About

Gillian is a leading SW cultural and arts sector professional who has a reputation in the industry for responding quickly and creatively to briefs.

She works with a range of organisations which has included: the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts Health & Wellbeing, Wheal Martyn, Hestercombe Gallery, Torbay Culture and SW Museum Development Programme.
 
For over six years, Gillian has worked with CEDA (Community Equality Disability Action), to raise their profile, to create a participatory arts programme and to work with emerging and established disabled artists. Through this work she has developed partnerships with other cultural organisations in Devon and the South West to improve audience engagement with disabled people. 
 
With a background in communications for Arts Council England, Gillian has worked on a variety of partnership projects with the BBC including Civilisations and Get Creative. She also has strong relationships with BBC SW and other broadcast, online and print news providers in the region. Through these relationships, she gains media coverage for the organisations she works with. Coverage is targeted to not only raise profile but also convey carefully honed messages. The coverage she generates ranges from stories in local newspapers to interviews on national TV. 
 
Gillian is an early technology adopter, training with BBC and RTÉ in mobile journalism and smartphone filmmaking, and with Amazon in smart speaker and voice technology. She has delivered smartphone video training for organisations across the South West, including for Cultivator Cornwall, RAMM, Miracle Theatre and Newlyn Art Gallery.

At Arts Council England, Gillian led the development and delivery of the communications strategy for the South West. This included disseminating key messages through a range of channels and platforms including: the media, websites, the Arts Council regional newsletter, printed publications, social media and events. She worked closely with funded organisations and stakeholders, giving advice and working together to advocate for the arts. For the Cultural Olympiad in the South West, she achieved worldwide coverage of projects including Sue Austin’s underwater wheelchair project, ‘Creating the Spectacle’.