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.

Current cultural highlight:

Before Creative United: 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. 

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.

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.

As Marketing and Communications Manager for Creative United’s business support programmes and corporate projects, I ensure our programmes and projects are engaging with and benefitting the right audiences across the creative sector.

I began my communications career at one of the UK’s top ten communications specialist agencies before embarking on postgraduate studies in Arts & Society at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. With experience working across the cultural sector, from small-scale local arts festivals to international cultural funds, I am a firm believer in the power of communications to facilitate and champion creative skills, relationships and projects.

Stephen has a background in business management and has previously managed art galleries, with experience in the primary and secondary art markets. In his current role as Membership Development Manager at Creative United, Steve is 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.

As Strategic Relationship Manager, I am responsible for leading on strategic development activities for the Own Art and Take it away network, as well as awareness raising of the two programmes to target audiences. I am also responsible for the continued monitoring and reporting of the effectiveness and impact of Own Art and Take it away in line with the objectives agreed with major funders and stakeholders. In addition, I am currently involved with consultations and the evaluation of research findings for Improving Access to Music Making (IAMM), a project aimed at reducing barriers to first access to music for children with disabilities in the UK.

My involvement in the creative industries spans over a decade across a diverse range of roles, including artist and gallery management, relationship management, project management and operational management. In my personal time, I am a musician, writer, occasional festival producer, and enthusiastic member and organiser for Art+Feminism, a global rhizomatic collective aimed at improving the gender bias of women in the arts on Wikipedia and encouraging female editorship.

As a member of The Association of Accounting Technicians, I am delighted to have joined the Finance and Operations department.

I have enjoyed a varied career in the arts before coming to join Creative United. I moved to London after recording the voice of Hercules for the Hebrew dubbed version of the Walt Disney movie of the same name.

After studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music, I performed in Jerry Springer: The Opera and worked on recordings for the Lord of the Rings Musical.

Passionate about music and art, I then worked in various West End theatres, as a customer service representative, administrator and manager before joining Creative United.