Located in the city centre of Brighton and Hove, Phoenix is a thriving and dynamic community of creatives that provides and maintains a wealth of cultural opportunities through its 100 affordable artist studios, two public galleries, 12 annual and free exhibitions, and a busy community and education programme of talks and presentations from artists and arts organisations, family fun days, and short courses, one-day events & drop-in workshops.The largest artist studio provider in the south east and one of the largest arts organisations in the city, Phoenix is committed to ensuring equitable working environments and programme activity. Established as a charity in 1995, our charitable objects (currently under ratification review with the Charity Commission) we exist: For the public benefit to promote the arts; to promote equality and diversity in the arts; and to educate the public in the production and the appreciation of the arts; in particular but not exclusively by providing exhibition and studio spaces for emerging artists and those in necessitous circumstances due to their age, race, gender, disability, sexual orientation or financial hardship, particularly in the towns of Brighton and Hove, and in other areas of the South East of England.

Seed is the Creative People and Places project for Sedgemoor, and the first of its kind in the South West.As Critical Friend I support Seed as a trusted advisor, collaborator, and sounding board who offers impartial and constructive feedback, guidance, and support. Unlike traditional mentors or consultants, a Critical Friend's role transcends mere expertise; they provide a unique blend of challenge and encouragement aimed at fostering growth, innovation, and self-reflection. Acting as both a catalyst for change and a guardian of integrity, as Seed Critical Friend I work to offer fresh perspectives, ask probing questions, and facilitate dialogue to stimulate critical thinking and decision-making. My approach is characterised by empathy, authenticity, and a commitment to holistic development and success by cultivating a culture of openness, trust, and mutual respect.

Sussex Co-Lab is a project designed to improve local communities in Sussex by fostering collaboration among universities, local governments, artists, researchers, and community members. It focuses on addressing community challenges and making local policies more effective through creative methods and inclusive decision-making; and it uses creativity and inclusivity to transform traditional policymaking. The collaborative approach helps address issues like economic activity, social needs, and education, ultimately enhancing the quality of life in Sussex's local communities. The primary aim of Sussex Co-Lab is to co-create a system where everyone has a voice in decisions that affect their lives. This involves breaking down barriers to participation and using innovative ways to engage all community members. We do this by: 1. examining how creative approaches to placemaking can resolve community tensions, address power imbalances, and give people a stronger voice in decision-making. 2. focusing on finding effective creative methods to improve how places are designed and managed. The aim is to see if these methods can lead to better decision-making and influence local policies, ensuring they reflect the community's needs.3. determining the best way to measure the impact of using creative approaches in community-based decision-making. This involves creating a framework to evaluate whether these methods align with national policy goals and contribute positively to the community.4. sharing what we learn with other regions to improve how local policies are developed and maintained and supporting an intra-regional network of stakeholders.

Working across public, governmental, NGO, VCSE & culture sectors, I am inspired by shaping complex projects with colleagues and citizens, advocating for and helping organisations define their high-level strategies and transforming abstract thinking into high-impact initiatives and policy impact. My approach combines deep sector knowledge, my vast network of local to international contacts and influential relationships with colleagues and partners with my vocation for creating vibrant, culturally, democratically and environmentally rich communities.Working with (A-Z): Creative EstuaryDerby CivicLab / University of Derby Eastleigh Borough Councilgentle_radical (Cardiff) Hospitable Environment (Newhaven)Local Motion CarmarthenLook Again (Newhaven)Seed Sedgemoor (ACE Creative People Places)SoSussex/Schools Without Walls Sussex Co-Lab, University of SussexTake A Part (Plymouth)Things Made Public (Essex)Visual Arts Network SWVolunteering Futures Basildon Winchester School of Art Social Practices Lab Yeovil Art Space & Somerset Council Thought & Practice Leadership, Policy Influence: - Placemaking Expert: Culture Commons w/MCLG, Open Policy Development Programme / Centre for Cultural Value / Culture Central (Birmingham) / Peabody Trust / National Centre for Academic & Cultural Exchange (DCMS/ACE Cultural Compacts, UK HEI placemaking) / Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (place & pro-eco practices) / Warwick University / Place Literacy Project / Purdue University Creative Placemaking Advanced Leadership Certificate 2023 curriculum design/teaching - Advisor: Sussex Community Development Association, Making It Happen initiative / Armagh, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council (The New Cultural Geography of Smaller Places & City of Culture) / Academic Health Science Network, NE & Cumbria/Healthy Happy Places (place, health & wellbeing)

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) presents exhibitions and programs that explore the best of contemporary art, connecting Detroit and the global art world. MOCAD is focused on art as a means to nurture social change and human understanding, reflecting our community.

Leadership of ground-breaking & award-winning social innovation and institutional change hub, Tate Exchange, managing 15 direct reports, a team of 20 museum educator-activists, and 80-plus external partnerships, and funder, sponsor, Patron, Board and HNWI relationships. Co-directorship of 80-staff Learning & Research Division, conception of collaborative leadership model to support restructuring, refinancing and purpose-resetting. Senior Executive team, Tate Modern and Tate Galleries, Tate Modern Advisory Board, partner Boards and advisory groups.

Placemaking, visual, public realm, outdoor, community and urban arts consultancy and curation across public and private sectors, including:- Public art consultant/director, Ashfield District Council (2016): community engagement for major new town developments across Nottinghamshire. - Contemporary Visual Arts Network (2015-16): Manager of high-profile south-east UK visual art museum network. - Creative Campus Initiative, Co-Director (2013-15): strategic Network leadership, and development of partnerships and income models; regional and national government lobbying and advocacy for the Higher Education and the creative industries. Hosted, University for the Arts, London. - Creative Campus Initiative (2009-12): Network Manager, commissioning and curation of £1.5M universities public research programme of place-based arts interventions in response to London2012. Management, curation and delivery of Universities of Sussex and Brighton transdisciplinary public arts programme in response to London2012.- Architecture Centre Network (2009-12): Head of Learning, instigator of built environment and arts sector and international cultural learning and knowledge exchange activity, high profile sector partnerships acquisition, and successful sector and education government lobbying/advocacy including with Ministries DCMS, DCLG, DBiz, DfE. - City Running, Co-Founder/Director (2005-10): Place-based arts commissioning programme, winner of the Brighton International Festival 2006 ‘Award for Innovation.’- RadioReverb/Earshot, (2005-09): Volunteer Artistic Director, creative/business partnerships and sponsorship/fundraising acquisition. Championed as an example of best practice by Ofcom and Arts&Business South East’s ‘People’s Development Award’ 2008.

Creative placemaking metrics fieldscan research project lead and report author, led delivery of US-wide sector and academia symposia and workshops on the same. Phase 1 - a mapping CPM field. That is, what are the main uses and major theoretical camps of CPM, how is CPM often deployed in practice and by whom? Finally, what are the determinants of success (i.e. what metrics are used in evaluation) that accompany the different variations of CPM?Second phase - gaps and emerging frontiers. Highlighting gaps in the field—what CPM as a whole often misses in relation to art and community development, its unchallenged assumptions, and known deficits. This phase then signposts emerging frontiers of research, practice, and assessment that are either aiming to fill the gaps articulated or that are happening in response to other developments.Third phase - interpretations and recommendations. The interpretation of the conceptualization and corresponding quantitative and qualitative assessment of CPM. The recommendations offer a slate of 10-15 best metrics (along with rationales) for evaluating CPM projects in particular and cultural vitality in general.

Devising to delivery of cultural placemaking/regeneration masterplans, community & cultural partnerships, community engagement programming, residential, commercial, tourism and community development planning for global private developer and local and central governments.Barking Riverside Placemaking Strategy, Barking Riverside, LondonDevelopment and delivery of a cultural placemaking strategy informing the future development of a 179 hectare site, set to bring forward 10,800 new homes. Sitting on the banks of the Thames, the rich ecology and industrial heritage provided the context for Futurecity to develop a vision and strategy for the next 14 years, working closely with London & Quadrant Housing Trust and the Greater London Authority.Wembley Park Cultural Strategy, Wembley, LondonDevelopment of a comprehensive culture and placemaking strategy putting forward a set of recommendations for shaping Wembley Park into a major new destination for North West London and a place with a distinctive cultural identity at the heart of Wembley and Brent.Didcot Garden Town Strategy, Didcot, Oxfordshire Development of Didcot conceptual and delivery strategy for the town’s new Garden Town Status, including place governance, social enterprise and cultural amenities.Also: Basildon Town Centre / Romford / Avenues to the Arts Boston / Barangaroo / Nine Elms on the Southbank / Central to Eveleigh / Crossharbour District Centre / Illuminated River

I have published books, chapters and papers on placemaking, and books coming from the Academic Archers conferences, as well as co-editing and writing journalistic and commentary pieces. I have a reputation for well-written, well-informed and opinionated commentary on contemporaneous sector issues. I write in the national press and for arts sector media, as well as copywriting, blogs, evaluation and report writing for the arts and creative and cultural industries. The Guardian / TES / engage / AN - Artists News Letter / This Big City / Arts Professional / Global Urbanist / Frame and Reference / Cultural Trends Journal / Arts Council England / Conran & Partners / Le Cool

I worked as Network Manager of Contemporary Visual Arts Network South East, a network of Arts Council England visual arts National Portfolio Organisations and artists networks in the region. CVAN SE works collaboratively across its network members and the wider south east visual arts sector to collectively deliver a stronger visual arts offer for artists and audiences alike, developing partnerships, research projects, artists commissions and professional development. The role was hosted at Modern Art Oxford and the network chaired by Turner Contemporary, and its other members are: AIR, Aspex, Blast Theory, De La Warr Pavilion, Fabrica, John Hansard Gallery, Lightbox, Lighthouse, Milton Keynes Gallery, Pallant House, Photoworks, Project ArtWorks and Towner.

Community consultation and engagement for future development of public art in new town sites in Annesley and Hucknall, Nottinghamshire; creation of a public art commissioning brief with communities using a creative placemaking framework.With Richard Wolfstrome and Open Plan.

Here my remit included: commissioning and curation of 4 major regional projects across 13 HEI’s in response to London2012 which have created pervasive change in HEI working and secured legacy along employability and partnership lines; large scale site-specific installations across the Olympic Village and Gatwick Airport; writing/editing of Initiative book and Journal articles; strategic and tactical sustainability and legacy planning along employability and graduate development lines with partners incl. NESTA, Turning Point SE and ACE; £1M+ budget fundraising incl. HEFCE, ACE and HLF; planning and management; contract negotiation; national and international partnership brokerage; creative, student and public learning programme commissioning, curation and delivery. Winner of Podium ‘Creative Cultural Project’ award and shortlisted the Coubertin Olympic Vision Award.

An online bi-monthly architecture journal interrogating the vocation and activity of those positioned on the fringe of the formal architecture sector, publishing thought pieces from those with or without architectural training and who work in the wider built environment sector in a variety of creative, educational and constructive roles.

Threshold is an architecture, built environment and arts collective who through an arts-based programme of events, installations, interventions and creative placemaking activity seeks to explore the condition of urban and sub-urban living. The core aim is to encourage local communities and stakeholders to participate in and debate on the design of the built environment.Through a creative and cultural placemaking approach, Threshold seeks to help communities co-create a more liveable built environment, based on a local diagnosis though an inventive and collaborative architectural practice. This activity is based on the ethos that the community is the expert in their lived experience and that artists, architects and the community can work together to co-design and co-produce a place.Threshold is committed to a transparent conversation between architectural practice and the community and to encourage the community’s greater understanding of architecture and foster the public’s greater participation in the built environment and its decision-making processes.It also aims to strengthen the Brighton and Hove and wider south east architectural infrastructure by providing a knowledge exchange and commissions platform for innovative creative practice.

Creative Campus Network was a consortium of 10 south east universities that worked collaboratively to explore matters of cultural value, research and student entrepreneurship. It does this through a programme of research, practice and teaching and learning programmes and partnership working. My role was to lead on strategic leadership and development of the Network model, partnerships and income models; lobbying and advocacy; devising and creation of creative industries and HE online research and practice journal; daily co-ordination of the Network, its project teams and employees. Creative Campus Network was hosted at University of Brighton, and its members were University of Brighton, Buckinghamshire New University, Canterbury Christ Church University, University of Kent, University of Portsmouth, Royal Holloway University of London, University of Southampton, Southampton Solent University, University of West London and Winchester University. It was born out of Creative Campus Initiative, a two-year programme in response to London2012.

Helping the Brighton and Hove 10:10 group with its events and establishing an arts and cultural sector action group for and run by the arts organisation in the city.

Architecture Centre Network was the development and advocacy organisation for the 23 Architecture Centres in the United Kingdom.It nurtured innovation and good practice by facilitating knowledge sharing; brokered, developed and delivered projects and consultancy with a wide range of stakeholders including government; advocated for the unique role that architecture and built environment centres could play in improving public engagement with, and the quality of, architecture and the public realm; created resources and events to enable architecture centres, and Architecture Centre Network, to promote and maintain excellence. Here I was instigator of sector and international cultural learning and knowledge exchange activity (Europe/USA/Japan) and high profile sector partnerships incl. STEMNET, LOCOG, RIBA, V&A; securing of sole organisational funding from UK and EU; successful sector and education government lobbying/advocacy including with DCMS, DCLG, DBiz, DfE; creation of a cohesive built environment education team across UK/international network; creation of pedagogy and CPD programmes.

Devise, market and co-ordinate delivery of senior management continuing professional development programme for the 23 members from across the arts and culture sector that form the Alliance.

Universities of Brighton and Sussex were part of the Creative Campus Initiative, a consortium of thirteen Higher Education Institutions in the South East that delivered a dynamic programme of cultural events and artworks in response to the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. Historical, cultural and social issues raised by the Games were addressed by artists, students and academics alongside new learning materials and workshops with schools and local communities. The Universities joint programme comprises a total of 15 projects, ranging from creative writing, digital medical scanning, sound art and music, film and moving image, dance, fashion, graphic and product design and public art. Projects have a variety of partners and will take place in schools and the community. My role also included management, curation and delivery of Universities of Sussex and Brighton 15 London2012-inspired collaborative research-led interventions and events across arts/science/sports disciplines that culminated in a 3-month schools and public arts programme with external arts/education/ community partners, attracting 250K+ audience and a joint Inspire mark. Worked with external local cultural stakeholders to create new/develop existing arts, culture and commercial relationships external to the HEI’s and the projects are still embedded in teaching/learning at both institutions.

Night-time artists gallery and public realm intervention and programme. Winner of the Brighton International Festival 2006 ‘Award for Innovation’. Generated commission interest from 6 UK cities, Barcelona, Berlin, Mumbai and Sydney and created still-operational artist network and CPD programme.

Spearheaded a curatorial approach to programming and was forefront of creative, media and business partnerships; sponsorship and fundraising; and employability and creative learning projects along social gain objectives, which lead to station being championed as an example of best practice by Ofcom and winning A&B South East’s ‘People’s Development Award’ 2008.

Clients included Brighton and Hove Music Service, Sussex Arts Marketing, De La Warr Pavilion, Cockpit Arts and Terrence Higgins Trust.