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South East Area Council

Sally Shaw she has blonde hair and is wearing a blue top

Sally Shaw , MBE

South East Area Chair
Director of Firstsite, Colchester
Sally is Director of Firstsite, Colchester where she has been for seven years.
With the team, she has delivered an exceptional turn-around programme realigning Firstsite with a highly creative and relevant purpose targeted at deploying art and culture as a means of addressing critical challenges in the community such as deprivation, food poverty and inequity.

Sally’s focus on ground-up community collaboration combined with exceptional quality contemporary art has led Firstsite to be recognised nationally and internationally for the gallery’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to win Art Fund Museum of the Year in 2021.

Along with major exhibitions by groundbreaking artists such as Sarah Lucas, Grayson Perry, Everton Wright and Elsa James, Firstsite’s agile and creative projects have included free digital art packs for families across the nation during COVID-19 and galvanising the top national museums across the country through the Great Big Art Exhibition. Firstsite’s innovative Holiday Fun programme has now provided more than 21,000 free meals to children and families in need during school holidays and as a result has engaged thousands of children in art and creativity at Firstsite for the first time.

These initiatives saw Sally recognised with an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for Services to the Arts during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Sally has also been invited to be a Fellow of the University of Essex Human Rights and Law Centre and is the University of Essex Honorary Fellow 2023.

Sally is also a member of Arts Council England National Council and Chairs the South East Area Board.

Previously Sally was Head of Programme at Modern Art Oxford, Deputy Head of Culture for the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, Chief Curator for London Underground, Director of Media Art – Bath and Residency Programme Manager at Spike Island, Bristol. She has also established a number of independent projects and programmes including an artist residency programme in an open prison in Gloucestershire.
Louise Blackwell

Louise Blackwell

Independent Arts Producer
Louise is an independent arts producer based in Hove, working locally, nationally and internationally with artists including; Clod Ensemble, Fevered Sleep, Melanie Wilson, Andy Smith and Brighton People’s Theatre.

She is currently an Artist Fellow at Queen Mary University, London, on the Advisory Boards for the D’Oyly Carte Chair in Medicine and the Arts at King’s College London and COMMON, an arts organisation helping working class artists to build sustainable careers in theatre.
She is a Director of Marlborough Productions CIC who run the Marlborough Theatre, a home for queer performance in Brighton.

She co-founded producing company; Fuel in 2004 and was Co-Director until July 2017 when she became an independent producer. From 2001 – 2004 Louise was Senior Producer at Battersea Arts Centre, London.
Bruce Leeke

Bruce Leeke

Bruce started his career in conferences and events working for international media companies Emap and Lexis Nexis amongst others. He moved to the charity sector to become the Director of Events at the Institute of Fundraising where he successfully moved their National Convention from Birmingham to London and set up a number of commercially focused business units. He became the organisations first Chief Operating Officer before becoming the Chief Executive.
After nearly ten years Bruce moved to St John Ambulance where he was a Regional Director responsible for all commercial and charitable activities in the East of England and latterly the East Midlands too. Bruce joined Suffolk Libraries as Chief Executive in February 2017 and is proud to be part of such a passionate, impactful and resourceful organisation.
Pamela Roberts

Pamela Roberts, FRSA, FRHistS

Creative Cultural Heritage Producer & Eccles Centre Visiting Fellow 2019
Founder and Director of Artistry Events and Black Oxford Untold Stories
Pamela is an award-winning creative producer, theatre maker, change-maker, historian, published author, a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, Manufacturers and Commence, (FRSA) Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) and an Eccles Centre Visiting Fellow.
Pamela's career spans media production, as a television producer, director, and consultant specialising in disability media, the corporate sector, the cultural, creative and heritage sectors.

As a television producer and director, Pamela produced and directed the first documentary focused on the intersectionality of race and disability in America. She has written about issues of multiple discrimination and intersectionality for Disability Now newspaper and the London Disability Arts Forum magazine. Pamela was one of the co-editors for the Arts Council publication about the history of disability media representation

As a change-maker, Pamela recognised the lack of opportunities to showcase diverse films within the independent festival space. She created and produced an award-winning international media festival, securing long-term sponsorships, with high-end brands, resulting in sponsorship awards from Hollis and Arts and Business. In addition to numerous accolades to acknowledge the festival uniqueness and recognised by H.R.H the Queen of England for outstanding services to media.

As a historian, and the founder and director of Black Oxford Untold Stories, established to celebrate the University of Oxford's black scholars from the turn of the 20th century, Pamela's work has disrupted and challenged the traditional narratives and imagery of one of England's oldest University. Her seminal work has resulted in the placing of a plaque on one of the University's oldest Colleges, University College, to recognise the University's first black scholar Christian Fredrick Cole. As a theatre maker, Pamela writes and produces historical stories; these have included A Scholar and Statesman adapted from her forthcoming book about James Arthur Harley, The Two scholars from Sierra Leone and An evening with Mrs Terrell and Friends
Gurvinder Sandher

Gurvinder Sandher MBE

Gurvinder Sandher MBE is Artistic Director of Cohesion Plus and CEO of the KECC (Kent Equality Cohesion Council). His background is in bhangra dance which he has been performing since 1985.

He has worked in the voluntary sector in Kent since 1999 and established Cohesion Plus in 2008 to compliment the work he was already doing around equality and diversity.
The focus of their work is to use the arts and community engagement to bring people together, showcase culturally diverse arts and promote community cohesion, celebrating their shared values.

Gurvinder is also the County Chair of the Kent Police IPAG (Independent Police Advisory Group) and Chair the Kent Police Stop and Search Scrutiny Panel. He sits as an Independent member of the Kent Police and Crime Panel of which he is the Vice Chair.

He is a member of the Kent Youth Justice Board and the Prevent Duty Delivery Board.
Sho Shibata

Sho Shibata

Executive Producer
Sho was actively involved in the performing arts in Japan as a child, performing in various children's television and film productions as well as on stage with 'Les Miserables' directed by John Caird and 'Waiting for Godot' directed by the late Yukio Ninagawa.

He then moved to UK in 1995 and graduated from London School of Economics and Political Science in 2005 with a degree in Philosophy and Social Psychology.
His studies gave him a theoretical understanding of how discrimination and segregation come about in social settings. After graduation, Sho worked at Arts Council England, South East and joined Stopgap Dance Company in 2008 to manage touring, outreach and dance development projects.

Sho began producing Stopgap’s outdoor productions in 2009 with ‘Tracking’ and built its profile in the outdoor arts sector. His endeavours culminated with a Cultural Olympiad tour of ‘SPUN Productions’ in 2012. After successfully completing 'SPUN', Sho joined the company's senior management as the company’s full-time producer.

His terms starts 01 April 2019.
Paul Stacey

Paul Stacey

Paul Stacey is the Artistic Director of Reading Rep Theatre. Paul founded Reading Rep in 2012 with his overdraft and has since overseen all of their productions to date, including 12 world premieres. The company has now won multiple awards and is one of the leading producing theatres regionally. Paul led Reading Rep's £1million capital campaign to open Reading's first and only year round professional producing theatre.
For Reading Rep he has directed numerous productions including A LITTLE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, EVERY YOU EVERY ME, MISS JULIE, 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, PROOF, WAITING FOR GODOT and THE DUMB WAITER.

Before returning to the UK, Paul worked as a Director and Dramaturg at the Moscow Art Theatre, Punchdrunk Theatre Company (the acclaimed American premiere of SLEEP NO MORE) and New Repertory Theatre. His directing debut – SEXUAL PERVERSITY IN CHICAGO – premiered at the American Repertory Theatre. He has taught theatre history, acting and dramaturgy at Harvard University. He is a Dramaturgy graduate of the American Repertory Theatre/Moscow Art Theatre Institute at Harvard University. He read English at the University of Nottingham, is a Teach First Ambassador and a Churchill Fellow. He is the creative entrepreneur trustee for international arts charity In Place of War.
Person profile

Cllr Victoria Harvey

Victoria Harvey was elected in 2019 as an Independent Councillor for both Central Bedfordshire Council and Leighton Linslade Town Council. From 1991 - 2001 she worked as a Lighting Technician at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and English National Opera and also as a Lightning Designer, mainly in the London Fringe, culminating in lighting the Threepenny Opera in Winchester Prison for Pimlico Opera.
She then developed severe long-term ME/CFS so in 2004 turned to volunteering as an environmental campaigner for South Bedfordshire Friends of the Earth and was featured in the BBC2 Car Nation series following a campaign against road building. This campaign led to the introduction of an award-winning local bus service that cut traffic by 17%. Through partnership working with the local councils, South Beds Friends of the Earth created and now manages 19 bee friendly areas across Leighton Buzzard and won a “Bees Needs Champions Award” from DEFRA. Their work has included projects with a local school on sounds, music and nature. Victoria also featured in” Natures Keepers” a European project by Friends of the Earth Europe. She has campaigned to support a thriving high street and local market, taking the issues to the high court on two occasions. Since being elected a councillor, she supported local artists, musicians and heritage enthusiasts who campaign for arts and heritage facilities within Leighton Buzzard and raising awareness of the benefits of the Arts as regards health, social inclusion, and reducing anti-social behaviour.
Mark is wearing glasses and a suit and smiling to the camera

Cllr. Mark Durham

I am a member of Essex County Council and the cabinet member for The Arts, Heritage and Culture. We support a number of NPO’s in Essex and fund annual Arts and Cultural Grants which provide financial support to individuals and organisations to run projects in the county that address diversity, levelling up, climate issues and social inclusion. My portfolio also includes The Essex Library Service which currently has 74 libraries.
In a challenging financial climate for local government, I strongly advocate continued investment in the creative sector as I believe that it has great economic and social benefits that actually save money in other areas such as adult and children’s social care, education, economic growth and public health.
I have a family background with the arts as both my father and brother attended St Martins art school in London and my daughter is in the final year of her degree at UAL.
Professor Sarah Barrow profile image.

Sarah Barrow

Professor of Film and Media
University of East Anglia
Sarah is Professor of Film and Media at the University of East Anglia. She is also, since 2017, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Arts and Humanities and as part of that role has led the work to develop active and meaningful partnerships between the University and a range of cultural organisations across Norfolk and Suffolk.
She is a member of several Boards, including the Norfolk and Suffolk Culture Board, the Norwich Creative City Compact, the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich Forum Trust and the National Centre for Writing.
Before UEA, Sarah worked at the University of Lincoln and helped establish the Frequency Festival of Digital Culture (now supported with NPO and project funding) as part of the Cultural Olympiad festivities in 2012. She worked closely with the festival directors, Threshold Studios, and became a Board member in 2017-2023.
Before Lincoln, Sarah worked in film education at Cambridge Arts Cinema where she was their first British Film Institute-funded education officer.
Sarah’s academic research focuses on cinema production, the role of film festivals, and the work of various Peruvian filmmakers from the last thirty years from the perspectives of identity, violence, discrimination, and society.
Sarah is now developing two British Academy funded projects: one on women in Peruvian cinema; and the other a collaborative project with young indigenous women leaders in Amazonian Peru, resulting in co-produced short films, a manifesto and a toolkit for collaborative community work.