David Bryan Chair Expand David Bryan is Director of Xtend UK Ltd, a management consultancy working in organisational change, leadership development and diversity. mostly in the not-for-profit and public sector. He has over 20 years consultancy experience, providing management training, facilitation to senior management teams, one to one coaching and governance support. Prior to becoming a consultant he worked in senior management within the voluntary sector, the arts and in academia. David is currently a member of the National Council of Arts Council England. He is also a governor of Dunraven School (London) and the Chair of Artistic Director of the Future.
Katy Spicer Vice Chair Expand Katy is an arts management professional with over 30 years’ experience in the sector. Since 2008 she has been the Chief Executive of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), the national development organisation for the folk arts. Over the past seven years, Katy has been responsible for raising the profile and expanding the activities of EFDSS. This has included developing an award winning music and performance programme at Cecil Sharp House (EFDSS’ venue in North London) and introducing an artists’ development programme which works with professional artists at all stages of their career, delivering events throughout the UK and internationally. Such developments resulted in EFDSS becoming an Arts Council England Regularly Funded Organisation in 2009 for the first time in its 80 year history and is now a National Portfolio Organisation. Prior to EFDSS, Katy worked for Rambert Dance Company (General Manager), Arc Dance Company (Executive Director), Chester Gateway Theatre (Administrative Director) and Green Candle Dance Company (General Manager). She has been a performance assessor for Arts Council England and served on the Boards of Cheshire Dance, Dance North West, Dance UK, and Independance. Katy has a degree in English Literature and History from London University, and a post graduate diploma in Arts Management and Policy from City University.
Katherine West Voluntary Arts England Chair Expand Katherine West is Chair of Voluntary Arts England. Her day job is Museums, Arts and Events Manager for Cheshire West and Chester Council. The service she manages includes 5 museum sites that offer programmes of learning, exhibition, events, activities and outreach (see www.westcheshiremuseums.co.uk), arts development work with communities, partnership work with arts organisation, rural touring arts, supporting voluntary arts, events co-ordination, cultural regeneration programmes and she has responsibility for cultural strategy. Her career has focussed on cultural development in the public sector with arts development and management roles in local authorities. She has a degree in Drama from the University of Exeter and an MA in cultural leadership from Liverpool John Moores University. She is also Vice Chair of Arts Development UK and leads on their professional development programme.
Denis Stewart Voluntary Arts Ireland Chair Expand Denis Stewart is currently in his ‘post-professional’ stage of life, pursuing his interests in ‘life-wide’ learning and connecting with other people. A former Chair of the Ireland region of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) and an active member of the International Futures Forum (IFF), Denis works with others to encourage and enabling ‘civic conversation’ – open, creative, encouraging conversation between citizens about things that matter to them – as a way of enhancing civic society. Denis’s professional life – initially as an academic scientist, then as a school teacher, and latterly as an educational developer in several national, senior executive roles, spanned four decades and involved working in all four countries of the UK. A native of Northern Ireland, he has had the pleasurable privilege of living for periods in both Wales and Scotland. In a world where there is preoccupation with money and measuring over meaning, Denis is passionate about promoting and enabling more of the ‘poetical’ in the midst of the ‘mechanical’. Encouraging and enabling people to give expression to their artistic creativity in diverse ways, and to learn that they can be ‘creative citizens’, is a key way of doing this.
Michelle Sweeney Voluntary Arts Scotland Chair Expand Michelle has great passion, drive and energy and is committed to advocating for both access and engagement across the fields of the arts and culture in their widest context and inclusive of their contributory role to Scotland’s Creative Industries. Michelle has more than 20 years’ experience of stakeholder management across the fields of arts & culture, communities, education, health & wellbeing and marketing and has significant experience of working across the private, voluntary and public sectors. Michelle is a strategic thinker with a strong record of delivering in the fields of community engagement, the creative and cultural industries, cultural tourism, events management and funding and business development and has a clear, jargon-free communication style.
Helen Keatley Voluntary Arts Wales Chair Expand Helen has enjoyed a varied and interesting career, working in both public and private sector, and even running her own business for several years. Her knowledge and experience are subsequently quite wide ranging but her main areas of expertise include public engagement, communications, performance management and customer relations. Since 2004, Helen has worked for the Wales Audit Office (WAO) as Performance Specialist and lately as a Performance Audit Lead. ‘I thoroughly enjoyed my time with WAO as it meant working in depth with many of Wales’ local authorities, auditing such areas as Community Engagement, Project Management, Performance Management and Governance. Before my retirement in June 2017, I was a member of a team considering how WAO is going to apply the Future Generations Act.’Prior to 2004, Helen worked with the National Trust for three years, followed by seven years with the City and County of Swansea. She is married with two sons, and two grand-daughters. Her passion is art and she is long standing member of a small group of artists based in the Mumbles. Her other interests include history, travel and music. She enjoys walking and swimming and is a volunteer at the National Botanic Gardens.
Jerri Daboo Expand Jerri is Associate Professor of Performance in the Department of Drama at the University of Exeter. She has worked professionally as a performer, director and teacher in theatre, television and dance. Her work moves across performance forms and cultures. She has run her own theatre company, and curated festivals and exhibitions. She has been researching performance and culture in the Bristish South Asian communities, particularly looking at the development of performance, culture and activism in the town of Southall. She brings her experience of working with arts and culture in diverse ethnic communities to her involvement with Voluntary Arts.
Vivien Finch Expand Vivien has recently served as President of The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles, an organisation she joined soon after its formation in 1979. Textiles of all descriptions have been her passion since early childhood, but patchwork and quilting are top of the list! QGBI is an educational charity and Vivien has always enjoyed passing on skills through teaching, not only to perpetuate the nation’s stitched heritage but also to develop individuals’ creativity and sense of achievement. She held the post of Editor of ‘The Quilter’ for seventeen years then joined the Trustee board in 2008, serving as Lead Trustee for The Quilt Museum & Gallery in York (now sadly closed) prior to her term as President. Previous careers in retail management and with an accountancy firm have provided useful skills. 35 years of volunteering for one organisation have impressed on Vivien how much can be achieved with clear vision and the combined efforts of like-minded enthusiasts.
Catherine Mugonyi Expand Catherine Mugonyi is a director and founder of Aunty Social CIC which provides accessible, affordable and participatory arts activities. The organisation is run by volunteers and has developed a number of projects including: Knittaz with Attitude, subversive knitting group; altBlackpool, arts and culture website and Charabanc, a shop selling products from local artists. She leads on Aunty’s Pop-up Picturehouse which provides screenings of independent and specialised film for community organisations and neighbourhood audiences in Blackpool. Catherine also organises and programmes the Winter Gardens Film Festival which focuses on the best of classic and contemporary black and white film. Catherine spent many years as Equality Officer at Blackpool Council, which involved working with diverse communities in Blackpool, consulting with residents on service access and employment opportunity issues. She is currently Creative Programmer at the Harris Museum, Library and Art Gallery in Preston and very keen to offer amateur artists use of the creative spaces.
Bobsie Robinson Expand Bobsie Robinson is currently employed by Bradford Council as the Cultural Policy and Strategy Manager. She has a long and varied history of working with BAME communities on various regeneration initiatives. She has established new groups and organisations particularly in the African and Caribbean community in areas such as Education, Health, Young and Older people. On a regional and national level she has been involved with various Arts Council England steering groups to engage and develop BAME artists and organisations. Bobsie is currently leading on a joint DCLG and Arts Council England Arts in Communities programme where she is developing a number of community arts networks across various localities and interests groups to enable grassroots communities to participate and engage in the arts.
Nisha Tandon OBE Expand Nisha Tandon OBE conceptualised and founded ArtsEkta (Ekta meaning ‘Bonding’), a social enterprise leading on innovation through a highly unique programme of work, addressing key social issues in Northern Ireland such as segregated communities, demographic change, legacy of the troubles, multiple deprivation, and weak community/arts infrastructures. Nisha has also led the design, development and delivery of Cultural Coach, a region-wide intercultural outreach programme; the development of Northern Ireland’s first South Asian Dance Academy; the delivery of three large scale award-winning festivals including Northern Ireland’s largest intercultural arts festival, Belfast Mela. She was appointed by the Minister for Culture, Arts & Leisure to the executive board of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland providing representation for the community arts sector. She also leads on the Stronger Together working group established in 2010. In June 2014, Nisha was the first Asian women from Northern Ireland to be awarded the prestigious UK Asian Women of Achievement Award for contribution to arts and culture, and later that month she was awarded an OBE for services to the minority ethnic sector in the 2014 Queen’s Honours List. In 2015, she won the British Indian Award for ‘Indian Spirit in the Community’ presented by Trade Next and BDO.