In memoriam: Mik Flood (1949-2019)
We are very sad to learn that Mik Flood, former director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, and former president of IETM, passed away on Wednesday, September 18.
Flood was president of IETM between 1996 – 2001, which were very transformative years in the life of our network. As the third president of our now 38-year old organisation, Mik took part in its transition from the Informal European Theatre Meeting to the International network for contemporary performing arts, yet caring for its informality and egalitarian spirit. Mik came onto the IETM Board at a critical time when the organisation was close to bankruptcy and helped to lead it to financial health. His passionate interest in new technologies, his life-long commitment to contemporary performing arts and internationalism and his generosity to welcoming newcomers to IETM were among the many qualities he is remembered by.
His career spans over more than 40 years, in the performing and inter-disciplinary arts. For the last few years, Mik was working as a consultant for governments, municipalities, regional bodies, and various organisations and agencies.
Our network will remember Mik Flood as a supportive, kind, and sociable person. We will miss his long-standing friendship and continue admiring the valuable work he did for artists and companies.
We send Mik’s family, friends and colleagues our most sincere condolences.
On behalf of IETM,
Ása Richardsdóttir, Secretary General
I don’t remember how, where and when we met, but I think it must have been in London or Amsterdam in the early seventies, when nobody had money but everything was possible. IETM still had to be invented, but there was a small group of artists and programmers who thought broadening their and our horizons as performers and presenters might open up new avenues. So it may be through Pip Simmons or Ritsaert ten Cate that Mik and I met. (Look up those names, you youngsters.)
We became friends, saw each other frequently. After Pip and I had finished our season (Children of the Night, then, as before, Pip Simmons Theatre Group) in Rotterdam (1974-'75) with An die Musik (again, look it up, my friends), Mik took my place as the group's administrator, but after a while he decided to move on and went to Baltimore to join Philip Arnoult's Theatre Project, a hotspot of international activity.
I remember spending a few days with him and his (then) wife on St. Martin, when they vacationed there on a break from Baltimore, while I was on my way to the Théâtre des Nations festival in Caracas. Mik loved beaches, he loved the ocean, but he didn't believe in mundane things like sunscreen. I can assure you, he paid the price.
In the years that followed, when he was the director of Watermans Art Centre, we lost touch a little bit, but we worked together again when Mik had become the director of the ICA in London and we found ourselves on the board of IETM. In those days IETM didn't have much of a policy or an agenda, we were lucky to find a place to meet once or twice every year. As Dragan Klaic (look him up!) said, the purpose of networking is networking, and if we, as a board, could provide opportunities to do just that, our mission was accomplished. Which is why I cannot think of any major decisions that had to be made or conflicts that Mik, as the President, had to resolve.
What most people don't know, is that Mik was an accomplished sailor. He loved the sea, he had all possible advanced boating diplomas, he could sail a boat from here to Turkey without problems, he was even teaching sailing during the past ten years or so. He loved the sea, but also everything in it. He said to me once: I think in my previous life I must have been a fish. That didn't stop him from cooking seafood, fish, crabs, to perfection. He wanted to be a sailor and at some point he wanted to be a chef, but he became what he had to be: a dedicated (performing) arts professional. And that is how he will be remembered.
Rudy Engelander
In the UK, Mik was a champion of the contemporary theatre sector between the late 1970’s and 1990’s in his roles as Artistic Director of Chapter Arts Centre and later at the ICA in London. His support for companies such as Pip Simmons Theatre Group, Lumiere and Son, The People Show, Hesitate and Demonstrate, IOU, Cardiff Laboratory Theatre and many more helped this vibrant theatre sector to grow and create some work which is unforgettable to this day. His programming was dynamic and inspiring, his outlook international and open, his personality warm, enthusiastic and funny. He will be greatly missed by many artists and companies in the UK.
Judith Knight
I met Mik on just the one occasion with his long - time friend and colleague Christine Kinsey beacon but was struck by his humility and down to earth approach. Yet here having a cup of tea with me was someone who the development of contemporary art practice in the UK owes an enormous amount to.
Mik and Christine along with a few others were instrumental in establishing Chapter as both Cardiff and Wales’ centre for the contemporary arts back in 1971. Roll forward to 2019 and Chapter welcomes 800,000 visitors annually and employs over 100 people delivering its programme of film, performance and visual arts and supports another 150 jobs through housing 37 creative companies within our buildings. It is an arts success story directly created by artists, of which Mik was one. Support for the artist and artist development at all stages of career and practice was the original guiding light and those simple principles, remain the same at Chapter as it heads towards its 50th birthday in 2021. Chapter is an extraordinary arts organisation that has Mik to thank. Come 2021 we will replace tea with something bubbly and rightly toast him and the other founders of Chapter for their vision, passion and determination.
Andy Eagle CEO Chapter
