Beatriz is Senior Research Fellow in Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool. She is a member of the European Capital of Culture Selection Committee, expert member at the Culture & Olympic Heritage Commission and director of the Cities of Culture Research Observatory. Beatriz has been at the forefront of research on culture-led city regeneration interventions since 1999 and was a founding member of the Institute of Cultural Capital (2010-2019). She has conducted fieldwork on the cultural impact of every edition of the Olympic Games since Sydney 2000.

Director of Policy and Research of The Audience Agency Oliver leads on consultancy focused on policy and new application of expertise and audience datasets, on partnerships with Higher Education Institutions (inc. the Evaluation strand of the Centre for Cultural Value) and on development of The Audience Agency’s services, where they draw on these areas.

Paula Varjack is a theatre-maker, video artist, writer and performer. Her body of work includes performance, film, monologue, installation, and participation. She makes work as a way of amplifying marginalised stories and voices, engaging in a way that both provokes thought and entertains. Having begun her practice as a solo artist, her work has become increasingly collaborative, shaped by the artists who inspire and collaborate with her.

She is a Barbican Open Lab Artist, London Pleasance Associate artist and has had work commissioned by Barbican, Battersea Arts Centre, Camden People’s Theatre, and Attenborough Centre for the Arts amongst others. Born in Washington D.C. to a Ghanaian mother and a British father, she considers East London to be “home”.