Laia Gasch

Arts Producer - Winner 2000

Laia is originally from Barcelona and has been working as a creative producer in the UK since 1996. She has led a number of innovative, high-profile and complex projects including BBC Blast and the South Bank and Bankside Cultural Quarter engaging audiences with creative projects.
She is currently working for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

Laia is a creative activist who strongly believes in the power of creative expression as a means to shaping one’s potential. Since gaining the prestigious Arts Foundation Fellowship in 2000, she has continued to develop bold and innovative programmes whilst nurturing emerging talent and developing new audiences for the arts.

She has devised and lead major national and international projects which engaged thousands of people with the creative arts, in particular young people. For example, she developed Blast into the BBC’s award-winning youth creativity portal and established Blast Young Reporters, the largest ever BBC mentoring scheme. She established a number of strategic partnerships between the BBC and arts organisations including the Royal Opera House, the Arts Council and the Prince’s Trust and raised an unprecedented £1m.

As Creative Director for the South Bank and Bankside Cultural Quarter, Laia led a large partnership between Tate Modern, Southbank Centre, National Theatre and 20 other leading arts organisations. She devised and led strategic intervention programmes including Street Genius, where young people became curators and producers at high profile venues across London, a model which is being adopted amongst arts organisations nationally.

Laia lives in (and loves) Hackney and is currently undertaking a Masters in Anthropology of Development.