Gavin Clayton took over as CEO at Hoot Creative Arts in April 2019 and has a strong belief in the role of arts & culture to challenge social injustice and health inequality. Hoot is an Arts Council NPO and commissioned by Kirklees Council and NHS to deliver adult mental health services across Kirklees and HMPPS to deliver specialist prison based work across the north of England.

Previously he has worked with : Arts & Minds, Cambridge; The Men’s Room, Manchester; Cambridgeshire County Council; MKArts for Health and lectured at University of Florida School of Arts & Medicine; He is one of the founders of England’s ‘Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance’ and initiated the establishment of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Arts, Health and Wellbeing.He has enjoyed speaking at conferences across the UK, Ireland, Europe and Hong Kong and is an Associate of the Royal Society for Public Health. As a NESTA sponsored Clore Fellow his research explored how the arts contribute to development in Sub-Saharan nations in Africa.