Creative Leadership Programme
The Creative Leadership programme was delivered by Plymouth Culture in 2024 to explore and build a new model of distributed leadership, challenging dominant models of hierarchical leadership in ways that support the development of Plymouth’s cultural ecology.
On its pilot year, it benefited 40 Creative Leaders in Plymouth and surrounding areas by delivering five steams of activity:
Convening a Focus Group to help shape the programme, comprised of representatives from partner organisations, cultural organisations, creative freelancers and emerging leaders.
Mentorships comprising a pairing between a Mentor and a Creative Leader. The mentorship support that was given varied for each pairing, and was created to be relevant to the Creative Leaders’ needs and interests, and the support that could be provided by the Mentor.
Bursaries awarded to support participants to undertake an activity, training or go-and-see visit to support their own Creative Leadership development. Bursary activities were defined by the recipient themselves.
Action Learning Sets comprising meetings of up to five participants on two focus areas – ‘Gaining Confidence as a Creative Leader’ led by Natasha Player, and ‘Leading with Care and Empathy’ led by Ciara Eastell.
Events available to attend either by participants, or participants and stakeholders, including ‘Creative Leadership: Can care and bravery be the future?’, ‘Participants Meet Ups’ (two events), and an end of programme reflection and celebration event.
The Creative Leadership programme supported Creative Leaders on an individual basis, with the streams of activity adapted to the personal leadership support needs identified by each Creative Leader, either independently, in collaboration with the Programme Coordinator, or in collaboration with programme-peers or Mentors.
FOCUS GROUP
We worked with a fantastic Focus Group who’ve helped us fine tune the Creative Leadership Programme. They were:
Dulcima Fenton, ReBels Co-ordinator, Barbican Theatre
Dan Baker, Programme Manager, Exeter Northcott
Dom Jinks, Director, Exeter Culture
Arielle Etheridge, Artist and Assistant Curator of Interpretation, Tate St. Ives
Joe Lyward, Artist and Curator
Kate Reed, Chief Operating Officer, Real Ideas Organisation
Lorna Rose, Artist, Curator and Producer
Kevin Dixon, Board member, Torbay Culture
MENTORING
Mentoring is a supportive relationship between someone with specialist skills and experience and someone who wants to learn from these insights. A mentor can be a sounding board, providing an alternate perspective on your creative leadership journey, and gently challenge you to think and act differently in order to achieve your goals.
There were 20 mentoring places awarded via the Creative Leadership Programme. Ten of these places were via open call. Another ten places were nominated by arts and culture organisations in Plymouth and the surrounding area. We invited a range of different organisations to nominate so we could connect with people who didn’t see themselves as creative leaders (even though they are!) or perhaps don’t tend to apply for opportunities.
The 20 mentoring awardees were:
Chi Bennett, Wonderzoo Chi mentored by Donna Howard, Executive Director of KARST
Sophie Croft, Libraries Unlimited mentored by Helen Chaloner, CEO Literature Works
Will Kemp, Dartington Trust mentor by Lindsey Hall, CEO Real Ideas Organisation
Emily Roach Osborne, freelance artist mentored by Anna Navas, Director and Programmer Plymouth Arts Cinema
Cristina Varga, freelance theatre practitioner mentored by Alix Harris, Artistic Director & CEO, Beyond Face
Devon Tipping, Community in Print mentored by Mary Costello, Contemporary Art Curator The Levinsky Gallery
Nadine Proost, Nudge Community Builders mentored by Kate Farmery, Head of Business The Box
Polly Ferguson-Carruthers, Doorstep Arts mentored by Sara Rhodes, CEO/Creative Director Sterts Arts and Environmental Centre
Yudi Wu, Maketank mentored by Zoe Li, Executive Director Yeovil Art Space
Adam Murray, The Box mentored by Lucy Elmes, Art Curator and Producer
Mike Snook, Livewire Youth Music mentored by Matt Peacock, MBE Freelance Consultant Founder of Streetwise Opera and Arts & Homelessness Int.
Maryam Pourain, Dance for Life Devon CIC mentored by Joseph Jeffers, CEO ASKI (Advice Support Knowledge Information)
Erika Cann, Exeter Phoenix mentored by Hannah Rose Artist / Regional Director (VASW)
Azza Gasim, freelance artist & curator mentored by Euella Jackson, Co-Director Rising Arts Agency
Jess Mallory, freelance artist mentored by Rosie Bowery, Studio Manager Jamaica Street Studios
Linzie Wishart, Wellbeing Choir mentored by Emily Foulkes, Director Music for Good
Shelley Hodgson, Take A Part mentored by June Gamble Life and Business Coach
Bee Jarvis, Theatre Royal, Beyond Face mentored by Saad Eddine Said CEO and Artistic Director New Art Exchange
Donna Maughan, Leadworks mentored by Rebecca Bridgman, Head of Collections and Programme The Box
Laura Cantliff, Far Flung Dance mentored by the team at Stopgap Dance Company
BURSARIES
The Learning and Development Bursaries are supporting the awardees choice of leadership opportunities to support their leadership development journey.
The Learning and Development Bursary awardees were:
Erika Cann, Exeter Phoenix
Kate Massey-Chase, Marjon University
Anna Anise, Chorus Songwriting CIC
Amy Whittingham, Flameworks and Arts University Plymouth
Laura Horton, Barbican Theatre
Mary Morris, Arvon
Ella S Mills, freelance curator & producer
Anna Batson, Freelance Creative Practitioner and Musician
Clair Sargeant, Far Flung Dance
Matt Farley, Literature Works
ACTION LEARNING
Action Learning is a fantastic way to get together with peers, in a small group, supported by a facilitator, to work on real life work challenges in a confidential environment.
Each member of the group brings a challenge they are facing, and the group works together through active listening and reflection to gently provide routes to tackling each challenge. It is also a great format for peer support and for building a network of trusted colleagues.
For the Creative Leadership Programme we run two Action Learning sets: Gaining Confidence as a Creative Leaders facilitated by Natasha Player; and Leading with Care and Empathy facilitated by Ciara Eastell.
Action Learning participants were:
Gemma Smith, Take A Part
Hannah Mills Brown, Make South West
Vanessa Crosse, Plymouth Racial Equality Council
Christina Bulford, Exeter Phoenix
Jim Baldwin, Fotonow
Janette Owen, freelance theatre practitioner
Anneliese Kesteven, Take A Part
Fran Hawkesworth, Real Ideas Organisation
Lauren Taverner Brown, Arts University Plymouth
Chloe Uden, Art and Energy
Katy Danbury, Exeter Phoenix
ONLINE RESOURCES
During the programme we have collected and shared resources that we found valuable for Creative Leaders. Find them here:
Inclusive Language Guide
A guide developed by Spike Island that outlines how to use inclusive language to avoid biases, slang or expressions that exclude certain groups.
>> click here for the guide (webpage)
Together We Will
As part of Together We Will, a sector support pilot programme in Spring 2021, Visual Art Southwest (VASW) coordinated four Artworker Advisory Groups to develop an action plan for increasing equal access to and equitable working cultures in visual arts. Each group formulated a set of recommendations for intersectional approaches to best practice. This document brings together all the recommendations as new best practice guidelines for institutions, organisations and freelance arts organisers working in the region.
>> Click here to download Together We Will (pdf)
Transformational Governance Project
The Transformational Governance Project’s vision is of a society in which institutions and organisations are supported and held accountable by inclusive, open, transformational governance that invites change, redistributes power, and enables everyone to thrive.
The Transformational Governance project is supported by an ever-evolving stewarding group. Made of a group individual practitioners, facilitators, thinkers and representatives from organisations across the UK already testing and exploring different forms of experimental / non-traditional governance. The main purpose of the stewarding group is to move forward, design and support our overall Transformational Governance project inquiry and learning process, while deepening practice and documenting learning on the topic.
>> Click here to find out more
Plymouth Culture Creative Leadership Programme – Leading with Care and Empathy
This toolkit was created during two sessions on ‘Leading with Care and Empathy’ facilitated by Ciara Eastell at the Creative Leadership event on 24 April 2024.
>> Click here to download Leading with Care & Empathy Toolkit (pdf)
Plymouth Culture Creative Leadership Programme – Mentoring Guidance Toolkit
This toolkit was shared with all the mentors and mentees in our Creative Leadership Programme and gives an excellent overview and potential structures for mentoring.
>> Click here to download the Mentoring Guidance Toolkit (pdf)
Creative Health Talks
In January 2024 The Arts Development Company hosted a one day event with NHS Dorset that brought together some of the most current practice and thinking around Creative Health from the County and Country.
>> Click here to read more and watch videos from the day
The Arts Development Company also run Dorset’s Creative Health and Well-being Network – click here to find out more
UP Projects – Consellations Assemblies
In 2023, UP Projects ran a range of a series of free online events open to all artists, curators, practitioners, commissioners, and those working across, or interested in public art, social practice and regeneration. You can watch all the Assemblies online. Of particular interest in terms of leadership is the Assembly ‘Conflict and Care’ which asked ‘is good intention the opposite of care?’ with Morgan Quaintance, Jack Ky Tan and Khanyisile Mbongwa.
>> click here to watch online https://upprojects.com/conflict-care
