You get some surprising answers when you ask foreign arts promoters to name the best of British theatre. Rather than the RSC, the National Theatre or the Royal Court, they often point to companies and artists such as DV8, Forced Entertainment or Bobby Baker. Those names mean little to the average British theatregoer; what they have in common - apart from a willingness to experiment - is that they have at some stage been involved with a largely invisible organisation.
Artsadmin was born in 1979 at Oval House in south London, then a hotbed of radical theatre. The name is deceptive: Artsadmin has done everything from sorting out artists' petty cash to finding them rehearsal space, but it is much more than a freelance administrator. It is a curious hybrid of producer, manager, facilitator and promoter. Most of all, it has become a champion of new work. Among its first clients was Mike Figgis, now a movie director.
Performance artist Gary Stevens was once asked what he really wanted from an administrator. A mother, he replied. Artsadmin is now run by Judith Knight, one of its founders, and was for many years a solely female outfit. It's still predominantly so, and has done plenty of mothering in its time. But it has also fought ruthlessly for an area of performance that is still marginalised in this country. There is an irony that while the British Council promotes live art abroad, the Arts Council dithers about how to categorise and fund it.
Artsadmin tirelessly seeks to raise funding for its artists and to provide continuity in their lives. Their projects tend to be site-specific and they don't have full-time companies, so they can become invisible.
"Artsadmin joins up the dots," says Graeme Miller, whose work crosses the boundaries of choreography, composition and theatre. "They give me a place to exist; without them I'd be a bloke on the street. The whole thing is more than an arbitrary collection of people. It has its own ethos and its own taste."
It has been a struggle, as Rose Fenton of the London International Festival of Theatre points out. "Artsadmin is feted abroad, but policymakers in this country have been slow to recognise how important it is." This is probably because it has fingers in so many pies. When the London Arts Board tried to assess the company five years ago, it couldn't find any remotely similar body with which to make a comparison.
Five years ago Artsadmin took over Toynbee Studios, a warren of a building in London's East End. The building became its administrative HQ and is slowly being transformed into rehearsal and performance spaces. Forced Entertainment will premiere its latest piece, Disco Relax, next week in its theatre.
But public performances are only the tip of the iceberg. Artsadmin is turning the building into what Knight calls "a laboratory - a space where artists can develop work and show it in a safe house". Station House Opera's brilliant Roadmetal Sweetbread, now in demand all over Europe, began life in Toynbee Studios, and owes its present form to feedback from that showcase.
It's not just established companies such as Station House that are seeing the benefit. An Arts for Everyone grant has enabled Artsadmin to support those starting out in live art and those wanting to change direction. The writer David Gale recently received one so he could try his hand at directing.
Wandering around the building and drinking in the passion of the Artsadmin team, I am struck by the similarities between what is happening at Toynbee Studios and the boost that the National Theatre Studio gave to new writing more than 10 years ago. Perhaps this time Artsadmin will get the recognition it deserves.
Disco Relax is at Toynbee Studios, London E1 (0171-960 4242), from next Tuesday.
