Having worked in the Welsh arts scene for 25 years, I relocated to Ireland in 2022 where I am now applying my skills and expertise impactfully in my new home country. During my career I’ve been fortunate enough to serve the arts sector in Wales and sharpen my approach to senior arts management and leadership. I was privileged to work alongside a passionate and brilliant team of people at g39, and facilitate the careers of so many exceptionally talented artists. I sometimes describe my role as the ‘boring stuff’ that creates and maintains an environment for artists and colleagues to do their best work; but of course I relish this ‘boring stuff’ - the business planning, strategising, creating meaningful narratives from data. This is how we relate mercurial and intangible brilliance of the arts as something worthy of investment. It’s at the heart of meaningful funder partnerships, it’s how we earn confidence and trust. I recall the studio residency schemes at g39 that wouldn’t have been possible without the fantastic partnerships with Jerwood Arts and Freelands Foundation. The schemes had enduring impacts on the participating artists, and more broadly these partnerships helped us to track the positive impacts g39 has on working conditions for artists and arts workers.Anyone who’s worked with me will know that I’m passionate about building a strong evidence base for the visual arts. One challenge that interests me is the gallery sector’s lack of data or insight on its (non-ticketed) physical audiences. With investment from the innovation charity NESTA I worked with partners Golant Innovation to explore this challenge and prototype solutions. Our iBeholder tool shone a light on the challenge and has continued to attract attention from a wide range of potential stakeholders, and was recently offered to audiences in N Ireland by Thrive.Alongside my work at g39 I was entrusted with the role of vice-chair for the Visual Arts Group Wales (VAGW) from 2015-21, a professional association of visual and applied arts organisations. During my tenure I led several projects with sector colleagues to better understand artists’ needs and respond accordingly as an advocacy body. The profound challenge of the pandemic brought this purpose into exquisite focus, and I led a doubling down on these efforts with colleagues across the four UK nations to inform the most effective responses by funders.In readiness for working in Ireland’s charity sector I’ve returned to academia, and am in the final stages of a MSocSc in Charity Sector Management at UCC.