Meet Collective
Culture Central x people make it work x Collective is a leadership programme launched in August 2023 for those traditionally excluded from senior roles in the cultural sector.
Here at Culture Central, we want to see change within the cultural sector and recognise this happens through a plurality of experiences and a climate of inclusivity, which leads to wider dynamism and relevance of culture. Collective is the starting point of a three-year project, run in partnership with people make it work, which builds on our approach and ambitions for the sector in the West Midlands.
We recruited 20 people to learn alongside and to help shape this first year of the programme, exploring how we make change for ourselves, our peers, the cultural sector and the people and places of the region. Read the profiles below to learn more about this first cohort:
Alice Tomlinson
Public Programmes Developer, The Royal Shakespeare Company
I'm a creative, people-led Producer, currently working as Public Programmes Developer for The Royal Shakespeare Company. With experience across live music, comedy, theatre, spoken word, talks and podcast production, I am particularly interested in placemaking, co-creation and socially engaged practices. I am passionate about arts venues as civic spaces and access to culture for all.
Charlene Carter-James
Partnerships and Development Manager, Culture Central (she/her)
Currently Partnerships and Development Manager at Culture Central with over 15+ years of Project management and community engagement. My experience in stakeholder management is leveraged to facilitate community mobilization, focusing on intersectionality and the specific needs of marginalized groups. I am dedicated to connecting communities to arts and culture and hope to bring that passion to influence policy and bridge the gap between culture creatives and government decision-makers.
Corinne
Artist/ Curator/ Workshop Leader (they/them)
Corinne is a disabled self-portrait artist creating work from the same 2 by 1.5 metre space; their bed. This year marks their sixth year of spending almost every day confined there. Their self-portraits are a form of therapy to ease their ongoing struggles with severe mental illness. Their work often focuses on Daisyland a queer utopia, Corinne and their only childhood and imaginary friend named Daisy created.
Danielle Marshall (Dani)
Producer (she/they)
Danielle is a creative producer passionate about social change through the arts, access and wellbeing. She has extensive experience in participation, engagement, and public realm activity and has most recently been in post as Producer for Selina Thompson Ltd., Co-Creative Producer of Balsall Heath's Living Room, an National Lottery Heritage funded third space pilot at Moseley Road Bath's, and Producer of Creative Participation for Birmingham 2022 Festival.
Dee Manning
Consultant, Dee.M Creatives (she/her)
Dee comes from a background in teaching, youth, community, and the arts, and has expertise in project management, production, community development, and mentoring across the arts, education, and the third sector showcasing a diverse skill set. She specialises in community and strategic development, creative production, and the implementation of arts and culture in local communities, fostering cultural engagement and growth at a grassroots level.
Gemma Wright
Head of Creative Learning, Warwick Arts Centre (University of Warwick)
Gemma Wright is Head of Creative Learning at Warwick Art Centre. After studying BA (Hons) Fine Art and an MA Printmaking she worked at Spike Island in Bristol, Leicester Print Workshop and was Head of Learning at Camden Art Centre until 2021. As part of her role at Warwick Arts Centre she develops strategies that increase opportunities for communities, families, schools and young people to engage in creativity.
Jen Burrows
Head of Organisational Strategy, Birmingham Hippodrome (she/her)
Jen Burrows is an arts administrator, currently working as Head of Organisational Strategy at Birmingham Hippodrome. With a varied background in TV drama, publishing and local government, Jen is interested in arts policy and inclusion, and hopes to help shape a world where everyone has the chance to share their stories through culture.
Jo-Ann Curtis
Curatorial Team Leader, Birmingham Museums Trust (she/her)
Jo-Ann Curtis is a social history curator and interim manager of curatorial team at Birmingham Museums Trust. She has 25 years’ experience working in both Regional and National Museums.
Lateesha Johnson
Talent Development Producer/ Producer, BFI/ freelance (she/her)
Lateesha is a talent development producer working to dismantle oppressive structures and help build a more inclusive sector so everyone can thrive. As a freelance creative producer she works with organisations and artists in Birmingham to deliver events that bring people together and promote art and creativity as a healing tool.
Louise Stokes
Co-Director, LouDeemY Productions (she/her)
Changing careers from senior psychiatric nurse specialist ward manager in 2000, I trained as an actor. I co- run theatre company, LouDeemY Productions of which I am Co-Director, as well as professional actor, writer, director, singer songwriter, and workshop facilitator, delivering all our projects and programmes. LouDeemY creates and produces mainstream theatre alongside delivering projects for marginalised groups of all ages. I also continue to work as a counsellor.
Madeleine Kludje
Associate Director, The Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Martin Gooding
Creative Producer - Youth Engagement Lead, B Arts (he/him)
Immersive theatre maker, creative producer and professional scally. Specialising in making art and theatre with underserved communities in Stoke on Trent and internationally. A scholar of British folk tradition and working class history with a masterplan to bring back Mumming, return Pace Egging to it's former glory and bring theatre back to the estates.
Murad Khan
CEO & Artistic Director, Purbanat Community Interest Company
I would like to be a change-maker to make a bigger impact in the ecology of the arts field in Birmingham and beyond.
Being a creative director of Purbanat, a platform for creative practitioners, I started to accept the challenge of offering quality art experiences to the targeted audience in the West Midlands area and beyond.
Natalie Armitage
Learning and Participation Manager, British Ceramics Biennial (she/her)
Natalie’s background is in art history, film, and material culture, gaining her PhD in English and American Studies (University of Manchester) in 2016. She joined British Ceramics Biennial in 2017 as Learning and Participation Manager. As Chair of Stoke Cultural Education Partnership she oversaw their merger with Partners in Creative Learning to transition to Arts Council NPO in 2023 and is a board member of the Cultural Compact, Stoke Creates.
Neslihan Ozar Ozfaris
Founder, British Turkish Cultural Association (she/her)
I promote positive social change through arts and cultural exchange.
I act, write, sing, facilitate and organise events.
I try to include social responsibility into everything :)
Nigel Bailey
Well-Being Practitioner
I am a practicing counsellor and also a well-being practitioner for theatre. I work with individuals, couples, groups and businesses across London and Birmingham mainly, however I do travel to other areas of the country if need be. I utilise an integrative methodology which amalgamates psychodynamic, person centred and cognitive behavioural therapies, which makes my style very effective and bespoke.
Nor Aziz
Founder & Director, Champion Inclusivity
Nor is a changemaker, championing the ‘unheard voices’ through participatory arts. Her artform centers around creating inclusivity through enhanced sense of belonging and the feeling that ‘I was involved and proud to be part of it’. She is passionate about recognising and inspiring the leader in others at an individual level to generate collective move, and for them to feel empowered to realise their potential.
Phoebe Rose Gilmore
Public Programme Development Manager, Moseley Road Baths (they/them)
Phoebe is interested specifically in creativity that centre relational practices. Born and bred in Birmingham, they have a love for cities and their people wishing to enable stronger systems for connections and solidarity within them.
Currently at Moseley Road Baths as the Public Programme Development Manager planning and delivering a programme of creative pilots funded by NLHF alongside the £32m capital repairs work.
Phoebe previously spearheaded the £2 million community arts commissioning grant programme, which saw over 100 different projects come to life as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival.
Willy Amott
Project Manager and Producer (they/them, he/him)
They are a project manager and producer for arts/cultural events and organisations; their work spans DIY drag cabaret, national artist development schemes, worldwide funding experiments, immersive experiential events, festival sets, LGBTQ+ parties and community arts activities. Their practice centres care, wellbeing and accessibility through responsive and sustainable modes. They find it tricky talking in the third person.
Sara Hadi
Creative Director, Mimar Collective CIC
Want to know more?
Are you interested in some of the learning coming out of the Collective? Thinking of applying future rounds of the programme?
You can register now as a ‘Connective’. Being part of Connective will give you access to all of the learning and content which is created, this content will be exclusively available to those interested and will include opportunities to connect with the Collective as it develops.