Tessa Gordziejko
(she/her)
Tessa started her career as a technician and stage manager, after graduating from The University of Warwick with a BA Hons in English and Theatre Studies. She worked at The Dukes Lancaster, Warwick Arts Centre, Theatre Projects, Royal Shakespeare Company and The Half Moon Theatre; and with touring companies including Women’s Theatre Group, Monstrous Regiment, Confederacy of Fools and Red Ladder. She was also a producer of commercial trade and outdoor events including the launch of the iconic RockWatch by Tissot.
After moving north to Yorkshire, she helped establish Cultural Industries in Kirklees, an arts development agency and worked extensively as a freelance consultant in arts and creative industries for companies including Phoenix Dance, Jabadao, Yorkshire Dance, Proper Job Theatre, ADiTi and Arts Council England. She was Director of Arts & Business Yorkshire for seven years, during which time she undertook a Fellowship of the Clore Leadership Programme, with a placement at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester and a research project with Professor Helen Thomas at the London College of Fashion into the brain relationship between observed and performed movement.
After completing Clore, she was appointed as Creative Programmer (Yorkshire) for London 2012, in which role she established Imove, a £3million programme of projects across Yorkshire on the theme of human movement. The programme reached audiences of over 4 million and was one of five projects selected by Legacy Trust UK for post 2012 funding, which helped establish Imove Arts, of which Tessa became Creative Director. The company was supported by Arts Council England to deliver a programme of seven innovative, site specific arts projects across Yorkshire, between 2013 and 2017.
In 2016 she became Executive Director of Unlimited Theatre, where she helped produce its programme of innovative, science-based performance in theatres, museums and festivals.
In 2019, she made a move to focus on her own creative practice as a writer and theatre-maker, having been awarded a grant from Arts Council England to develop work around ideas she titled The Story of WE – how co-creation of stories can be deepened to grow regenerative culture and communities. This enquiry and body of work continues to develop.
In 2021, she continued the journey northwards that she had begun 30 years before, and moved from Yorkshire to Scotland, where she has worked as a Producer for Independent Arts Projects and Stellar Quines Theatre Company, as well as being a founder member of The Forest Ridge Project, a land-based, off-grid arts collective in Dumfries & Galloway.
Tessa started with Shaper/Caper in April 2024 and is hugely excited about the projects ahead!
#IWannaDanceWithSomebody
Who would Tessa like to dance with?
TBC