I am an artist, academic and creative producer with expertise in and passion for socially engaged practices. Over the last twelve years, I have combined my creative practice, research and management skills to develop critically acclaimed projects and programmes in Universities (UCA, Leeds, Salford, Lancaster), Arts Council National Portfolio Organisations (Lancaster Arts, Manchester Jewish Museum), with independent cultural outfits (King Street Studios and Art Gallery, DART), as well as individual artists in the UK and Europe. With a focus on talent and community development, my work within the field of creative careers and creative enterprise seeks to nurture strategic insight and proactive practical support to bolster artistic ambition.As a practitioner-researcher, I recently developed a body of artistic work in which each piece gently, poetically and playfully disrupts the familiar act of preparing, eating and sharing food. My practice includes performances, public interventions, workshops, installations, as well as events which gently lean across forms and disciplines. These diverse projects are connected by a desire to examine how coming together to share food and conversation might help us imagine new (and perhaps more effective) ways of living together.Until early 2022 I was an Associate Lecturer at the University of Salford, teaching on Theatre & Performance Practice and Media and Performance BA programmes as well as MA programmes in Creative Practice. I have also previously contributed to teaching as a Visting Lecturer at Lancaster University, on creative producing/creative enterprise, practice-as-research and developing professional creative practice. In recent years, I have contributed to mainstream publications including The Guardian and the Sick of the Fringe, and co-run the food blog Hive & Hob. I have also previously worked as a journalist and editor. As with my artistic practice & research, my writing mostly focuses on socially engaged arts, community and society, and how food can bring people together.Prior to returning to academia as a PGR, I had been working as a producer, artistic director, and project manager for organisations which have included Making Room, Hear Me Roar festival, Ella Good & Nicki Kent, Dr Chloé Déchery, Imitating the Dog, The Conker Group and many more. I spent 8 years in a variety of roles at Lancaster Arts (Lancaster University) where I was notably responsible for artists’ development programmes and a number of major commissioning projects.