Experience

Global Strategy

Contributed to the British Council’s global management team on results and evidence strategy in arts, particularly on brokering and connecting people globally through the arts. Contributed to a rigorous global evaluation framework that tracks five key art impact areas. The framework informed our global art strategy and resource planning.

Capacity Building

Supported and guided arts director and managers in fourteen countries across East Asia on evaluation planning and delivery; Contributed to the development of toolkits including methodology and case studies for the art team. Developed training materials to improve evaluation for our global team; Developed evaluation training plans for Heads of Arts across East Asia.

Capital Project Planning

Developed a targeted strategy for the Fijian Government, which outlined key pathways to develop hard and soft infrastructures for the proposed National Gallery of Contemporary Arts.

Facilitated WKCDA CEO’s first scoping visit to the UK. Arranged meetings forthe CEO to meet with directors from the British Museum, Tate and the BBC.

International Collaboration

Initiated a three-city live art residency programme for New Zealand, Scottish and Hong Kong artists to foster creative collaborations over three years. The project secured significant investment from partners; Facilitated artistic collaborations between NZ and UK through the Momentum Programme, including developing tailored programmes for the performing arts, literature and visual arts delegates respectively.

Managed China-UK Connections through Culture (CtC) project, a £1.5 million initiative independently evaluated as a successful and responsive model of exchange unmatched by any overseas government agency in China.

Designed and delivered the innovative Connection through Cultural programme for the Department for Culture Media and Sports, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Scottish Government and Welsh Assembly. The tailored information provision, tailored advising services and targeted trade missions brought over 100 institutional partnerships from UK and China, including the first-ever strategic partnership for Royal Opera House with National Centre for the Performing arts, first Turner exhibition from Tate to China and British Library’s Dunhuang project with National Library of China.

Managed the Chinese Poems on London Underground and British Poems on Shanghai Metro exchange programme. It was a first international cultural programme for the Shanghai Metro.

Thought Leadership

Initiated a Gallery and Museum Directors’ Roundtable Policy discussion on Audience Engagement and Diversity, the peer learning session were highly praised by directors from Tate, Te Papa Museum, Auckland Art Gallery, Christchurch Art Gallery, Museum Aotearoa.

Policy & Research

Led on concept development and delivery of the following cultural summits: “Hong Kong 2020: a Society lead by Arts?”; “Public Forum- Cultural Leadership: The Asian Way?”; “New Engagement, New Content, New Perspective - a Forum on the Arts and Cultural sector in a Digital Age”. By setting up those forward-looking and provocative summits, I provided leaders the opportunities to learn from international best practice and, this in term strengthened the ecosystem for international partnership.

Commissioned researches on market needs in NZ, in particular with Maori and Pacific partners. The Pacific Entrepreneur research provided Tautai Trust strategic direction and insights on Pacific Creative Entrepreneurs’ capacity building programmes.

Public Art

Managed a public art project Event Horizon by Sir Antony Gormley. Thirty-one sculptures installed on rooftops and public spaces on the ground generated wide interest from audiences. The project was delivered on time and on budget against significant social, technical and financial challenges.

Management: Managed a team of ten external consultants contributing to the Curatorial Development, Sponsorship Management, Public Relations, Events Management, Structural Engineer Design, Project Management, Arts Installation, Essay Writing, and Publishing for the Event Horizon project.

Led on strategy planning, staffing, budgeting, audiences development, key government and corporate stakeholder management for large-scale art projects, including the UK Now Festival one of the largest British Arts festivals ever held in China, bringing over 200 events in more than 29 cities. Secured five figure GBP cash income from Jaguar Land Rover and considerable cash sponsorship from Huawei for the festival.

Sponsorship: Secured Hogan Lovells as our pro bono lawyer to work on contractual management, saving an equivalent of five figure GBP legal fees. Overall, I secured equivalent of just under one million pounds cash income and one million pounds in-kind sponsorship for our programme in HK.

Wide range of arts projects: Managed Thomas Heatherwick’s first exhibition in HK, including two public installation areas at PMQ courtyard and Swire property. Initiated and managed outdoor Forest Fringe Live Art Festivals at the WKCDA; Initiated and managed Poetry on the Tram, a first ever poetry project for the 150 year-old Hong Kong Trams. Initiated a series of BFI Hitchcock film screenings in Hong Kong, including a large-scale outdoor screening at WKCDA.