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WritersMosaic
WritersMosaic, a division of the Royal Literary Fund, is a developmental resource and online magazine, celebrating and showcasing UK writers of the global majority to reflect the changing reality of contemporary Britain, from its past and into its future.
Timestamp Media
Timestamp Media is an independent production company committed to telling thoughtful and surprising stories about our past.
Time’s Up UK is an organisation that is focused on ensuring safe, fair and dignified work for everyone.
Time’s Up UK does this by identifying, creating and implementing significant and impactful interventions for lasting change amplifying the work of their partners and friends, by creative connections and advocacy. Their very first red carpet when they launched back in February 2018 saw them walk with activists to share the stage as they began their campaign against bullying, harassment, and abuse, which has for so long been part of the DNA of the film industry. From the casting couch to ‘sex sells’, women have been mistreated in front and behind the camera. Ladbury has been working with Time’s Up UK from the outset overseeing its launch to crafting the most significant intervention across the creative industries with their proposal for a Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority, CIISA, to drive up standards of behaviour, accountability, and integrity.
Today Time’s Up UK is focused on Black equity in film, and is working in partnership with The British Blacklist, BFI and others to achieve this work. This year Time’s Up UK is collaborating with The Diverse Squad, ITV and others working to improve the on-set hair and makeup experience for Black actors. In 2021 the Sir Lenny Henry Media Centre for Media Diversity published a report, Actors’ Experience of Race and Racism in Britain’s Audition and Casting Process and On Set, which stated 71% of respondents had experienced hair or makeup artists who lacked the knowledge to work with them on an equal basis to their white co-workers. Time’s Up UK is focused on working to change this.
WritersMosaic, a division of the Royal Literary Fund, is a developmental resource and online magazine, celebrating and showcasing UK writers of the global majority to reflect the changing reality of contemporary Britain, from its past and into its future.
It provides a platform for writers through authored talks, podcasts, creative exchanges and interviews, using images, illustrations and films. These are commissioned by the wide editorial team of RLF writers, who bring their own blend of curiosity, excitement, deep cultural knowledge and critical engagement. WritersMosaic acts as an independent, inclusive and evolving presence in the UK’s literary landscape, offering rare and in-depth insight into the lives and practices of contemporary writers.
Ladbury has been working with WritersMosaic since its launch in 2021.
The Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority, CIISA, is a government supported, industry-backed authority, which began its life as a key proposal from Time’s Up UK to the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) commissioned industry roundtable on bullying, harassment, and discrimination in the creative industries, which began in 2021.
The DCMS roundtable brought together industry leaders, representatives, unions, and others to tackle workplace behaviour concerns, arising from a number of high-profile, serious allegations about harmful behaviour within the creative industries, alongside growing research highlighting that many working in the creative industries have experienced or witnessed poor, harmful behaviour at their place of work. CIISA was born to address this.
Ladbury has been working on the communications for CIISA since its inception, gathering talent and industry support and was central to the creation of a short film make with some of our friends in Film and TV, a call to industry to back the creation of CIISA last year
The extraordinary singer and civil rights activist Mavis Staples kindly granted us permission to use her track to accompany the films.
Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice (formerly Promundo US) is committed to promoting gender equality and creating a world free from violence by engaging with men and boys to nurture equitable and non-violent masculinity.
Led by Gary Barker, PhD, a leading global voice in advancing gender justice and positive masculinities for three decades – they turn evidence into action. Their commitment to innovative research underscores their belief in evidence-based approaches to drive positive societal change and informs their programs and advocacy work across the world in local communities, often working in partnership with women’s rights and social justice movements, civil society, donors, UN agencies and governments across the world.
Ladbury first worked with Equimundo in 2015 on the launch of the first biennial ‘State of the World’s Fathers’ report, the first of its kind and a landmark global analysis of men’s involvement in parenting and caregiving including unpaid care work in the home, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and violence against children and women. Now in its fifth edition, this globally recognised report and advocacy platform has achieved significant progress in influencing power structures, policies, and social norms around care work to advance gender equality.
In 2020 Equimundo co-founded ‘The Global Boyhood Initiative’ with the Kering Foundation. Its aim is to support and provide boys aged 4 to13, and the adults in their lives, with the resources they need to raise, teach, and set an example for boys to become men who embrace healthy masculinity and gender equality. It is currently active in the UK, US, Bolivia, France, Italy, Mexico and Cambodia.
The Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) is the world’s largest research network on violence against women and children.
Founded in 2003, it brings together a diverse group of actors aiming to achieve a world free of gender-based violence (GBV) through improved practices and prevention programming. To this end, it provides a space for global leaders in the field to connect, share and promote their research, and work to influence policies that centre and improve the lives of those who have experienced GBV.
Ladbury has worked with SVRI since for many years and in 2021 supported the launch of their Sexual Violence Research Podcast. Now in its third series, the podcast demystifies and brings new thinking to the GBV world through frank conversations with expert guests from their global network of academics, practitioners, CEOs, grass root activists and donors, who interrogate and unpack existing practices and ideologies, share expertise and spotlight innovation around the world.
In 2024 Ladbury is also supporting their biennial SVRI Forum, widely recognised as the leading research conference addressing GBV in low- and middle-income countries. Held in Cape Town, South Africa, the 2024 conference will offer a dynamic, innovative and interactive environment for those working in the field to come together to connect, share and learn.
Watershed is a independent cinema and creative technology centre located on Bristol’s historic harbourside, recognised internationally as a leading centre for film culture, art and technology practice, for its distinctive talent development, constant innovation and as Bristol’s favourite cultural meeting place
They established the Pervasive Media Studio way back in 2008 which gifts workspace to over 164 residents developing new ideas for using creative technology, and its ethos of collaborative innovation and culture of nurture and generosity has established an international reputation and rich community of over 450 creatives.
Ladbury have worked with Watershed for over 10 years across a range of diverse and extraordinary projects. To name just a few, in 2012 they launched ‘Playable City,’ now a global movement reaching over one million people, which asks us to consider the future of our cities by creating public artworks that re-use city infrastructure and re-appropriate smart city technologies. 2020 saw residents Action Hero travel across Europe in a camper van turned recording studio asking people they met along the way to sing them a love song. 2022 saw the unveiling of a full scale ‘Martian House’ on the harbourside, to inspire new ideas about how we can all live more resourcefully and sustainably. Having led the way in supporting immersive practice in the UK, 2024 will see the launch of ‘Undershed’, a new immersive gallery that will be a home for curated exhibitions of extraordinary interactive and immersive stories from local and international artists and makers.
Mediale is an international new media arts agency based in Selby, North Yorkshire who commission, develop, produce, exhibit, and tour work from a diverse range of artists working around the blurred edges of digital art.
Ladbury has worked with Mediale since 2018, initially on their biennial Festival and now across their entire roster of individual commissions and projects, for example; People We Love, a touring multi-city public artwork by British artist Kit Monkman, first commissioned in 2020, comprising a series of video portraits of local residents gazing at an unseen picture of someone they love, inviting the audience to share in the invisible transaction that exists between each person and their loved one.
Another celebrated commissioned includes Navvies, the headline artwork at the 2022 Lightwaves Festival, which saw installation artist Matthew Rosier work closely with the local Salford community to create an audio-visual installation and permanent garden recognising the role and toil of the 17,000 labourers that built the Manchester Ship Canal, with an original score recorded by BBC Philharmonic.
At the beginning of 2023 Mediale produced, Let’s Debate, for Arts Council England, a new, two-day sector-wide conversation exploring how we develop creativity and culture in England. Held in Bradford, the two days saw a diverse range of inspiring speakers and lively discussion by day, and live music performances from artists including Bristol-based vocalist and producer Grove by night. And later that year kicked of a new two year partnership with The Glasshouse International Centre for Music (formerly Sage Gateshead) with Three Hundred and Thirty Three a triptych of films by visual artist and director Daisy Dickinson in conversation with the druidic landscape of Northumberland, evoking the strangeness of these ancient sites in collaboration with a range of outstanding musicians including: Grammy nominated music producer & composer Marta Salogni and Ivor Novello winning composer & former Derek Jarman collaborator, Simon Fisher Turner.
Timestamp Media is an independent production company committed to telling thoughtful and surprising stories about our past.
Unveiling the connections between us all through the creation of innovative high quality history programming, from short-form projects, to single films, and documentary series for global platforms. Timestamp is a partnership between Harvard historian Vincent Brown and documentary producer Graham Judd, who believe that understanding and sharing knowledge of our entangled past can light the way to a common future.
Ladbury has been working with Professor Brown and Timestamp for many years most recently collaborating as both producer and publicist on two short docs; How Do You Remember the Days of Slavery which follows Professor Brown as he travels to Jamaica, at the invitation of the Jamaican Ministry of Culture, to speak at the island’s second annual Chief Takyi Day in St Mary Parish, and to meet historians, politicians, activists and perhaps Takyi’s most dedicated advocate, Derrick ‘Black X’ Robinson, and Contested Histories, a six-minute short which navigates the complex landscape of contested heritage, and the politics of monuments and their removal.
Ladbury have been working with British Trinidadian sculptor, Zak Ové since 2015 starting with his ‘Moko Jumbie’ figures, the first major contemporary works by a Caribbean artist on display in the Sainsbury African Galleries at The British Museum.
Since then Ladbury have overseen the press for ‘Autonomous Morris’ unveiled as part of Frieze Week in 2018 at the newly re-opened Smithson Plaza. Ladbury also collaborated on his celebrated ‘Black and Blue: The Invisible Man and the Masque of Blackness’, a mass of 80 identical two-metre-tall figures, installed within The Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s 18th century landscape, which formed part of their 40th anniversary and then shortly after, his curated exhibition at Somerset House celebrating 50 years of Black creativity in Britain called Get Up Stand Up Now.
Last year Zak presented ‘The Mothership Connection’ at Frieze Sculpture (20 September – 29 October 2023). On public display for the first time, the sculpture – a nine-metre-tall multicoloured futuristic totem structure – is his largest work to date.
Taking its title from the celebrated album of the Afrofuturist Funkadelic group Parliament, ‘The Mothership Connection’ presents a vehicle for Afrofuturist space travel, taking inspiration from African tribal relationships with outer space.
In 2024 Zak will be unveiling his first ever artwork in glass mosaic in the heart of Notting Hill Gate, a public art commission for the London borough of Kensington & Chelsea called ‘Jumbie Jubilation’. Inspired by the traditions, flair and freedom of carnival and masquerade ‘Jumbie Jubilation’ will celebrate the rich heritage of the area and Ové’s own heritage and connection to 50 years of carnival. The artwork will form the façade of new hotel, The Ruby Zoe.
‘Jumbie Jubilation’ will comprise eight floor-to-ceiling glass mosaic panels which together create a rippling, vibrant carnival procession. Each panel designed and drawn from Ové’s artist practice, combining elements from his abstract works, where he uses crocheted doilies to create ‘colour fields’, and that of his sculptures, primarily those that take influence from the carnival in Trinidad. Both elements embody and use vibrant ‘sound clashes’ of colour, movement and shape which are fused together to create a celebratory procession across the panels.
“I have imagined the mosaic panels akin to apertures through which to glimpse and experience another time and place,” says Ové, “a liminal space of mesmerising swirls of colour, rhythm and dance. These panels become portals through which the viewer peers into a type of hyperspace allowing them to enter, for a moment, the beating heart of Carnival itself.”
The Music Works is an award-winning Gloucester-based charity dedicated to transforming young people’s lives through music. As specialists in working with young people in challenging circumstances, they support over 3,000 children and young people each year through music programmes, partnerships, workshops, and projects that cater for everyone, from first access through to talent and career development. All their programmes and activities take place in their incredible state-of-the-art studio spaces, schools or through outreach with community partners.
Ladbury started working with The Music Works in 2022 on a special industry networking event arranged as part of their talent development programme, Upsurge. Industry heavyweight Guy Moot, CEO at Warner Chappell, and other industry professionals travelled to The Music Works HQ to speak to young people about how to navigate the music industry and break down some of the barriers to access. The Upsurge programme has been a huge success, proudly nurturing the next generation of musical talent, including artists like Grove and Heartworms and more recently Eljé, Nat Oaks and Immi Dash.
Always looking for new ways to increase their reach and impact, in 2022 The Music Works also launched their ‘Music Bus,’ a state-of-the-art studio on wheels, taking music making directly to disadvantaged communities. In 2023 when the Knife Angel sculpture arrived at Gloucester Cathedral, The Music Works were inspired to create their celebrated ‘Knife Angel’ legacy programme, bringing together six young people whose lives had been impacted by knife crime to create music inspired by their experiences. The six formed a collective called GCODA and 2024 has seen the launch of their first album ‘Lights Out’. This year has also seen the creation of ‘Music Leaders UK’, an innovative certificated music course available to secondary schools across the country from September 2024, to develop young leaders through music by capitalising on pupils’ own musical passions and interests.
MeWe360 is a not for profit that champions Black and Asian leadership and entrepreneurial talent in the arts and creative industries by working with determined individuals motivated to improve the lives of others and the communities we live in.
Their uniqueness lies in their depth of support, understanding of the entrepreneurial landscape and roster of high calibre industry mentors and consultants, as well as their vibrant membership network of creatives from across the UK. In 2019 they partnered with Deutsche Bank to support their annual Deutsche Bank Awards for Creative Entrepreneurs (DBACE) dedicated to discovering and supporting exceptional, talented individuals aiming to drive positive social impact through enterprise across the UK. Ladbury started working with MeWe to support the 2023 awards which marked their 30th anniversary and saw the age range for applicants expand to include all creative entrepreneurs over 18. In additional to a substantial cash award, the five winning entrepreneurs receive substantial tailored business support and leadership development from MeWe, and a further five of the strongest candidates are awarded a 12-month incubator membership offering invaluable business and leadership support and training, enabling them to scale their businesses to the next level.
In 2021 Ladbury started working with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the world’s oldest women’speacebuilding organisation, to amplify theirnew global programme ‘Countering Militarised Masculinities: Mobilising Men for Feminist Peace’ established in partnership with the MenEngage Alliance, an international alliance working in nearly 70 countries around the world to increase men’s support for gender equality.
The initiative was implemented globally and in focus countriesconsidered to have deeply militaristic societies -Afghanistan, Cameroon, Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It comprised a variety of outputs including: a rich body of original academic research to further understand of the drivers of militarised masculinities and how to increase men’s support for women’s rights; a new photography competition inviting photographers from across the world to submit images that documented the relationship between masculinities, conflict and peace, violence and care; and a one hour documentary ‘Power on Patrol: The Making and Unmaking of Militarised Masculinities’ spotlighting the work of WILPF around the world, and the motivations and stories of the men working with female activists in conflict societies to challenge notions of militarised masculinities and advance feminist peace which premiered at Women Deliver in 2023.
Womanity exists to address the gender inequality crisis across the world. Their vision is a world where men and women have equal rights and opportunities, and seek to achieve this by working with local partners and investing in audacious, innovative and sustainable solutions.
Examples of their work include: The Womanity Award which seeks to prevent violence against women and girls by catalysing partnerships with organisations in different countries, allowing scale of innovative models with local partners; their Women Land Rights programme in India providing opportunities for local women to become more independent and financially secure by enabling access to land rights and ownership; their WomenChangemakers programme in Brazil and India which identifies women focused social ventures, helping them increase their reach and impact; in Afghanistan their Girls Can Code, programme develops skills and career prospects, whilst instilling confidence and belief that girls can be equally valuable in the workforce and society, and their Disruptive Media programme that seeks to change mindsets by partnering with progressive platforms and content creators across the MENA region, including Smi’touha Menni (‘You Heard It From Me’), a YouTube based satire show debunking gender stereotypes and traditional narratives about gender. In 2024 they invited thinkers, activists, entrepreneurs, researchers, and feminist leaders to contribute to their Womanifesto, a curated collection of actionable insights to build a more equitable and just world for women in all their diversity
