As Chief Executive, I'm responsible for the strategic leadership and management of the organisation. This involves a wide range of duties including the exploration of new business opportunities, ensuring our social objectives remain central to the design and delivery of all our programmes and services.

Having studied at Falmouth School of Art and at Courtauld Institute, my background and professional expertise is firmly rooted in the visual arts. However,  I'm also passionate about theatre and poetry having spent many years working with small theatre companies, both as an actor and director.

In addition to my work at Creative United, I am involved in a voluntary capacity on the Board of a number of other arts organisations including Poet in the City, New Contemporaries and the Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust.

As Chief Operating Officer I am responsible for overseeing all operational aspects of the business ensuring that the financial, technological and administrative functions of the business run smoothly. I also have responsibility and oversight of much of the business governance including compliance with the regulatory bodies regarding financial conduct and data protection. I also lead the consumer credit team driving performance in the Own Art and Take it away schemes.

I have over 15 years’ experience working within arts administration having led teams in busy box office environments from small independent venues to internationally renowned institutions.

I am also an active musician, playing in a popular function band for 5 years, and I have acted with a number of small theatre companies.

Sarah leads on the strategy and programme development for Creative United’s access to finance and business support work. From 2014- 16, this focused on delivering the Creative Industry Finance programme. From 2017 onwards, Sarah spearheaded the launch and delivery of a number of programmes, including Prosper, Forge and Prosper. In addition to her work at Creative United, Sarah is on the Board of Trustees for the Music Venue Trust.

Sarah studied Film and Drama, but music has always been her first love, having started her career in the creative industry by setting up her own booking agency getting bands into live music venues in London. A few years later she entered the world of grant-giving by becoming the Communications Manager for PRS for Music Foundation. 

I’m Director of our Inclusive Access to Music Making (IAMM) Programme – a broad initiative looking to increase access to equal, quality music education. Within that, we have a particular focus on the use of accessible instruments – adapted musical instruments, technology and accessories which can be used by musicians who have difficulty with traditional ones. I manage and develop our work in this space including our flagship First Access Programme, working with Music Education Hubs to support disabled students in Whole Class Ensemble Teaching (WCET) and our membership in the Inclusive Music Consortium.

I worked in software development for several years whilst playing woodwind instruments in my spare time. I recently graduated with an MA in Music Education (instrumental teaching) from the University of York, where my research focus was on accessible instruments. I’ve recently started my PhD at York continuing to look at how the use of accessible instruments can be supported, and I still teach some woodwind students and play in local bands.

As well as that, I’m a big gamer, both of video games and TTRPGs like Dungeons & Dragons. I love animals and have many pets including a Great Dane and lots of cats. I like languages and try to learn Swedish, German and Japanese when I have the time.

As the Membership Development Manager for Creative United, I am responsible for providing sales advice and support to a network of over 400 member galleries and musical instrument retailers under the Own Art and Take it away interest free credit schemes.

Having studied Art and Aesthetics at Cardiff University my background is principally in the visual arts and I am pleased to say that I continue my practice as an artist and photographer in my spare time. Professionally, I have over 15 years’ experience in business management within the hospitality and retail sectors, including managing art galleries in the primary and secondary markets.

In addition to my work at Creative United, and as a practising artist, I also volunteer at ZSL London Zoo. I have volunteered at ZSL since 2010 and enjoy guiding visitors around the zoo and sharing my knowledge and passion for wildlife and conservation.

As Programmes Officer for our Consumer Credit schemes, I’m the first point of contact for our beneficiaries and members alike. I manage onboarding for all new Own Art member galleries and Take it away retailers, as well as leading our gallery training sessions and supporting the day to day running of both programmes.

I hold a degree in Comparative Literature from Queen Mary University of London and have always been interested in how film, music and art enrich our society. I really enjoy working with organisations across multiple creative disciplines at Creative United and am passionate about our aim to make visual art and music accessible to all.

As Finance and Operations Officer at Creative United, I am responsible for the day-to-day to finance and operations of the business i.e. bookkeeping, credit control, prepayments, and assisting in the preparation of management accounts, annual financial statements, and financial forecast. Moreover, researching and deploying specific projects in consultation with the chief operations officer. I have accrued experience working within various organisations in finance, admin and operations over the last five years.

To pursue my passion for finance and accounting I have acquired a Masters in Business and a BA Hons in Accounting. In addition to this, I am an ACCA part-qualified which I aim to complete in the near future.

Furthermore, I am a dedicated practitioner of MMA, Boxing, and Kick Boxing. Since a young age, I have had a keen interest in Martial Arts that enabled me to achieve a black belt in Karate and participate in various championships including national, and won a gold medal.

As Consumer Credit Programmes Administrator, my role at Creative United allows me to meet with many different individuals and organisations. As first point of contact for both potential and current members of Own Art and Take it Away, I manage the onboarding of new members, lead training sessions, provide ongoing support, and assist in the everyday running of both schemes.

Graduating with a first in Theatre from LSBU, I have worked with many unique and interesting arts and cultural venues.  Whilst managing galleries and theatres across London, I have always worked hard to champion diversity and inclusivity in each of my job roles. This lead me to Creative United, inspired by the company's commitment to accessibility within the arts.

My love for art and culture has allowed me to share and develop many passions, including devising theatre, making music, learning languages and studying transcultural adaptations.

I am a PhD candidate at KCL funded by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership. My research focuses on the promising and yet underexplored notion of Creative and Cultural Ecology. The framework recognises the complementary modalities and value(s) of creative production and consumption while questioning both the primacy given to narrow economic-led imperatives and the mechanistic understanding of the sector of previous research and models. To empirically prove the notion, I am mapping and investigating theatre professionals’ flows between the private, public and not-for-profit spheres through network analysis and interviews.

The PhD’s contributions aim to be: theoretical, mapping current definitions and literature to establish a stronger theoretical grounding; methodological, testing curriculum vitae analysis and mixed-method network analysis as a tool for exploration in CC ecology; empirical, describing the relationships between the private, public and not-for-profit sphere in the theatre sector and the influences they exert on the work network, also including considerations on intersectional inequalities.

Connected to the PhD project’s collaborative nature in partnership with Creative United, the PhD aims to provide policy implications of the listed contributions for the sector and organisations that aim to support its development.

James Cunningham is a Northern Irish, visually impaired musician currently studying at Queen’s University Belfast as part of the Bridging the Gap project. He grew up in NI surrounded by a musical family, and he received his Bachelor’s in Music (BMus) from Queen’s with a focus on composition. James has had pieces premiered in both Belfast and London, and he is also an experienced improvisor with various instruments, most notably clarinet and piano. James’ Guide Dog Bart has travelled with him through much of the formative time in his musical career, and although he plans on retiring in Summer 2022, he will always hold a special place of honour in James’ work.

Jason Dasent has over 25 years’ experience in all aspects of recording and music production. Jason launched Studio Jay Recording in Trinidad in 2000 catering to both the Advertising Sector and Artist Production for many top Caribbean recording artists. He has done Music Scores/ Dialog Replacement & Post-Production for both films & documentaries.

As a visually impaired producer he was challenged to overcome the limitations of mainstream music software when “accessibility” was in its infancy. Over the years this has enabled him to compete successfully with his sighted counterparts and makes him well poised to impart his knowledge and experience to other visually impaired producers and engineers.

In 2017 Jason became a member of a worldwide team of Beta testers for accessibility with AVID ProTools, the first DAW to fully support accessibility. As a result of this project, with the knowledge gained, he now engages with several music
equipment manufacturers e.g. Native Instruments, Arturia, Focusrite/Novation and Antares Autotune among others, to assist them in introducing accessibility features to their products from the back end.