Meet our team: Kyla Booth-Lucking, Relationship Manager, Dance
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What does your role involve?
My role involves managing relationships with my National Portfolio Organisations, which can be anything from answering questions about funding processes, to offering advice about organisational restructures. Having a background in contemporary dance is really helpful, but it’s such a diverse world that everyone brings their own expertise, and as a team we are all able to support each other.
Tell us something interesting about yourself!
I really like zombies! I’m a big fan of zombie films like Dawn of the Dead and I have a dark fascination with the apocalypse. I love Margaret Atwood’s books set in dystopian worlds, and I’ve been very dedicated to The Walking Dead – which I have to watch on my laptop with headphones, as my family aren’t so keen!
What was your career like before joining the Arts Council, and what made you apply to work here?
My background is in contemporary dance, but I’ve also worked with hip-hop and breakdance artists. After I graduated, I went into dance management, and as my role at Arts Council is part-time, I also run a business alongside this, called Clear Cut which focuses on supporting dance tours, projects, events and evaluations. A friend suggested I should apply for what was originally a maternity cover position. I presumed I would need a lot of specific knowledge about governance and politics for such a role, but the team were very supportive and happy to help with anything that was new to me, so I was really able to focus on the dance side of things. It went well, and when the opportunity came up to apply for a permanent role, I decided to apply.
What’s the best thing about working at Arts Council?
As well as everyone being so supportive and helpful, the best thing about my role is getting to see such a variety of different dance performances. As part of my job, I’m required to view work and give advice on various projects, which means I get to see a lot more dance than I ever have in previous jobs. It’s not a 9-5 job, and a lot of the performances take place outside of normal working hours, but Arts Council offers so much flexibility it works really well.
What have you learned from working here that you didn’t expect?
My knowledge of finance has increased – I’ve had several days of training over the past four years and its really supported me with understanding a vital aspect of how organisations are run.
Finally, what do you want to do in the future?
I’d love to grow my business and do more creative producing of our own projects. We took on our first Project Managers two years ago and it’s great to be able to support emerging producers and managers with on-the-job training.
