via a series of public artworks, performances and installations. 

Previously (2009 – 2015) Laura was Joint Artistic Director (with Harun Morrison) of Fierce Festival – an international festival of performance in Birmingham.  The Fierce Festival programme takes place in formal arts venues (IKON Gallery, Birmingham Town Hall & Symphony Hall, mac, DanceXchange and Birmingham REP) and found sites (car parks, warehouses, Edwardian swimming pools and underneath Spaghetti Junction).  The festival brings international artists into dialogue with the context of the city – its history, places and people.

In 2012-13 Laura was awarded a CLORE Fellowship in Arts Participation and Engagement, supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. As part of the Fellowship she completed a secondment at Collide@CERN, an artist residency programme at CERN – the particle physics laboratory, located just outside Geneva in Switzerland.  The artist in residence at that time was sound sculptor Bill Fontana. 

Laura was a creative producer at BAC (Battersea Arts Centre) in London, from 2005 – 2009, where she programmed seasons, festivals and was lead producer for the Punchdrunk and BAC co-production The Masque of the Red Death.