Diana Hamilton Email & Phone Number

Leek, England, United Kingdom

As Creative Producer I lead on a number of projects working for OUTSIDE Arts, a Creative People and Places project in the Staffordshire Moorlands. Projects at OUTSIDE Arts are co-created with the communities of the Staffordshire Moorlands, working with a variety of partners and stakeholders, including housing providers, local government, local interest groups, football clubs, community services, New Vic Theatre, British Film Institute and Jodrell Bank. Recent projects include;Cheadle Moon; 3 weeks of celebrating local legend Mary Blagg, who mapped the moon way before NASA. Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon featured as the core installation in the local church where she was buried, with an exciting wrap around programme of science, arts and performance activities. 12,000 people visited the moon and the programme, with the whole town celebrating Mary Blagg. Leek Polish Connection - a Polish heritage project, working with a group of descendants in Leek who grew up at a Polish Resettlement camp at Blackshaw Moor. I worked with the group and the New Vic Theatre to create an exhibition to tell the very personal stories of their families epic journeys from labour camps in Siberia, to fighting with the Allies in Italy to finally arriving in the UK to the resettlement camp in Leek. 4000 people visited the exhibition over 3 weeks. This exhibition has led to working with through group to develop a 2 year project and funding bid with the NLHF to further explore the camp, the families and their stories as part of the 80 year anniversary of the Polish Resettlement Corp in 2026. I am currently scoping and planning new projects with communities in the Moorlands; a programme to celebrate women and girls football with Leek Football Club with a festival proposed for 2025 and a whole community project in Longner, tackling rural isolation through creative programme led by a socially engaged artist.

I am Co-Director at The Hamilton Project. I work across projects as Producer and a Curator - generating and supporting ideas and bringing them to life through fundraising, commissioning and collaboration. Project highlights include;LIT Festival LIT a festival created in 2019, working with our funding partners – the Arts Council, Macclesfield Town Council and Cheshire East Council. The festival collaborates with key partners, including community venues and spaces. Key successes were testing new sites such as West Park and its museum with promenade performances and installations across the park, creating six newly commissioned stories from authors inspired by a day in Macclesfield; producing a programme of high quality creative workshops delivered by creative professionals – inspiring a local audience; and bringing newly commissioned works: a night of Polari with a new work/show by Jez Dolan which went on tour.Wild Worlds, Chester ZooI worked with the Senior team at the zoo to curate and develop a new and innovative cultural programme, inspired by their mission to prevent extinction and to hightlight the amazing work of their horticultural team. The result was an exciting new programme of zoo wide installations and artists residencies, workshops and performances. We were able to bring the whole zoo onboard, from scientists to volunteers, and feed into a record breaking year in terms of visitor numbers for the summer of 2018.Bury Light Night Working with Bury Council, I led on the delivery of a night-time art event in October, where the towns cultural venues open till late and with exciting cultural events programmed throughout the town, including live performances, immersive digital experiences, light installations, public artworks, large format projections on buildings and workshops. Audiences were in the region of 30,000.

Chester, England, United Kingdom

I led on a three-year cultural programme for a Heritage Action Zone in Chester, and a one-year Recovery and Recovery (Refresh) both for Cheshire West & Chester council. Year 1 of both the HAZ and R&R programme resulted in more than 40 commissions co-curated, produced and delivered. All supporting the recovery of the high street in Chester - working with local business on the Rows, heritage and archive teams, the Cathedral and their works team, Theatre Porto and their young writers, local creatives - commissioned to respond to the themes (Food Glorious Food, To the Sea to the Sea, A Stitch in Time and Row Stories). We brought the rows alive through promenade performance, live storytelling, mini-projections of animated stories, large format projections of LIDAR scans of the Cathedral, fashion catwalks on the rows and much more.

Chester, England, United Kingdom

As Project Manager I led on delivering Chester Contemporary, working with Artist Director Ryan Gander. In my role I managed stakeholder partnerships of Cheshire West and Chester Council, University of Chester, Storyhouse and Open Eye Gallery. This ambitious programme includes work by an international roster of artists, including; John Akomfrah (representing British Pavillion at La Biennale di Venezia in 2024) and Elizabeth Price (Turner Prize winner). Working with Storyhouse and presented equally in the programme are 5 emerging artists, supported with one to one mentoring, tailored professional guidance and production assistance. The programme includes an innovative 3 -year co-creation project, The Feast in Lache. For Chester Contemporary we have delivered our first year and launch with a bang! An approach we articulated in the feasibility report, taking inspiration from events and organisations such as the Textile Biennial and Ceramics Biennial (our case studies) - with a roster of artists that include Turner prize winners. This was a result of our ambitious approach to Ryan Gander to become the first Artist Director for the Contemporary and his belief in the approach and vision. We have delivered the Contemporary under the same financial pressures faced by most local authorities and cultural organisations, with much to prove in this first iteration, which has been delivered to an excellent standard, with amazing coverage from BBC Radio 4 Front row - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001qtkd (listen from 29.30).

Burnley, Lancashire, United Kingdom

Manager of Spodden Valley Revealed - a museum in the landscape. HLF funded.

Project Manager for the Irwell Sculpture Trail - delivered a 5 year business plan

Managed and developed large scale training schemes - up-skilling the new entrant and freelance work-force - partnering with organisations such as the BBC, Red Productions and Sumners.