Associates, Contributors and Mentors

Freelance (Director Happy Museum)

Hilary Jennings is London based and works freelance across the arts and cultural sectors with work focused around project management, facilitation, coaching, mentoring and mediation. She has extensive experience in leadership development, working on programmes with Cultural Leadership Programme, Clore Leadership, Engage and the British Council.

She was founder Skills Director for craft at Creative and Cultural Skills, Manager of the Craft Skills Awards, Chair of the UK Craft Industry Board and supported the development of the Heritage Crafts Association.

She has particular interest in holistic approaches to the climate crisis which build connections between arts, culture, and community. Since 2015 she has been Director of the Happy Museum Project which explores how the museum sector can respond to the need to create a more sustainable future.

Her work also has a strong focus on network development. She is a Steering Group member for the Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance, the Co-Creating Change Alliance and the CtrlSHIFT network and is a past Trustee of the global Transition Network.

Partner, Head of Legal

In 2014, Keith Arrowsmith decided to leave the mainstream. Instead of working with other lawyers, he became one of the senior partners at Counterculture Partnership LLP, a unique multi-disciplinary firm, providing practical strategic, finance, and legal services.

Keith’s training as a solicitor, and his experience in providing advice to arts, media and heritage sector clients is the basis for his work. He enjoys bringing his specialist and technical knowledge to projects in a way that is practical, cost effective and understandable.

His legal work includes company and charity regulatory issues, contracts and licensing, intellectual property issues and governance advice.

He is a board member for CC Skills and the Children’s Media Conference. For fun, he is a theatre producer with Kitchen Sink Live.

Keith (reluctantly) recently appeared on Channel 4’s The Bank of Dave, and wrote the Methuen Amateur Theatre Handbook.

Prince is a seasoned arts professional and qualified coach; he has a diverse background spanning executive leadership, creative direction, coaching, and consulting across the private and third sectors. Prince currently serves as a director for a London-based consultancy specialising in executive coaching and organisational development and, prior to this, was Executive Producer for one of the UK’s leading touring dance theatre companies.

With a foundation in graphic design and business development, Prince has a proven track record of driving success in both commercial and non-profit sectors. His experience includes leading marketing campaigns for major brands, founding and scaling a youth arts charity, and achieving significant sales as a touring musician.

Prince brings a unique blend of creative vision, strategic thinking, and a people-focused approach. Prince is also a qualified Mental Health First Aid practitioner and transformational coach.

Sarah is a qualified Executive Coach with a Diploma in Leadership Mentoring and Executive Coaching from The Institute of Leadership and Management and is a member of The EMCC. Originally an actor, she combines her coaching and communication skills to help people develop their personal brand and presence. Practice and experience are always at the heart of the coaching and training she offers and above all, her coaching is about change, action and achieving desired goals.

Courses Sarah designs and delivers include; Presenting With Impact, Coura-geous Conversations, Assertiveness and Influencing With Impact. She has a strong track record of working with senior and high potential people, helping them to develop the skills and confidence to raise their impact and influence. Sarah is a co-founder of Verve Women, an organisation that reflects her pas-sion for helping women achieve their career goals and realise their full potential. She is also an associate of CSW Inc, a US based company that focuses on un-conscious bias and cross cultural awareness.

Sarah works globally and her clients include The Clore Leadership Programme, The British Library, The Royal College of Art, The National Theatre of Scotland, BBC, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Lloyds Bank Foundation, Wolff Olins, Farfetch, Moet Hennessy, LVMH, Microsoft, Nissan, UCL, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ashridge Business School, KPMG, Fagerhult, Sport England, Leaders In Sport, The Parliamentary Strategic Unit and Coca Cola.

Vyla Lejeune Rollins is an Organisational Psychologist who has worked as a global strategic Organisational Effectiveness consultant for over 35 years. An American by birth, but based in the UK for her entire career, Vyla’s area of expertise is in working with organisations to systemically diagnose organisational performance and implement organisational/development interventions at individual, group, board and organisational levels.

Vyla has built up her experience working as a consultant with a range of UK, European, North American, EMEA, and Global organisations, in a range of sectors, including organisations such as Glaxo Smith Kline, Kingfisher plc, HMRC, BP, Merrill Lynch, Prudential, and Whitbread. She has specific experience working with and coaching Managing Directors, SSuite Leaders, Main Board Executives and Presidents within mid-size, regional and global organizations. She is frequently sought out as a speaker on topics relating to change, leadership and board dynamics and has had the privilege of working directly and/or collaborating with a number of change leadership thought leaders including Ronald H. Heiftz (Harvard), Otto Sharmer (MIT Sloan School of Management), Dan Cable, Randall S. Peterson, and Jules Goddard (London Business School).
In 2014 Vyla was appointed Executive Director of the London Business School Leadership Institute, whose vision is to have a profound impact on the world through the generation and curation of unique research, thought leadership, and outreach that raises the standard of best practice in global leadership.

In 2016 she was appointed to the Board of trustees for the Clore Social Leadership Foundation, and she is a former Mentor for the Tate Cultural Leadership Programme. She is also a consultant for Haydn 1791 is a network of senior executives with a significant track record in performing arts management who advise on a wide range of areas in performing arts management, as well as offer interim and project management to arts organisations.

Vyla received her BA in Industrial/ Organisational Psychology from Occidental College in the US and her M.Phil. in Organisational Behaviour from Bath University in England. She also holds a number of additional qualifications including a Certificate in Counselling and Psychotherapy from CCPE, a Certificate in Dynamics at Board Dynamics from the Tavistock Institute of Group Relations. She is also an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a Fellow of Royal Society of Medicine and a Member of the Association of Business Psychologists. Vyla is also a former Strategic Partner of Tavistock Consulting, the organisational consulting arm of the Tavistock Clinic.

Chief Executive

Alex Beard CBE has been Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House since 2013. During his tenure ROH has undertaken a major transformation of its public facilities including the creation of a new world class theatre for chamber opera and ballet, extended its digital presence and reach through national learning programmes and live cinema relays, and strengthened its reputation as one of the world’s leading lyric theatre organisations.

Alex is also Chairman of High House Production Park Ltd, an international centre of excellence for the industry located at Thurrock in the Thames Gateway.

Alex was educated at Manchester Grammar School, Westminster School and King’s College London. After a year at KPMG he joined the Arts Council in 1986. In 1994 he was appointed Director of Finance and Administration of Tate, then Director of Business in 1999 and Deputy Director in 2002. During Alex’s time with Tate he worked closely with Sir Nicholas Serota in the creation of Tate Modern, an extensive programme of capital development across the four Tate Galleries in London, Liverpool and St Ives, while also leading the business operations of the organisation.

At the end of 2012 Alex was appointed a CBE for his services to the arts, and was made a Fellow of Kings College London in 2016. He is a keen cyclist, cricketer and cook.

Artistic Director & Chief Executive

Under Spalding, Sadler’s Wells has become the UK’s leading dance house, presenting an ambitious programme of cutting-edge dance in all its forms and hosting world-class national and international companies and artists, such as The Forsythe Company, Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and Wayne McGregor l Random Dance. The theatre welcomes audiences of over 500,000 across its three London venues and attracts touring audiences of over 100,000 each year.
In 2005, he announced his vision for Sadler’s Wells to become a producing house. He has since driven the commissioning, producing and co-producing of more than 90 shows, including acclaimed cross art form collaborations zero degrees, PUSH and Sutra. In the last nine years, Sadler’s Wells’ productions have toured to 233 venues in 164 cities across the world.
Spalding’s first job in arts management was at the Hawth Theatre, Crawley, where he was a programmer from 1988 to 1994. Between 1994 and 2000, he was Head of Dance and Performance at the Southbank Centre in London. He has been responsible for the artistic programme at Sadler’s Wells since February 2000, when he joined as Director of Programming, before becoming CEO and Artistic Director in October 2004.
He was appointed as a national member of the Arts Council England Council in 2009. He was a member of the Arts Council England Dance Advisory Panel between 1995 and 2003. He was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2005. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2012, for services to dance.He was one of the cultural leaders who established What Next?, a movement bringing together arts and cultural organisations from across the UK to articulate and strengthen the role of culture in society.

Director & Producer

Amahra is an artist, organiser, cultural producer, designer for social justice movements and spatial practitioner.

In 2013, Amahra established MAIA, an art and social justice organisation exploring the relationship between imagination and liberation through developing programmes, art works, resources, and spaces to practice alternative paradigms.

In 2020, MAIA created YARD, a community hub and residency space in Birmingham and are currently raising capital to establish an art hotel, ABUELOS, which will redistribute the cultural sector’s hospitality spend into creative social infrastructure that meets the artistic and material needs of local people.

Director of Employment, Skills and Culture

Andrea is the first Chief Executive of High House Production Park in Thurrock, a new charity established to advance culture-led regeneration. Based on a fourteen acre campus, overlooking the Thames, are purpose built creative industries workspaces, specialist training and education facilities, shared with resident partners Royal Opera House, Creative and Cultural Skills and ACME Studios.
Previously a member of the National Executive Board of Arts Council England, with responsibility for East and South East and for its national work to shape public policy beyond the cultural sector.
Andrea first arrived in the East of England to take up the post of Chief Executive of Eastern Arts Board, where she devised a highly successful investment strategy that generated over £125 million in funding for a series of world class arts centres.
As arts chief for Dundee City Council and the City of Sunderland, Andrea led major regeneration programmes that positioned creative industries as a driver of local economic development.
After completing postgraduate studies at University of Birmingham, Andrea’s early career was in youth and community theatre in London.

Anna has worked in the arts and cultural sector for over 20 years; She has works across England and Wales with organisations of varying size and focus.  Her consultancy portfolio spans programme research and design, evaluation, training, strategic planning, business plan assessment and organisational diagnostics and facilitation for both funders and arts organisations.  Prior to freelancing, Anna was Senior Programme Manager in the Digital Arts and Media team at Nesta and worked for 12 years in Arts Council England’s Organisational Development team supporting internal and external change management. 

Coach and consultant

Caroline Collier, is coach and consultant. She was previously Director of Partnerships and Programmes at Tate. As senior Director she was responsible for a number of departments and activities, including Tate’s galleries in Liverpool and St Ives. She oversaw Tate’s national and international partnerships, its Learning and Research departments, the Collection Care division and chairs Tate’s Loans Committee, and its Diversity and Programme Groups.

A graduate of the University of Oxford, Caroline has over 30 years’ experience of working in the visual arts, covering all aspects of museum and gallery management and development. She has worked as a writer and curator and in a range of cultural organisations in London and the regions. Before joining Tate in 2005, she was Director of Arnolfini, the contemporary arts centre in Bristol.
From 2010 to 2013 Caroline was a Board member of Arts Council England and chair of the South East Regional Arts Council.

CEO

Caroline Norbury MBE is the founding Chief Executive of Creative England, the organisation that uncovers, supports and invests in creative talent and businesses, and the Chief Executive of the Creative Industries Federation, the body which represents the UK’s creative industries, arts and cultural education.

Caroline sits on the Creative Industries Council and chairs the Investment for Growth sub-group of the Council. She is a non-executive director of Crowdfunder, the UK’s largest rewards-based crowdfunding platform; a member of BAFTA and the Royal Society of Arts and a trustee for the PRS Foundation, a charity supporting new music and talent. She was awarded an MBE in 2012 for services to the film industry.

Trustee

Daisy Hale (they/them) is an award-winning independent producer and Creative Director of The Hale. The Hale produces and develops artists traditionally ostracised from the mainstream, focusing on Queer, Trans, Global Majority & Learning Disabled & Neurodivergent identities. Daisy’s work is not bound by form and takes place in theatres, cabaret, clubs, digital and large-scale events and focuses on using fun and populism that often has a grassroots activism strand to have wider conversations about socio-political topics. They advocate for producer development and creating alternative models of working, leadership and project creation built from a process of care.

Director and CEO

Dave leads HOME a purpose built 7,500m2 multi art form venue that opened in May 2015, a project he conceived and led which has attracted almost 2.5m visits since it opened. He is seconded to Manchester City Council in a part time role of Director of Culture responsible for advising the Council on policy and strategy for culture.

Trustee

David Kershaw was CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi in 1995 when with Charles and Maurice Saatchi he resigned to set up M&C Saatchi where he was CEO until he stood down in 2021. He, with two other partners, has now formed Act 111 as a communications and investment group.

David was a Director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1988 to 1992. He was Chair of the Cultural Leadership Programme from 2006 to 2011 and Deputy Chair of the Southbank Centre until 2021. He is currently a Trustee of Grange Park Opera and of JW3.

Chief Executive

Dawn was appointed as Chief Executive of The National Lottery Community Fund in late 2013, where she responsible for the effective distribution of c£600m of National Lottery funding each year and for delivering the Fund’s Strategic Framework, People in the Lead.

Prior to joining the Fund, Dawn was Chief Executive of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and was previously Deputy Director of the British Museum, Project Director for Tate Modern and a Principal Consultant at KPMG. She began her career in fringe theatre.

Dawn is Chair of the Kiln Theatre in London, a Trustee of the London Marathon Charitable Trust and a member of the Advisory Boards of the Institute of Policy Research at the University of Bath and RAND Europe. She was previously a Trustee of the Historic Royal Palaces and of the Woodland Trust. She has an MBA from the London Business School and an honorary doctorate from London Metropolitan University, and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Queen Mary University in 2019.

CEO/Executive Director

Debs Williams is a self made executive and accredited coach working across the creative and cultural industries. Working above and below the line in television, film and theatre, they blend peer, executive, team, group and self-coaching in formal work structures to ensure equality, diversity and inclusion. Since 2016, Debs has been the chief Executive of Creative Diversity Network, the membership body funded by the UK’s major broadcasters, and production community. In 2019 Debs was awarded the LifeTime Achievement award from Inclusive Companies for their body of work in the area of diversity and culture. They are a 4 time Disabled Powerlister, and was awarded OBE in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Birthday honours for services in diversity in arts and creative industries.

Director

Deirdre Figueiredo, MBE is Director of Craftspace, a leading craft development organisation and creative producer creating opportunities to see, make and be curious about exceptional contemporary craft. Craftspace positions makers to take an active role in civic society. It connects creative practice with diverse communities of interest and place through a range of activities and partnerships. These include touring exhibitions, cross art form productions and participatory projects. Building cultural, social and human capital is a key driver of its work.

Deirdre has worked as a curator and manager in the field of contemporary visual arts, craft and museums for 30 years. In a wider role she has contributed to diversity and cultural policy development, a range of advisory panels, boards and steering groups and has selected for numerous awards and open exhibitions including the Jerwood Makers Open 2017 and the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize 2017. She is the Co-founder and Secretariat of CraftNet, a national craft leadership network and also a Trustee of Punch, Create in Ireland, The Crafts Study Centre and the Clay Foundation.

Dian has been a specialist notetaker for over 20 years. She is also a qualified Lipspeaker to support clients who have a hearing loss and rely on lipreading to access information. Dian works in a variety of settings such as court, police, conferences and education.

Having been brought up in a household that was adversely affected by a severe hearing loss of a family member, Dian’s motivation is always to provide equal access to key information for everyone that require her services.

Co-Founder

Chief Operating Officer

Grace Chan is Chief Operating Officer, English National Ballet.
Birthplace: New Zealand.

Grace is a chartered accountant and has spent her professional life moving between the profession, and the charity and performing arts sector.

Following 10 years at Deloitte as an advisor to growing companies, Grace has held permanent posts at the Royal Opera House, National Theatre and London Theatre Company. Prior to joining English National Ballet, Grace was the Finance Director at NESTA. Grace joined English National Ballet in 2016, and played a key role in delivering the Company’s new home at London City Island. She works in a three-person executive team structure alongside the Artistic Director and Executive Director at English National Ballet.

Director

Helen Marriage is Director of Artichoke, one of the UK’s most innovative creative companies. Founded in 2006 the company’s presentation of Royal de Luxe’s The Sultan’s Elephant in the centre of London set a benchmark for large-scale spectacles that invade public space and reinvent the notion of a city’s landscape. For Helen, audiences, as well as artists, are always right at the heart of an Artichoke project.
From 1994 – 2000, Helen was Director of the Salisbury Festival, which she turned from a local affair into what The Times described as ‘a miracle of modern British culture’. She was inaugural Director of Arts & Events at Canary Wharf and has worked as an Associate Director at both LIFT and Artsadmin. Her interests have always centred on the conjunction of art, civic disruption, public engagement and the transformation of daily life.
In 2012, she was awarded a prestigious Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in recognition of her on-going work in the urban environment. In 2016 she was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list. She was made a Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2018.

Freelance (Director Happy Museum)

Hilary Jennings is London based and works freelance across the arts and cultural sectors with work focused around project management, facilitation, coaching, mentoring and mediation. She has extensive experience in leadership development, working on programmes with Cultural Leadership Programme, Clore Leadership, Engage and the British Council.

She was founder Skills Director for craft at Creative and Cultural Skills, Manager of the Craft Skills Awards, Chair of the UK Craft Industry Board and supported the development of the Heritage Crafts Association.

She has particular interest in holistic approaches to the climate crisis which build connections between arts, culture, and community. Since 2015 she has been Director of the Happy Museum Project which explores how the museum sector can respond to the need to create a more sustainable future.

Her work also has a strong focus on network development. She is a Steering Group member for the Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance, the Co-Creating Change Alliance and the CtrlSHIFT network and is a past Trustee of the global Transition Network.

Artistic Director

Indhu Rubasingham is the Artistic Director of Kiln Theatre. Productions as Artistic Director include: Red Velvet (Evening Standard Award and Critics’ Circle Award, also at St Ann’s Warehouse, NYC and Kenneth Branagh Season, West End), A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes, Multitudes, The House That Will Not Stand, Handbagged (Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, also West End transfer and UK tour), Paper Dolls, The Invisible Hand, Holy Sh!t, and White Teeth.

Other selected directing credits include: The Great Wave, Ugly Lies the Bone, The Motherf**ker With The Hat, The Waiting Room, The Ramayana (National Theatre); Women, Power and Politics, Stones in His Pockets, Detaining Justice, The Great Game: Afghanistan, Fabulation, Starstruck (Tricycle Theatre); Belong, Disconnect, Free Outgoing, Lift Off, Clubland, The Crutch, Sugar Mummies (Royal Court); Ruined (Almeida); Yellowman, Anna in the Tropics (Hampstead); Secret Rapture, The Misanthrope (Minerva, Chichester); Romeo and Juliet (Festival Theatre, Chichester); Pure Gold (Soho Theatre); The No Boys Cricket Club, Party Girls (Stratford East); Wuthering Heights (Birmingham Rep); Heartbreak House (Watford Palace); Sugar Dollies, Shakuntala (Gate); A River Sutra (Three Mill Island Studios); Rhinoceros (UC Davis, California); A Doll’s House (Young Vic).

James has been Chief Executive of the Royal Albert Hall since May 2023, before which he ran the charity Help Musicians for 5.5 years.

During a previous stint at the Royal Albert Hall (2008-2017) he was Finance Director initially, then became Chief Operating Officer for three years (overseeing artistic, commercial, customer services, marketing, fundraising, facilities etc, and playing a wider role on issues from building development to governance).

Prior to that, his career in finance included roles auditing in the charity sector, at Warner Music UK and as European Finance Operations Director at an acquisitive business services company.

James has a degree in Economics from Cambridge University and is a keen amateur musician, loving a wide range of music and playing piano, bass guitar and ‘cello. What he lacks in talent he makes up for with joyful enthusiasm.

Artistic Director

Jenny’s directing career began with Interplay Theatre, co-directing Sea Changes, then directing Stepping Stones and Mad Meg. Jenny has been Graeae’s Artistic Director since 1997.

Directing credits for Graeae include: This Is Not For You, Reasons to be Cheerful (2017, 2012, 2010 and concert versions), The House of Bernarda Alba (in a co-production with Royal Exchange Theatre), Blood Wedding (in a co-production with Dundee Rep and Derby Theatre); The Threepenny Opera (with Pete Rowe in a co-production with New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Nottingham Playhouse and Birmingham Rep); Belonging (with Vinicius Daumas and performed in Brazil & London); also Signs of a Star Shaped Diva; Static; Blasted; Whiter than Snow; peeling; Bent; Iron Man and Rhinestone Rollers.

International credits include: Blood Wedding (Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo); Romeo and Juliet (Saitama Arts Theatre, Tokyo); and at Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (GDIF) then touring outdoor arenas: Against the Tide; The Garden; The Limbless Knight – A Tale of Rights Reignited. Jenny co-directed the London 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony alongside Bradley Hemmings (GDIF).

She also won the Liberty Human Rights Arts Award and was on the h.Club 100 list of the most influential people in the creative industries.

Director, Art Fund

Jenny Waldman was appointed Director of 14-18 NOW, the UK’s official First World War Centenary Cultural Programme, in July 2013. This 5-year programme is commissioning new art-works from UK and international artists, reflecting on WW1 and the period 1914-18.
Jenny was Creative Producer of the London 2012 Festival, the finale of the Cultural Olympiad for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, where she led a team of producers responsible for delivering over 600 projects and partnerships across the UK involving 1,270 venues and including 160 world and UK premieres. From 1999-2011 Jenny was Public Programmes Consultant to Somerset House Trust, opening the iconic central London building and its outdoor spaces to the public and creating a successful outdoor programme of concerts, films, London’s first open-air ice rink, as well commissioning site-specific theatre and visual art installations.
Jenny has commissioned large-scale performing arts events for Tate Modern and Tate Britain and was for five years Director of Arts Centre Programmes at the Southbank Centre, the UK’s largest arts centre, where she was responsible for programming across festivals, dance, literature, outdoors and performance.
As a senior arts management consultant her clients included the National Theatre, Young Vic, Punchdrunk, Manchester International Festival, Roundhouse, Film4 and Tate. She is an Associate of the Cultural Institute at Kings College London and a Trustee Punchdrunk theatre company.

Professor John Holden is a Visiting Professor at the University of Leeds, a former Honorary Professor of the University of Hong Kong, and an Associate at the think-tank Demos, (where he was Head of Culture for 8 years).

He has MAs in both Law and Design History. John is the author of works including The Ecology of Culture, Influence and Attraction, Democratic Culture, and Cultural Value and the Crisis of Legitimacy, and is the co-author of The Cultural Leadership Handbook, Cultural Diplomacy and All Together. He has given many keynote speeches in the UK, the rest of Europe, Japan, Asia, North America and Australia. In addition to being a Trustee of Clore Leadership, he has served as a member of the European Expert Network on Culture, and on boards and committees at Oxford University, the Royal Opera House, the Design Museum, the Hepworth Wakefield and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

CEO & Artistic Director

John E. McGrath is Artistic Director and CEO of Manchester International Festival.

His first Festival in 2017 featured world premieres from leading international artists; a new digital direction for MIF; a series of participatory commissions in public spaces, and My Festival a year-round programme forging closer connections with Manchester communities.

John was previously Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales, where he achieved a reputation for large-scale site-specific work, digital innovation and extraordinary community involvement. As CEO of MIF John will also be responsible for The Factory, a flagship cultural space for the creation of ambitious new work, opening in 2020.

Partner, Head of Legal

In 2014, Keith Arrowsmith decided to leave the mainstream. Instead of working with other lawyers, he became one of the senior partners at Counterculture Partnership LLP, a unique multi-disciplinary firm, providing practical strategic, finance, and legal services.

Keith’s training as a solicitor, and his experience in providing advice to arts, media and heritage sector clients is the basis for his work. He enjoys bringing his specialist and technical knowledge to projects in a way that is practical, cost effective and understandable.

His legal work includes company and charity regulatory issues, contracts and licensing, intellectual property issues and governance advice.

He is a board member for CC Skills and the Children’s Media Conference. For fun, he is a theatre producer with Kitchen Sink Live.

Keith (reluctantly) recently appeared on Channel 4’s The Bank of Dave, and wrote the Methuen Amateur Theatre Handbook.

Kim Evans has extensive experience as a creative practitioner and leader in the cultural sector. She began her career as a documentary filmmaker on The South Bank Show, and then at the BBC where she won a BAFTA for her film Angela Carter’s Curious Room. She went on to become Head of Music & Arts at the BBC and then Executive Director of Arts at Arts Council England. She is currently a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery and Chair of Clean Break, the women’s theatre company that works with leading playwrights and women in prison or at risk of offending. She also works with a wide range of individuals and cultural organisations as a mentor and advisor. In 2007 she was awarded an OBE for her services to the arts.

Artistic Director and CEO

Kwame Kwei-Armah is Artistic Director at the Young Vic, he was previously the Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage where he directed: Jazz, Marley, One Night in Miami, Amadeus, Dance of the holy ghosts, The Mountaintop; An Enemy of the People, The Whipping Man and Things of Dry Hours. Other work as a director includes: Twelfth Night, Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Detroit’67 (Public Theatre, New York), The Liquid Plain (Signature Theatre, New York and Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Porgy and Bess (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra) the Olivier Nominated One night in Miami for Best New Play 2016 (Donmar Warehouse) and One Love (Birmingham Repertory Theatre). As a playwright his credits include One Love (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), Beneatha’s Place (Baltimore Center Stage) Elmina’s Kitchen, Fix Up, Statement of Regret (National Theatre) Let There Be Love and Seize the Day (Tricycle Theatre).

Kwame was Artistic Director for the Festival of Black arts and Culture, Senegal, in 2010. He conceived and directed the opening ceremony at Senghor National stadium. He is an Associate Director of the Donmar Warehouse and has served on the boards of the National Theatre, Tricycle Theatre, and Theatre Communications Group. Kwame was the Chancellor of the University of the Arts London from 2010 to 2015, and in 2012 was awarded an OBE for Services to Drama. In 2012, 2013 and 2014 Kwame was named Best Director in City Paper’s Best of Baltimore Awards and in 2015 was nominated for the prestigious Stage Directors and Choreographers Zelda Fichandler Award for Best Regional Artistic Director. In 2016 he was awarded the Urban Visionary Award alongside House Representative Elijah Cummings by the Center for Urban Families for his work in the Baltimore community.

CEO

Maggie is CEO at the RAF Museum and President of the Museums Association. She has 28 years’ experience in the sector and is passionate about the difference that museums and culture can make to people’s lives. The Royal Air Force Museum is a National Museum with sites in Hendon, North London and Cosford in the West Midlands.

Pam cofounded Incredible Edible, an initiative begun in Northern England dedicated to growing food locally by planting on unused land throughout the community, she called it propaganda gardening.

Pam Warhurst CBE has been an activist and advisor for over 40 years. She has been involved in local politics and national policy as the Chair of the Board of the Forestry Commission, which advises on and implements forestry policy in Great Britain. She also cofounded Incredible Edible Todmorden, a local food partnership that encourages community engagement through local growing.

Incredible Edible started small, with the planting of a few community herb gardens in Todmorden, and today has spin-offs in the U.S. and Japan, counting over 120 groups in the UK and 1000 world-wide. Incredible Edible empowers ordinary people to take control of their communities through active civic engagement, redefining prosperity through the power of small actions.

Today Pam chairs the Incredible Edible Network, supporting and amplifying the work of groups around the UK, she also chairs Pennine Prospects which works with local authorities, government agencies, businesses, voluntary organisations and the local community to deliver a range of initiatives including the objectives of the “Heritage Strategy for the South Pennines”.

She is currently developing the impact work of Incredible Edible through the proposition of a New Social Contract to transform the frameworks of our lives so that all people can live well and live long. Pam also works as part of a global network of social entrepreneurs, as an Ashoka Fellow.

Prince works with organisations and people across multiple sectors to elicit a more considered approach to work and life. Primarily practising in the film industry with Latent Pictures, Prince’s focus on the intersectionality of leadership and wellbeing results in working relationships that centre on authenticity and sincerity. Results that are impactful in the short term and sustainable over the long term ensure there is value inherent in all of his collaborations. His use of coaching methods to nurture environments of discovery and practise along with a keen attention to transferability are elements that Prince is most recognised for.

Contributor

Trustee

Roly Keating is an experienced creative and strategic leader in the cultural and broadcasting sectors. As Chief Executive of the British Library from 2012 to 2024 he transformed the Library’s visibility and impact across the UK and internationally, initiated major capital projects in London and Yorkshire, and revitalised the programme of exhibitions and events.

Before that Roly had a long and successful career at the BBC, where his roles included Controller of BBC Four (which he launched in 2002), Controller of BBC Two and Director of Archive Content. He began his career as a producer/director specialising in arts and documentaries.

Roly is a Governor of the Southbank Centre, a Trustee of Sheffield Documentary Festival and a former Board member of Channel 4, the Barbican Arts Centre and Turner Contemporary in Margate. He was knighted in the 2023 New Year Honours List for services to Literature.