After a couple of ‘unsettled’ years, the 2022 Outdoor Arts season is getting underway, so OAUK hosted a short series of free Drop-In refresher sessions to help get you back on the road.

These were very light-touch events for you to have a quick knowledge refresh and a few nudges about how to make things work in some important areas. We’ll asked the speakers to share their top ten tips to help you through the summer.

OutdoorArtsUK 2022 Refresh: Making it Happen 16 Jun 2022, 11am-12pm

  • Andrew Loretto, Director, Hat Fair. Andrew is the Director of Hat Fair and Playmakers at Play to the Crowd in Winchester. Hat Fair is the UK’s longest-running Outdoor Arts festival, which has a rich history of international programming and participation.
  • Lorna Rees, Artistic Director, Gobbledegook Theatre. Lorna is an artist, writer, musician, director, performer, producer and designer/maker. Lorna has worked on various scales of project – working with thousands to create community pieces or on small scale one-person intimate productions.
  • Angus Mackechnie, Director, OAUK. Angus is the Director of OutdoorArtsUK. Previously he worked at the National Theatre as Producer of the Watch This Space Festival and the Platforms programme. He has served on the boards of Mimbre and Upswing and was a Fellow on the 2014/5 Clore Cultural Leadership Programme.

OAUK 2022 Refresh: Making it Accessible 23 Jun 2022, 11am-12pm

  • Sho Shibata, Executive Producer, StopGap Dance. Sho began producing Stopgap’s outdoor productions in 2009 with ‘Tracking’ and built its profile in the outdoor arts sector. His endeavours culminated with a Cultural Olympiad tour of ‘SPUN Productions’ in 2012. After successfully completing ‘SPUN’, Sho joined the company’s senior management as the company’s full-time producer, then progressed to Executive Producer.
  • Martin Wilson, Executive Director, Tin Arts. Martin, along with Tess Chaytor, the Artistic Director at TIN Arts, moved to the North East in 1998 and co-founded TIN Arts in 1999. Martin oversees all strategic development at TIN Arts. He was made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours in 2022.
  • Rachael Veazey, Co-Director, Deaf Explorer. Deaf Explorer’s community development work always begins with Deaf artists, leading the way. Dead Explorer work in the art forms areas of Combined Arts, Visual Arts, Theatre & Dance. In 2020 widened their work with artists to include outdoor arts and augmented reality.

OAUK 2022 Refresh: Making It Greener 30 Jun 2022, 11am-12pm

  • Tom Dixon, Director, The Handlebards. Tom is a founding member of The Handlebards and shares the role of Producer and Artistic Director. His role involves planning and organising their mammoth summer cycling tours, overseeing workshops and outreach work and steering the vision of the company both artistically and practically.
  • Sarah Worth, Executive Director, Highly Sprung. As Highly Sprung’s Co-Founder and Executive Director, Sarah Worth leads on both strategic and artistic elements of the charity’s work. She has extensive experience in delivering participatory physical theatre projects, including in primary and secondary schools, work with the Coventry Young Producers Collective, and leading Highly Sprung’s regular youth workshops.
  • Chris Johnson,  Co-founder and Sustainability Lead, Shambala. Chris is co-founder and Sustainability Lead at pioneering festival Shambala, Chair of the UK’s outdoor event industry environmental steering group, Vision:2025, co-founding member of the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), co-founder and CEO of industry sustainable travel charity ecolibrium, sustainability consultant, columnist, speaker, and activist.