From individual leadership to a stronger creative ecosystem: Luton’s next chapter
How Clore Leadership, Luton Arts, Revoluton Arts and Culture Trust are working together to build leadership, capacity and opportunity for Luton’s creative sector.
Leadership development can have an impact far beyond the individual.
For Natalie Chan and Imrana Mahmood, both Clore Leadership programme participants, the experience has influenced how they approach their roles and contribute to Luton’s cultural sector. Their experiences form part of a wider story about how investment in people and partnerships can help creativity thrive.
As part of Luton Arts, a two-year Arts Council-funded Place Partnership programme led by Luton Borough Council, in partnership with Luton Arts and the Arts and Culture Strategy Group, the focus has been on understanding the town’s creative sector needs and what needs to change to help creativity flourish.
Leadership that translates into practice
For Natalie, moving from fundraising into Luton Arts has provided a different perspective on funding and cultural development.
“I participated in ReUP! Clore Leadership’s programme for global majority cultural leaders, focused on restorative care and led by Clore Fellow Gaylene Gould, to strengthen the care-led approach I bring to my work at Luton Arts. One of the most valuable lessons was learning to check in with my body and recognise emotions such as frustration or defensiveness before reacting. This greater self-awareness has helped me regulate my responses, take a pause, and reflect more thoughtfully in challenging situations.
For Imrana, Clore Leadership has also influenced how she works with artists, communities and partners.
“Early in my career, my mentor suggested I apply to one of Clore Leadership’s programmes, but feelings of imposter syndrome hindered me from giving it any serious thought. In 2023, however, with encouragement from my manager, I applied for the Emerging Leaders course. It was a transformative experience. I recognised the invisible barriers many artists face and understood how important it would be in my role at Luton Arts to implement processes to address this.
As part of the course, there was a session led by Clore Leadership’s Executive Director Hillary Carty in which she encouraged us to always ‘count yourself in’. The idea of counting myself in shifted my perspective and influenced how I approached my work with artists through the Luton Create Fund.
The intentionality of removing barriers and encouraging a strong self-belief in artists became the foundation of my role as Project Commissioner. We introduced different pathways for people to apply and offered bespoke support to discuss ideas. We received an unprecedented number of applications, which is a testament to the way inclusivity was embedded into the programme as a direct result of our learning from Clore Leadership.”
From individual leadership to a stronger creative ecosystem
For Imrana, one of the most significant areas of learning was active listening: “My understanding of ‘active listening’ became more refined through my leadership development with Clore Leadership. When working in roles that involve community engagement, it can be easy to fall into the trap of listening to people to achieve a specific outcome, but listening attentively without premeditated agendas allowed us to get to know one another.
Ultimately, this fed into the Luton Create Fund commissioning process – encouraging people to dream big and apply to the fund, and then offering bespoke support to enable project delivery and professional development.”
For Natalie, that learning has translated directly into how she works with artists: “I learned peer-to-peer coaching and asking open questions techniques through Clore Leadership and applied it to Luton Arts. In my one-to-one conversations with artists, I now always try and listen more open-heartedly, ask questions to support artists to unlock answers for themselves, instead of simply saying what I would do in their shoes or making assumptions from my own experiences. As a result, by listening deeply, we’ve been able to offer bespoke and effective support through the Luton Create Fund’s Wrap Around Support. I am really proud to have paired a local practitioner to be mentored by a West End Producer, and to have strategically brokered relationships to enable one of our artists to put on an exhibition at Frasers Plus Luton.
This approach of listening first and offering bespoke one-to-one support it’s now going to be offered long term through Revoluton Arts.”
Learning from the experience
Both have their own perspectives on what Clore Leadership has contributed to their work.
Natalie’s experience has also changed how she thinks about her own journey:
My Clore Leadership experience encouraged me to celebrate myself and see my non-linear journey as a strength. I’ve leaned into this and drawn on my wide-ranging experiences to support Luton creatives in a bespoke way, from finding ways into commercial and West End producing, to balancing motherhood and creating work.
“I am proud to see we’ve now made this into a longer-term offer through Revoluton Arts.”
For Imrana, the experience has also brought a greater sense of confidence in what she can contribute: “Since being on the Clore Leadership programme, I have grown in confidence in the knowledge and skills I have to offer. My experience has enabled me to be more radical in my own practice as a creative producer and envision an even more dynamic future for the cultural sector through co-creation and partnership working.
What does this mean for the future of Luton?
The emerging Luton Arts Support programme, a partnership between Luton Arts, Clore Leadership, Revoluton Arts and Culture Trust, builds on this approach.
In September 2026, Clore Leadership brought Luton leaders together for an introductory event featuring Hilary Carty in conversation with Natalie and Imrana.
For Natalie, the response to the event offered an encouraging glimpse of what this partnership could provide: “I was so pleased to see such a great turnout at the event, a willingness amongst attendees to exchange their journeys and thoughts, with people coming up to me and saying they are going to put themselves forward for the upcoming programme for Luton leaders. With the Clore Leadership programme holding space for emerging leaders to reflect and learn from each other as a group, I know we can work more collaboratively and maximise the collective impact of all of our work in the arts and culture sector, and I am very excited for what the future holds.”
Imrana saw a similar opportunity in the conversations taking place in the room: “The session highlighted the different ways people define ‘a leader ’- inspirational, empathetic and strategic were some of the words used. Attendees felt that inclusivity and collaboration were key to some of the biggest needs in leadership in Luton. The importance of organisations being visible and easy to approach also came up.
As Hilary Carty put it: we’re up for it. We want you to reach out, we want you to connect, to ask the questions, to share, to exchange. We want to make a difference.”
Attendees left feeling inspired by the conversations and interested in how Clore Leadership could support their development and future leadership opportunities.”
For Natalie: “The value of Clore Leadership is being able to connect in-depth with yourself and other people. As much as we need resources and finances, relationships are the key and are the foundation for any collaboration, and I’ve definitely developed much better relationships through the participation.”
Natalie and Imrana’s experiences offer two individual examples of how leadership development can influence practice, strengthen relationships and create opportunities for others. Luton does not lack creative talent or ambition. The opportunity is to strengthen the relationships, partnerships and support around that talent so that creativity can thrive for the long term. The partnership between Luton Arts, Clore Leadership, Revoluton Arts and the Culture Trust is one part of that wider ambition.
Upcoming opportunities delivered by Clore Leadership include ‘Leading with Confidence’, an online webinar in November equipping you with practical leadership tools for work in the sector; and ‘Step Up & Lead’, a two-day workshop held between December and February at the UK Centre for Carnival Arts. Head to the link for more information, and register your interest.
Alongside these sessions, tailored support and networking opportunities are available through the programme partners, including Revoluton Arts and The Culture Trust.
Visit LutonArts.co.uk to find out more.
