I was lucky enough to be at the start of Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries, setting up the programme with Shonagh Manson (previously Jerwood Arts Director) in 2010 and have run the programme ever since. In the early days, my role covered all aspects, from fundraising to PR, programme development and supporting Fellows and Hosts. Now the programme has grown to include the expanded Jerwood Arts team and a range of external partners, my role has evolved to keeping an overview on all the moving parts and being an advocate for the programme. Maintaining links with the 170 Fellow Alumni and 150 host organisations is one of the highlights of my role.
I have run my own consultancy for the past 15 years alongside this role and work with other trusts and foundations, on special projects (such as project managing Garfield Weston Foundation’s 60th Anniversary year) and as a Clerk to a family trust. I am also a producer, most recently as a Senior Producer on Coventry City of Culture, building on a long career in theatre, music and festivals.
I have lived in Gloucestershire for the past 20 years and after working for a decade with Cheltenham Festivals, latterly running the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, I set up and run a charity called GUST in Gloucester to incubate emerging artists and organisations to help build up the cultural infrastructure in the city. I love the local countryside and all it offers for walking, wild swimming and so many arts activities but we need more shows on our doorstep and I hope Gloucester will soon be resurrected to the cultural hotspot it once was.
You can contact me on kate@jerwoodarts.org
