Gemma Tortella, who is half Spanish and half Welsh, is a PA with artistic ambitions and several alter egos. Which is perfectly OK with her bosses at the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Away from the day job, the charming Gemma is a professional singer and performer. She fronts a psychedelic folk band, A-Line; is a burlesque artiste who performs as Miss Anna Kronist; and is a member of a burlesque troupe called Burly Q.

“Miss Anna Kronist is a singer in the Thirties,” she says. “I’m a musical time traveller and can perform in character at, for example, Forties and Sixties nights.” If this sounds a long way from the usual PA world of office politics, power dressing and managing your boss, be reassured: “Gemma is ruthlessly efficient,” says Ekow Eshun, the artistic director of the ICA. “She’ll come into my office and give my ever-cluttered desk what I can only call a look. She gives me a daily list of people who have called or e-mailed, and things I should do, and they all stay on the list until I’ve done what she says.

“She’s amazing but not out of the ordinary for our 100 or so members of staff: many are equally efficient but have private lives that embrace, or reflect, the interesting cultural lives of the artists we deal with and promote here.” The ICA was founded in 1947 by a group of writers, musicians, film-makers and poets who wanted a Central London venue to display their works. “Their idea was way ahead of their time,” says Ekow, a regular on Newsnight Review on BBC Two. “They wanted a space, and a place, for every type of art. The twist was that it should capture the moment. Until then, all the artistic institutions looked at the past with their exhibits usually behind glass. The ICA made Britain look at new ideas in an exciting way.

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“We are a state-funded institution, which is one of our tensions, as ‘institution’ suggests something static. However, it also gives us permanency in which we can continue to explore new ideas. We have both freedom and permanence.

“Gemma was working with us as a temp when I first met her. I had been looking for a new PA but our other interviews had been disappointing, and we were looking for someone properly alive, who understood the daily-changing dynamics of what we do, with the ability for self-expression, and yet could marry these qualities to a talent for responsibility and diplomacy.”

The duo could hardly have more different backgrounds, or more converging interests. Ekow is the son of an immigrant family from Ghana, while Gemma was brought up in Cardiff. Both, however, went to the London School of Economics, where Gemma studied anthropology.

“Ten years ago, I would never have dreamt of being a PA,” says Gemma. “Growing up in Cardiff, everyone I knew played an instrument or sang in a choir. I’d hoped to make singing and performing my choice in life, but I’m one of many who can’t quite get there. One of the stresses before I came here was no regular income. I did worry about taking on a full-time job and what that would do to my ambitions, and given choice, I’d be an artist. But this is a great job, and I work with people who are all individually interesting and creative.”

As artistic director, Ekow is about to launch the final part of the ICA’s 60th memorial year, with six months of solo shows by 60 rising artists exhibiting their work, each for a week.

“We’re trying to catalogue British and Irish arts now,” Ekow explains. “Damien Hirst’s first solo exhibition was with us, and I’ve no idea if we have other Damien Hirsts following on. We’re contemporary, but our Nought to Sixty exhibitions will be judged not now but in 50 years’ time. Will they look back and think this is great work? The ICA is a remarkable organisation: each day I come into work knowing that I will learn something new. And that includes learning from my PA. There is a constant dialogue, about politics, the arts, culture — everything I care about.”

The ICA’s Nought to Sixty programme of exhibitions and events starts next week (May 5). www.ica.org.uk

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