Mission Statement
Scissor Kick champions artists that make observant, transformative and unsettling work.
We support artists to manage their projects, portfolios and relationships with networks and industry peers. We acknowledge that the work that artists conceive and produce does not exist in a vacuum; We firmly believe that our sector and its workers must engage in wider picture thinking if we are to ensure that our collective skillsets are to be utilised to the best of their ability.
Scissor Kick strives to take the weight off of the shoulders of our collaborators.
The creative industries often expects its workers to take on unpaid emotional, physical and administrative labour that isn’t relevant to their craft of process. We acknowledge that those who work in culture are often surrounded by bureaucratic systems. Scissor Kick supports its collaborators by helping them navigate and challenge these systems or, where appropriate, forge new paths to travel down.
Scissor Kick supports artists to succeed while ensuring they retain their independence.
In Practice
Alongside providing producing services to individuals and organisations, we offer bespoke support to artists in the form of general management services. Whether that be as an assistant, a champion, an advisor or a consultant, we support artists to make work at the pace they want to work at rather than the pace they are pushed to work by our industry.
Often times, producers and arts managers are focused solely on the project they are leading on. While Scissor Kick’s main function is to produce experiences for artists and audiences to connect through, our focus is on supporting the people involved rather than the product. We believe that by centering artists in everything we do, we can support people to think beyond the challenges that are facing them in the short term and help them strategise for their futures.
Weekly Meetings
One of the ways in which Scissor Kick provides support to its collaborators is through our ‘weekly meetings’.
For any of our collaborators who feel they would benefit from having a regular check-in with the company, an hour is set aside every week to discuss the status of our work together and, most importantly, what small actions we can take to make our day-to- day activities easier, and more pleasurable, to engage in. In acknowledgement that being an independent artist can often feel isolating, the focus of the meeting is to check-in with ourselves and one another.
The only formality is that the meeting time is consistent; The agenda changes weekly.
These weekly conversations have proven to be incredibly important throughout the coronavirus pandemic. By securing space for regular reflection and informal communication, we ensure that our workload remains manageable and that our wellbeing is attended to.
