Who we are… « Research and Information for the Arts and Cultural sector

Who we are…

Arts Research Digest is produced by a small team based in the North East of England. They work closely with the Board of Trustees, who volunteer their time, knowledge and expertise to support the charity. If your goal here is to buy book reports on these topics, you can check the examples on this site.

Paul Allin (Chair)

Paul Allin heads one of the analysis and reporting divisions in the UK Office for National Statistics. He is responsible for a range of statistics, including on the labour market, social wellbeing and Social Trends. Paul was previously the Chief Statistician and Head of Statistics and Social Policy in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. He retains a strong interest in statistics and research on the arts, the wider cultural scene and the cultural industries. His research interests have covered the UK film industry, the economic contribution of the cultural industries, and the challenges of producing meaningful cross-country comparisons of cultural statistics.

Stephen Boyce

Stephen Boyce is Deputy Director of Operations at the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). He studied French and Philosophy and worked as an actor and education worker before joining Southern Arts Board in 1981 where he held a number of posts including Theatre Officer and ultimately Deputy Chief Executive. He has extensive experience of managing National Lottery grant programmes and was the Community Fund’s Programme Manager of Awards for All before joining the HLF. Stephen chairs the Board of the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton and the advisory board of Creative Partnerships (Southampton, Portsmouth and Hampshire). He is a former trustee of ArtSway.

Sarah Havens

Sarah has been active in the arts administration field since 1981, serving as Executive Director of the American Council for the Arts in New York before relocating to London in 1990. After completing an MSc in Public Policy and Public Administration at the London School of Economics, Sarah joined the Board of Arts Research Limited and managed the charity for a number of years. In 2005 Sarah became a Parliamentary Advisory to Alison Seabeck MP until she left to assist with the financial and administrative management of Cell Medica Ltd, a London-based cellular therapeutics company.

Sarah is on the Friends Committee of the Whitley Fund for Nature, assists IntoUniversity, a London-wide educational charity, with its annual fundraising events and is a member of the Norland Square Garden Committee.

Andy O’Hanlon

Andy O’Hanlon works in local governent in the East of England negotiating planning-gain agreement cultural facilities and public art. He is a member of a team comprising economic development, sustainability, community, sports and urban design, delivering government targets on housing growth in Cambridgeshire.

Andy is a member of the National Association of Local Government Arts Officers (NALGAO), Chairman of Arts Development in East Cambridgeshire and a maker of giant puppets for a wide range of participatory organisations.

Sara Selwood

Sara Selwood is an independent cultural analyst, Professor of Cultural Policy and Management at City University, London and Hon Professor at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. She has written extensively on the relationship between the expectations of UK cultural policy, its implementation, funding and the publics’ experience of cultural provision. Her books include The Benefits of Public Art: the polemics of permanent art in public places (London: Policy Studies Institute, 1995), the first critical analysis of public art in England, and The UK Cultural Sector: profile and policy issues (2001).

Sara recently undertook a major review of Renaissance in the Regions, a £300m government investment in regional museums in England. She edits Cultural Trends, a journal which combines statistical evidence on the cultural sector with commentary and interpretation.

Phyllida Shaw

Phyllida Shaw is a facilitator, writer and researcher with 20 years of freelance experience in the voluntary and public sectors, and specialising in the arts.

Working solo and in teams of associates with complementary skills, her reputation comes from her ability to listen, her skill in analysing and interpreting information and her direct but supportive personal style. She is a natural communicator and enjoys working with individuals and organisations of very different kinds.

Clients have included the five Arts Councils of the British Isles, government departments, local authorities, grant-making trusts, higher education institutions and a wide range of cultural and voluntary organisations. She is an adviser to grant-making trusts, an associate lecturer on the MA in Arts & Cultural Management at the University of Sussex and a research associate at the Cities Institute, London Metropolitan University. She is a member of the National Union of Journalists.

Jamie Allen

Lecturer in Digital Media and Assistant Director of the Culture Lab, Newcastle University (UK)

Jennifer Hinves

Programme Leader, MA Cultural Management, Northumbria University (UK).

Staff

Ann Winter

Ann Winter joined Arts Research Digest as editor in November 2009, to produce the Digest itself and manage the development of the new web portal.

After three years working with the British Council in Poland, Egypt and Spain, Ann taught at further education institutions in London while gaining a MRes in English Literary Research. Since settling in the North East of England, Ann has taught at Durham, Newcastle and Northumbria Universities, while building her career in web copy writing and fiction writing.

Ann currently edits Arts Research Digest part time. She is also an executive partner in the North East design company Kino Creative LLP, as well as a peripatetic examiner for Trinity Guildhall, a fiction writer and apprentice satirical cartoonist.

Judy Seymour (temporary editor)

With a degree in drama and theatre arts Judy spent three years as adevisor/performer with les Tretaux Libres, a Swiss based theatre company, before moving to the North East of England where she was a founder member of Them Wifies, one of the first community arts companies in the north east. Here her work focused on developing festivals as a medium through which young people could engage positively with their local communities. Her passion for social justice led her to become interested in education, and more specifically, how and why formal education fails so many. She subsequently became a senior manager with responsibility for community education and community development services in both the public and third sectors in Northern Ireland and England, before rejoining the cultural sector as Director of Northern Cultural Skills Partnership. Here she led the development of the sector’s Skills Action plan and chaired the Cultural Sector Regional Workforce Development Forum. Her work with Northumbria University led to a co-publication with Literature Training ‘Skills for Professional Development Planning’. In 2009 she set up Culture Works, a Community Interest Company which has a portfolio of work embracing career development, research, cultural leadership and enterprise support.

Carol Marshall

Carol Marshall has been key to client operations at Arts Research Digest since 2005. As well as managing our relationships with subscribers, she became responsible in 2009 for managing our accounts, budgeting, liaising with the Board of Trustees, business development and funding.

Carol works closely with the Board to support Arts Research Digest’s vision as it moves into the world of online publishing. She has over 25 years experience of business and operational roles within the private, public and charity sector, particularly in Marketing and Finance, HR, and Health and Safety.