Mike Pony Project Manager and Producer IOU50
How long have you been with IOU and what has been your highlight?
I joined IOU in 2025 as Producer for IOU50, a National Lottery Heritage Fund programme marking 50 years of the company’s work. A highlight has been shaping and developing briefs for our four new commissions, each responding to the archive. Through exploration of the archive and in conversations with founders and peers I’ve been researching IOU, to understand the range of works the company created, and the extraordinary working practices that lead to such varied interdisciplinary work. The commissions i’ve been shaping each respond to different parts of the history of the company and engage artists from student and early career level right through to established figures. I’m excited to support these artists to deliver incredible art works across different art forms and spaces.
Tell us about your professional journey before joining IOU?
I’m a Senior Producer with over 20 years’ experience working across performance, visual art, festivals and public programmes. Before IOU, I produced large-scale commissions and interdisciplinary projects with Factory International, working with Marina Abramović, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Tin Drum, and Northern heroes such as David Hoyle.
I founded and led Submerge Festival; an international festival focused on visceral and immersive performance, and developed multiple artist development and commissioning initiatives focussed on creative technology work. Finding provocative international artists and being the first to present them in the UK was the best part of my practice as a festival curator. In 2022 Submerge hosted ground-breaking Japanese artist Saeborg and her giant latex pig; she later went on to win the Tokyo Contemporary Art Award and have a series of UK presentations.
My current practice sits between creative and operational leadership; translating ambitious ideas into deliverable projects, building partnerships across sectors, and supporting artists and teams to realise complex work. I’ve worked extensively in publicly funded contexts, aligning artistic programmes with governance, evaluation and social impact.
Tell us about any stand out productions or exhibits you’ve experienced that left their mark on you?
I loved early immersive theatre like Tropicana at the Shunt Vaults, or Faust and The Masque of the Red Death by Punchdrunk. As a student these shows completely shifted how I thought about audiences and autonomy. This led me to Live Art, where I experienced some pretty uncompromising and life-changing work by artists like Kira O’Reilly, Ron Athey and Franco B. Those experiences really shaped my thinking around the body, risk and presence, and the importance of supporting work that challenges people.
Queer performance and club culture has also been an influence; nights like Duckie blurred the line between performance, cabaret and club space. I used to run a queer underground club night called Horseplay where I programmed live art and performance alongside leading DJs. I remember Rosana Cade giving a particularly provocative lip-sync performance at one of our nights which really challenged some of our audiences. More recently, working with the legendary Marina Abramović feels like a fever dream. I’m drawn to work that’s immersive, embodied and pushes at the edges of what performance can be, and her Balkan Erotic Epic really did that.