Participants in the programme came from a wide variety of backgrounds, including freelancers and emerging leaders, with different types of experience, designed to reflect the makeup of the creative and cultural workforce across the region.
To achieve its ambition to be the leading creative rural economy, the programme needed a new generation of leaders who can:
- meet the challenges and opportunities of the future – social, economic and environmental
- raise the game and work collaboratively, demonstrate the value and promote the creative economy of C&IoS.
Here is how this first cohort has risen to the occasion...
Hannah Irwin
Hannah is currently managing two of the team’s portfolio of projects. iMayflower is designed to build Plymouth’s creative industries and nurture ‘creative people power,’ funded by DCMS and Arts Council England, and delivered by a consortium of partners. Engaging Students in Knowledge Exchange, funded by Office for Students and Research England, explores the impact of student involvement in knowledge exchange, developing and sharing great practice. Hannah is passionate about the principle of knowledge exchange, and loves her role as a “super-connector and catalyst for conversation and successful, creative collaborations.”
Cerisia Ta’Torin
Cerisia’s research question is deceptively simple: “how can we build a community so that we can be successful together?” Focusing on Krowji, the creative hub in Redruth where she’s a tenant, she is looking at how artists can create more successful business models. She hopes to develop networking trade shows aimed at gallery owners, curators or publishers – those who commission or employ creatives.
Bethany Lyne
Bethany is the Project Manager for Cornwall 365, one of Creative Kernow’s core programmes. Cornwall 365 is a Creative Consultancy promoting Cornwall as a year-round sustainable destination. Currently one of her major projects is ‘In the Loop,’ a prototype platform that aims at “creating better feedback loops between audiences and cultural organisations in our rural context in Cornwall.” Its pilot project has been to evaluate the G7 Behind the Postcard cultural programme.
Anna Renton
Anna’s project is looking at ways of demonstrating the value of culture within a local authority context. Her goal is to be able to articulate the value of the investment that the council is making in her museum, with the aim of communicating better with both policymakers and members of the public. As well as developing economic modeling, she has been gathering data on social impact from participants in her museum’s outreach programmes.
Jonny Dry
Jonny is a film director and screenwriter and is the co-founder of the production company Studio Erma. He is working on creating methods of film development that engage members of the public and communities. He feels that the sort of community engagement pioneered by organisations like Kneehigh Theatre “gives people a sense that their stories and their lives are being represented.”
Megan Beck
Megan is looking at whether taking a more creative approach to developing partnership agreements can make them stronger and more sustainable – leading in turn to healthier and more successful projects. Using an actual partnership as a test case, Megan is experimenting with form and process. So far she’s done an online design session with six artists to draw out aims and expectations, and is thinking about what shape a creative partnership agreement might take.
Robin James Sullivan
Robin is an artist, producer and facilitator with interests including Neolithic Britain, food, the power of community, new forms of recording history, and queer space. They aim to learn more about community and stakeholder engagement: how to filter in more ideas from other people at all stages of their work, from ideation through to product delivery.
Verity Anthony
Verity is Assistant Director (Collections and Operations) at Bodmin Keep: Cornwall’s Army Museum. Verity’s project is centred on her own organisation, looking at how she can train new staff members and manage teams more effectively. She is learning how to create hands-off management structures that allow staff to work more independently.
Alessandra Ausenda
Alessandra is an artist and the co-founder of Tough Dough, an organisation that works in partnership to make art that celebrates people, stories and the natural environment. Alessandra has set up a collaborative project with two artists in the North East who have mentored Tough Dough in the last year. The project has involved a set of exchanges between four artists in the South West, and four in the North East.
Emily Sorrell
Like many young creatives in Cornwall, Emily wears multiple hats. She’s a designer working in the heritage sector. She’s also the co-founder and director of Doorstep, a community platform that connects creatives working in isolation across Cornwall, including graduates, freelancers, and sole-traders. Having been a student, graduate, sole trader and now business owner in Cornwall herself, she understands how tricky it can be to go out on your own and “put down roots.” Graduate retention is one of the main issues that Doorstep aims to address over the next few years.
Evaluating a Salford cultural and education partnership which co-creates theatre with children and young people.
How The Audience Agency is innovating to help art galleries find out more about their visitors in a fun and interactive digital way.