Anand Bhatt is a cultural leader and producer originally from Leicester. He founded the Desi Masti studio space in Leicester which became a leading South Asian dance organisation in the Midlands, and expanded operations further across 14 UK locations. In 2007, Anand was dancing in a Kathak show alongside dancer Aakash Odedra. The pair became firm friends and business partners, founding the Aakash Odedra Company which went on to be the fastest growing contemporary dance company of the 2010s in the UK. Anand became Artistic Director at Dance City and Chief Executive in 2020 and was awarded a British Empire Medal in the 2021 Queen’s New Year’s Honours list for services to Dance and Community. Anand serves on the board of Dance Consortium and People Dancing, and North East Culture Partnership.

Bill trained as an archaeologist , excavating sites across the North East. He was project officer for the development of Segedunum Roman Fort Museum in Wallsend, going on to become its first curator, later joining the Senior Management team of TWAM where he holds a wide portfolio of responsibilities. In addition to his role working across TWAM venues Bill has led several regional programmes including Museum Development and the ‘Bridge’ cultural learning programme. He is the creator and lead of The Late Shows, NewcastleGateshead’s after hours cultural festival, and had delivered several major festivals along Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site.

Vix Leaney is an Economic Development Officer and Project Manager for Creative Central NCL. Vix has over 15 years’ experience working in both senior strategic and delivery focused roles in the cultural and creative sector in the North East, working for the destination and inward investment agency NewcastleGateshead Initiative and also in a freelance capacity as a producer. Vix also brings recent experience working for a national Climate Change charity embedding climate co-benefits into local authority policy. Vix has a particular interest in cross sector partnership working and codesign and a passion for the creative sector which she hopes to continue to see flourish and thrive in the North East.

Leanne has worked in the public sector for approaching two decades, in her current role as Director of Culture House Sunderland she is working with colleagues both in the cultural and city development sphere to shape and deliver 'Culture House Sunderland’. Opening Autumn 2025, Culture House Sunderland: The National Centre for Creative Smart Cities will be a multi-purpose cultural venue, home to the City Library, and packed with dynamic, digitally powered, interactive, educating features and a year-round programme of fun things to do. Leanne joined Sunderland City Council in 2023 from Middlesbrough Council where she held a role as Head of Culture.

Adam leads on the foundation’s funding priorities and its support for charities and community organisations. He has overall responsibility for engaging and developing partnerships with other funding bodies and partners and leads on media partnerships and wider public relations. He manages the programmes and partnerships section which delivers grant making programmes, pro bono support offer and events, marketing and communications. Prior to the foundation he worked in cultural venues and at Ticketmaster UK setting up Ticketmaster’s regional marketing function in Manchester before becoming the first head of Ticketmaster Scotland. He is a trustee of 360Giving and Sunderland Empire Theatre Trust.

Allegra is currently Relationship Manager for Arts Council England, specialising in Engagement & Communities. Prior to this she was producing theatre and events with and for underserved communities within leading arts organisations across the UK - most recently with Curious Monkey, the North East’s first theatre company of sanctuary. Allegra worked with artists and companies who make work about social justice and human rights issues. As freelance producer, she has worked with the Royal Court Theatre, the Roundhouse, Tramshed, Hackney Showroom, HF Artsfest and Raindance Film Festival.

Ruth is originally from Sunderland, leaving the region for university. After a period at the BBC in London and working on the launch of Classic FM she moved to New York with her husband, once again working for the BBC. Whilst in the States Ruth studied Arts Management, taking up a position at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, New York. In 2002 she returned to the UK, and has worked at The Glasshouse, The Bowes Museum and Durham Cathedral. She is qualified as a North East England and Cumbria Blue Badge Tourist Guide. Ruth now has a portfolio career that includes a part-time role as Partnership Manager for the North East Culture Partnership.

Kema Sikazwe, also known as Kema Kay, was brought up in the west end of Newcastle. Kema came from a musical background with a passion for rap, singing, and songwriting which he developed in a local youth project where he spent most of his time as a teen. He's gone on to perform at the biggest venues around Newcastle, headlining his show at the O2 Academy. During his career, he became interested in acting and landed a main role in BAFTA and Palme D’or award-winning film I Daniel Blake and a role in Lady Macbeth. Eager to learn and build his craft he wrote and performed his one-man show ‘Shine’ which played at Live Theatre in Newcastle and received 4-star reviews in The Herald and The Guardian. Just coming off the back of a full UK tour of 108 shows of the stage version of I Daniel Blake, Kema’s now back working on music with an upcoming album.

Laura is Dean of the School of Arts and Creative Industries at Teesside University and Director of MIMA.  Professional research interests circle around issues of art and its relationship to the civic realm. Laura has spent 20 years working in curatorial roles in art galleries in the UK and abroad including Tate, FACT, MOCAD (Detroit) the New Museum (New York) and Site Gallery. She has worked on major city wide festivals including Liverpool Biennial ('04,'06 and'08), Abandon Normal Devices ('08 and '10) and Art Sheffield ('11 and '15). Laura's academic research focuses on strategies and tactics employed by visual artists whose work critiques aspects of contemporary civic society. She focuses on a small number of case studies on artists who directly investigate the social, geo-physical and economic infrastructure of technology. 

David has been writing about arts and culture in the North East for almost 40 years. He became Arts Editor of The Journal in 1991 and edited the Culture magazine for 12 years. Currently he writes for the website Cultured North East https://www.culturednortheast.co.uk/ , covering the many stories that arise from the region’s burgeoning arts scene. He also reviews plays and concerts and interviews some of the many interesting and talented people who contribute to the North East being such a wonderfully vibrant place to live.

Graeme Whitfield is editor of The Journal and business editor for Reach in the North East, covering The Journal, The Chronicle, The Gazette and their websites, as well as overseeing North East content for the BusinessLive site. He has worked at Reach since 1998 and has previously held roles including news editor and Northumberland editor.

Stephen Wiper is the Creative Darlington Manager for Darlington Borough Council. He thinks culture can help us to explore ideas, express ourselves, appreciate other perspectives, picture possibilities, and enjoy life more fully. Since studying Fine Art in Newcastle, Stephen has worked in this sector over three decades, in Yorkshire, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham, from schools, arts centres, libraries, museums, government funded bodies and local authorities. He believes that people’s vision, pragmatism, idealism, and ingenuity, alongside our communities, surroundings, and heritage, generate opportunities to engage with culture that enrich many lives and that there’s so much to experience thanks to so many creative people.