Bow Arts
Mick had a studio in Bow Arts for many years and his work was included in their annual curated exhibition.
Bermondsey Project
Mick was Director of the Bermondsey Project from 2011 to 2014
Mick developed and managed the arts centre in South London centred on a small art college for ex homeless people. He secured the donation of the host building for five years. The centre also comprised a large art gallery, project spaces, 150 artists’ studios, a sculpture workshop, a furniture making enterprise and a small cinema. The project closed in September 2014 due to the redevelopment of the host building.
Mick’s major achievements at Bermondsey Arts include the provision of free studio spaces and securing professional support and mentoring to ex homeless artists and designers in London; managng a programme of arts related courses and workshops for over 200 ex homeless and vulnerably housed people in South London; managing two gallery spaces and, together with invited curators, presenting an eclectic and challenging programme of exhibitions and events – many of them focusing on issues of social exclusion; developing a broader creative hub at Bermondsey by working with organisations such as Bow Arts, London Sculpture Workshop and East London Furniture to provide a centre with unrivalled creative resources and facilities in South London.
London Comedy Festival
Mick was the Director of the London Comedy Festival from 2001 to 2004. He developed and programmed an annual festival of comedy and humour across London encompassing over 400 comedy, film, literature, cartoons and special events. These included the first open air cinema screening in Trafalgar Square, a programme of visual jokes and humour across the London underground network and fundraising galas featuring many of the UK´s biggest comedians.
Life’s no joke for London’s Comedy Festival. It’s going broke
Ian Burrell, Media Editor, The Independent, Thursday 13 May 2004
The London Comedy Festival website says: “When a man is tired of London he is tired of laughing”, paraphrasing Samuel Johnson. But no one is laughing on the eve of one of the most important events of the British comedy calendar, because the festival, which attracts 100,000 paying customers, is on the verge of going belly up.
Although this year’s event [2004]- featuring the likes of Jo Brand, Dave Gorman, Arthur Brown and Rhona Cameron – will proceed, a decision by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) not to pursue its interest in sponsorship has left the future of the festival in grave doubt. If they do not have funding in place by the end of next month, it will die.
Organisers said last night that they did not expect the event to survive. Mick Bateman, director of the festival, said: “It’s not viable in its present form. It costs money to put on, and unless people are willing to put their hands in their pockets and fund it, it won’t go on. These things cannot exist on goodwill alone.”
Mr Bateman said this year’s festival, which starts today, had been saved “by calling in a few favours” but said the much-praised event was in “a make or break situation”.
RBS had decided against backing this year’s festival, after reviewing its sponsorship policies, he said. Last year’s festival was successfully sponsored by the Britvic drink, J20.
Mr Bateman said part of the problem in attracting commercial backing was that companies were wary of the unpredictability of some of the comedy material. “Comedy is a risky one for many brands, he said. “Comedians take the piss out of everything. If you are going to sponsor comedy you have to go along with that.”
Mr Bateman said that the London event faced high levels of competition from other forms of entertainment, which put it at a disadvantage to other leading comedy festivals such as those staged in Brighton and Leicester.
“It is difficult to establish yourself as something indispensable in London,” he said. “Brighton and Leicester have compact communities and if something is happening in those cities then everyone knows about it. In London, you can be doing something in Trafalgar Square and the people in Leicester Square don’t know about it.”
He also said that sponsors sometimes preferred to back events outside London because of the high level of brand awareness among people living in the capital. There was also a cost implication to covering an event that stretched from its hub at the Soho Theatre in central London to the M25.
Sources close to the London festival suggested last night that if the festival was to continue it might have to be reconfigured as a charity, seeking funding from the Mayor of London and other public sources. The London Comedy Festival was launched in 2001 by the Jongleurs comedy clubs and Noel Edmonds’ media company Unique and was intended to become a self-funding venture. “They cannot lose money on it in perpetuity,” Mr Bateman said. “It has to stand on its own two feet.”
Other partners who give support in kind to the event include Borders bookshops, UGC cinemas (which are running a series of comedy films) and London Underground (which runs a poster campaign called Mind The Gag).
The festival finale on 23 May [2004] features Jenny Eclair, Rich Hall and Ed Byrne at the Piccadilly Theatre and raises money for Great Ormond Street children’s hospital in London. A spokeswoman for RBS said: “We have to look at options and find a sponsorship programme that best suits our needs.”