CULTURAL PROGRAMME
The Board
The Blackpool HAZ is primarily a partnership between Blackpool Council and Historic England but the Cultural Consortium brings in other partners to supervise the delivery of this element of the programme.
As part of our cultural mapping exercise in 2021, we asked a number of questions about the governance of projects and how commissioning opportunities are advertised and managed. It was clear from the feedback that local artists and creatives were frustrated by the perception of a ‘municipal’ approach to commissioning so in response to this, the Council have taken a step back.
The Board of the Cultural Consortium has a core of three members each representing a heritage charity in the town but recently, with the success of bids for the management of the HAZ funded Creative Hub at 28 Topping Street, the Board have Seconded Aunty Social’s Catherine Mugonyi to join the team. The Consortium will be inviting other organisations and specialist advisers to join them for specific projects and programmes to ensure the wider creative community are represented where possible.
Joan is the Chair of Blackpool Civic Trust and the National Civic Society Group, Civic Voice. She also sits on the Board of the Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Volunteer Centre and has been active in local events and fundraising for over thirty years. Before retiring, Joan represented Blackpool North as its MP, and was a passionate supporter of local heritage and arts organisations.
David is the Chair of the Winter Gardens Trust as well as one of the Founding members of the Grand Theatre Trust. With over fifty years of fundraising experience (and still going) and a background in supporting Blackpool based arts and heritage projects, David brings a huge amount of local experience to the Board.
John is the Chair of the Friends of the Blackpool Grand Theatre and has a long history with arts fundraising. Much of John’s focus is on fundraising for the Grand Theatre Trust and supporting the development of the theatre and improving its facilities in partnership with both the Grand Theatre Trust and the Grand Theatre operating company.
Administration & Staff
Because the Cultural Consortium is a vehicle for distributing HAZ funding, it doesn’t have a dedicated administrative staff of its own. The programme is however supported on a day to day basis by Carl Carrington, who is responsible for managing the wider HAZ programme and Jan Cresswell, the Council’s Conservation Officer.
Carl manages the wider HAZ programme and has a background in conservation and planning but has also been actively involved with supporting local arts projects through his role as Secretary of the Winter Gardens Trust.