Experience
I stopped freelance consultancy some time ago, which is a strange way to start a page touting my experience. Truth is, I can’t resist exciting projects or helping sort intractable problems, so do get in touch if there’s anything I can work on with you.
Leadership & Organisational Development
Most of my career has been spent in leadership positions, first as Director of Ilkley Literature Festival and then at the National Association for Literature Development. I set up The Writing Squad as a project and it’s now part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio.
I believe in an enabling style of leadership, having strong values and a sense of purpose, while creating space that others feel confident to fill.
I have worked on leadership and organisational development with people such as the BBC, DARTs, Manchester Literature Festival, the Society of Chief Librarians (and many library authorities) the Poetry Book Society, Wordsworth Trust and have served on the boards of Inpress, Well Worth Reading, Mind the Gap, New Writing North and Grimm & Co.
Strategy & Cultural Development
Another constant has been strategic development. At Yorkshire Arts I worked with the sector to set out our joint enterprise in arts terms.
I was also involved in more specific areas, developing Arts Council policy for Writers in Prisons and Live Literature, and partnering The Literary Consultancy to set up its Free Reads scheme.
I was the first regional arts board officer to fund reader development when the national Arts Council and my directorate were arguing we shouldn’t, “because reading is a passive activity.”
I’ve also been involved in the development of Cultural Strategies, most recently as editor of Stockport’s The Place That Makes Itself. I’m interested in building strategy from the bottom up: developing what exists, being who we are where we are rather than trying to be the best or the most of anything!
Projects, Writers & Making Things Happen
Having said that about strategy, I’m not shy about getting involved in flagship projects. I developed the funding bid for the first Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull, worked as a producer on Yorkshire’s Cultural Olympiad imove (I never tire of watching this seatless Striggio in York Minster!) There was Yorkshire’s Artists Taking the Lead extravaganza Overworlds and Underworlds: 365 regional artists and performers working with the Quay Brothers to fill the streets and the Dark Arches with sound, light, dance and installations over one extraordinary weekend.
A big part of my Writing Squad work is delivering projects that give our writers experience and employment.
Writers are at the centre of most of what I do, whether developing their craft or managing residencies in prisons, factories, care homes, libraries, galleries, a bank, on canals or creating new work for books, performances and murals.
But I’m more interested in looking forward than back. If I can use any of this experience not to tell you how I did it, but to help you achieve what you want to, then do get in touch.
