Steve provides strategic and research leadership for the Centre, develops our profile and builds partnerships with the academic and cultural sectors.

Steve is an Associate Professor of Creativity and Enterprise at the University of Leeds. His research explores cultural planning and tourism, entrepreneurial identity and creative enterprise, the creative workplace and leadership for fostering innovation and creativity. He routinely works with global partners, advising on leadership in the arts and cultural industries and creative enterprise ecosystems.

Ben provides strategic leadership for the Centre in areas of policy influence and engagement, supporting the Director and the Policy Officer to develop strong relationships with local, regional, national and international policymakers.

Ben served as Director of the Centre from 2019 until 2024. He is the Dean of Cultural Engagement at the University of Leeds, where his research encompasses arts management, arts marketing, audience studies and cultural policy, with a focus on audience engagement and enrichment; change management in the arts; and cultural value and leadership.

Prior to his academic career, Ben had 10 years’ experience in arts management, most recently as Producer at the National Theatre of Scotland.

Liz is a key member of the Centre’s leadership team, driving business development and leading delivery of major projects including the Culture in Crisis project and our Collaborate funding programme. She oversees the Centre’s staff management, monitoring and evaluation processes and manages relationships with funders and cultural sector partners.

With over 10 years of experience at the University of Leeds, Liz has delivered complex multi-partner projects and has extensive expertise in partnership and project management across the arts, education, government, and social care sectors. Prior to joining the University, she worked in the civil service, implementing a national sector skills strategy, and managed arts and community development projects for local authorities and national charities.

As the founding Chair of the Leeds Cultural Education Partnership, Liz’s commitment to improving access to high-quality arts and cultural opportunities continues to shape her work with the Centre.

Anna builds relationships with external partners and policymakers on behalf of the Centre. Working with our research and communications teams, she engages stakeholders, academics and practitioners in our work, articulating its impact to a wide range of audiences.

Anna has been a long-time champion of applied research and development. She has worked in senior Lottery funding positions, leading strategies for film culture in Greater London and the North of England. Her work includes growing new audiences for cinema through Film Hub North, co-founding industry conference This Way Up and co-designing Beyond the Multiplex, a research project exploring the formation of screen audiences. She continues to be interested in improving the outlook for freelancers within the wider cultural ecology.

Anna is based in Sheffield where she maintains her artistic practice and freelance audience-facing work. She is a Trustee for RivelinCo in Hillsborough.

Photo: Emma Ledwith

Rob synthesises and summarises relevant research from the Centre and helps make it as accessible as possible to cultural practitioners and policymakers. Rob’s recent research has focused on evaluating the role of arts and culture in the daily lives of young people.

Rob has lectured in the cultural and creative industries and in virtual and extended realities. Previously, they were a Research Fellow with the British Film Institute and XR Stories on emerging media formats and a researcher with UAL’s AKO Storytelling Institute on the use of arts and culture in campaigns and advocacy practices in ‘storytelling for social good’.

Rob completed their PhD in 2022 on the use of immersive media for interactive documentary storytelling. Outside of the Centre, they are a film-maker and digital artist and a director of the Bradford Digital Arts Lab for emerging digital artists in Bradford.

Amy helps us to communicate our work and reach new audiences. This includes promoting our research digests and events, creating and scheduling engaging content for our social channels and ensuring our resources and platforms can be accessed by as many people as possible.

Amy has over 15 years’ experience working in communication roles in the arts, culture and non-profit sectors. She worked as part of the marketing team at the Royal Shakespeare Company before starting a freelance career in 2017. As a freelancer she has worked with a range of clients to deliver marketing campaigns, digital marketing consultancy, digital advertising, social media management, training and mentoring.

Marion assists the Centre’s work by collecting, collating, managing and analysing diverse data sources to generate evidence-based insights for cultural practitioners and policymakers. Her research focuses on understanding and evaluating the health, social and economic impacts of the cultural sector.

She is currently part of a Data Scientist Development Programme at the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA) and contributes to the collaborative project developing a National Cultural Data Observatory. This work aims to strengthen the UK’s cultural data infrastructure and address gaps in the availability and consistency of data across the arts, culture and heritage sector.

Marion holds a MSc in Environmental Data Science and is passionate about leveraging data science to support public good.