Laura McDermott is creative director at the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts at Sussex University. She shapes the public programme of performance, film, music and debate.

What is your favourite place in Sussex?

I love the Seven Sisters. Properly sublime landscape. I want to go and watch the Perseids meteor shower there in August.

What do you love most about living in Sussex?

I live in Brighton and it’s just incredible to be so close to the sea. Sunsets and starling murmurations in winter and delicious evening swims in summer. Dreamy.

What advice do you have for your 12-year-old self?

Angst is a natural human thing and the worst will pass in time.

What is your most valued possession?

Probably my bike but it’s been a bit neglected recently – “hibernating”.

What is your biggest regret?

Once an artist told me they had an access all areas pass to climb on the Eiffel Tower, recording sound samples and taking photographs. They invited me along but I was too skint to afford the travel to Paris. I don’t know why I didn’t phone a friend to borrow some money.

What is your biggest fear?

Living with regret. I suppose it does encourage me to try things, seek out new experiences, propelled by an intense FOMO (fear of missing out).

What is your proudest achievement?

I am very passionate about my work and I’ve pulled off some unlikely feats in the name of art over the years. For now I think helping bring the old Gardner Arts Centre back to life as the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts is something to feel proud about. It’s beautiful to have the building living and breathing again.

Which five people (living or dead) would you invite to your fantasy dinner party?

Bjork, Rebecca Solnit, David Bowie, Caroline Lucas and Michelle Obama.

Anything else?

We have a couple of performances at the Attenborough Centre that take politics as their focus: Hetain Patel’s American Man as part of Sick! Festival (on Saturday) and Nic Green’s Cock and Bull (Wednesday, April 19), with a vocal and movement score gleaned from the rhetoric and gesture of politicians. Visit attenboroughcentre.com