About

Didier Rochard is an interdisciplinary artist, arts producer and cultural heritage project manager, now based in Glasgow and also working in London and Kent. Didier curates, produces, develops, supports and delivers high-quality participatory arts projects. With a 10-year career in arts and research administrative management running alongside creative projects, Didier has a broad and well-rounded skillset, including securing funds from a range of public and private sources.

Didier has developed a reputation for his impressive portfolio of imaginative public arts projects, including concerts, workshops and largescale events. Didier draws on a versatile pool of talented and committed artists and is continually exploring new avenues for collaboration. Didier has delivered some extraordinary and distinctive projects with artists, musicians and communities over the past 15 years.

With a background in psychology as well as arts and management, Didier believes that collective behaviour can shape the physical and social environment in which we all live, for better or for worse. He believes in the essential expressive power of the creative imagination for all people. Didier’s multi-disciplinary work explores the intersections between arts practice, creative personalities, audiences, spaces and communities, provoking insight into how these interplay to produce art, events and meaningful experiences. He does this not only through his own creative practice, but also by curating events, projects and festivals. Didier is interested in how the creation of opportunities in art-making enables a holistic approach to the development of wellbeing, community and positive mental health. He is also interested in the relationship of this to the natural, built and cultural heritage and wider society.

Didier’s creative work ranges from large-scale community events to intimate installations and group workshops. He uses performance and arts creation to invite connection with people and places. His work as Cultural Heritage Officer for the Fifth Continent Landscape Partnership has invited him to explore forgotten, overlooked and embedded histories and how these can be conveyed publicly and interpreted artistically. He also supports The Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust with a wide variety of projects and initiatives to preserve these medieval buildings and engage people with them.

Didier’s work is often multi-disciplinary, including music, visual art, movement and stage production to explore and evoke. Didier has worked with a diverse array of practitioners from musicians and visual artists to ballet dancers, circus performers, drag artists and DJs.

Didier is a Prince II Qualified Project Manager with senior leadership experience. Senior positions include Founding Co-Director of London Contemporary Voices, Events & Concerts Producer at St James’s Piccadilly, Head of Research Office at Roehampton University (22 reports), Co-Director of Folkestone Contemporary Folk Festival and Co-Director for Folkestone Pride. Didier has previously worked for the Arts & Humanities Research Council, Roehampton University and Kingston University. Project-based positions include Cultural Heritage Officer for the Fifth Continent Landscape Partnership Scheme (Kent Wildlife Trust and 20 partner organisations, NL Heritage Fund), Community Curator for Our Screen Heritage (University of Brighton, NL Heritage Fund), Community Garden Developer & Food Grower for the Locavore Garden Folkestone (Custom Food Lab CIC) and bid writer for the Charles Wood Festival Of Music & Summer School based in Armagh, Northern Ireland. Didier produces personal visual art under ICHNOFAUN.

For projects, collaborators and clients see the links on the homepage.