→TEAM

→WHAT WE DO

→OUR STORY

→OUR VALUES

→CONTACT

Something To Aim For (STAF), Undergo Leadership Transition

At the end of 2023, Founder and Creative Director/CEO of STAF, Tracy Gentles, is set to join SICK! Productions (aka SICK! Festival) as its new Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer, she will continue support for the organisation until the end of March to assist in a smooth handover and set up a new working relationship with SICK!. STAF’s current Executive Director, Janet Tam, will move to the position of Joint-Director/CEO with recruitment for a new role completing STAF’s new leadership team, to be recruited in the new year.

Alongside these new structural changes, both STAF and SICK! are aiming to strengthen their complementary strategic partnership by working on joint initiatives that support under-represented and marginalised artists across Greater Manchester. With SICK! continuing to provide a high-impact international artistic platform, while STAF supports the structural pipeline into this dynamic arts programming.

Both organisations will focus their shared ambitions to further develop projects that support each other in achieving their charitable objectives. These include exploring opportunities and consolidating plans to platform the voices and stories from grassroot communities in Manchester through Building An Anti-Poverty Community (BAAPC) project with artistic outcomes to be presented as part of the SICK! Festival 2024. The BAAPC project, a collaboration with Manchester Central Foodbank and local grassroots organisations, is currently developing a localised anti-poverty coalition group in four locations across the city, co-creating a shared definition of anti-poverty and projects with the local community, whilst capturing best practices at grassroots using arts as a means of creative intervention, effective engagement and amplification. 

Over the coming year, whilst sustaining their consultancy and offering structural support to the arts sector, STAF will continue to foster collaborations in socially engaged art practice by artists and art practitioners for communities who experience intersectional disadvantage particularly due to health, disability and other marginalised identities. As a result, these collaborations will create a positive impact and change in the creative industries and society at large, both nationally and internationally.

Through the support of Queen Mary University of London’s IMPACT Award, STAF’s collaborative research project Performing Leadership Differently, which explored exclusionary factors to developing a career in the creative industries related to race and class, will also see new iterations through activated support programmes in the new year.

Tracy Gentles: “What a journey! I am incredibly proud of what STAF has achieved in such a short time and excited to leave the organisation in Janet’s capable hands, as someone who’s approach I deeply admire.

STAF was set up in response to a distinct lack of structural support for artists and communities who find themselves challenged by inequitable structures and marginalised by the constructs of society. We wanted to do something about this, having witnessed this reality through our previous work on The Sick of The Fringe and In Company Collective. I will be eternally grateful to all STAF’s collaborators past and present who have helped me lead STAF on this journey and believed in me and this work. I’d like to make special mention to Gini Simpson, STAF’s current Head of Programme, who has worked alongside me through all STAF’s iterations, her support and belief in what we have done together has been unparalleled. Whilst I also want to thank supporters; Wellcome Trust who enabled STAF’s creation; Arts Council England who committed resources for activities; and Paul Hamlyn Foundation who responded to STAF’s new business plan, one that has seen the organisation refine its remit to one focused on creative structural support.

I have always believed that those who experience intersectional disadvantage are critical to addressing systemic inequality, and through STAF I wanted to ensure no one felt alone, unsafe or immobilized through lack of confidence to bring their ideas into fruition. Things I have felt myself throughout my career.

There is work to do, and I hope in its own unique way, STAF has, and will continue to be a useful source of support and inspiration. Whilst in my new role as Artistic Director/CEO at SICK! Productions, I look forward to working with Janet in developing an ongoing strategic partnership between SICK! and STAF, aiming to further strengthen opportunities to support under-represented and marginalised artists across Greater Manchester, our shared home, and the UK.”

Janet Tam: “I am excited by the opportunity to lead STAF into its next chapter as Joint-Director/CEO. Tracy has paved a remarkable path, and I am honoured to step into this role. At STAF, our commitment to inclusivity in the arts aligns with my personal beliefs. I always have believed that arts are for everyone and inclusivity in the arts should extend beyond mere checkboxes. I look forward to building on STAF's legacy, collaborating with Tracy and other stakeholders, and working towards our shared vision of supporting under-represented and marginalised artists across Greater Manchester and the wider UK, and be part of the change I would like to see: a genuinely diverse cultural sector and society, through meaningful encountering of artists, creatives and communities with different background and identities.”