Our Partners & Associates
PARTNERS
Goldsmiths
In Autumn 2025, Future Arts Centres signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Goldsmiths, recognising shared priorities and a commitment to exploring mutually beneficial collaboration.
The partnership is focused on exploring the concept of ‘creative democracy’, bringing together the Future Arts Centres network and Goldsmiths’ research expertise. It asks how arts hubs can act as bridging spaces between communities and local government, creating opportunities to debate and drive social change through creativity around key issues such as the climate crisis.
Collaboration includes student placements, research projects, training and connections to the Goldsmiths curriculum. Future Arts Centres is also an associate member of the Goldsmiths Civic University Agreement Partnership, a network of civic organisations focused on boosting Goldsmiths’ local and regional impact as a force for the public good.
Goldsmiths’ Head of Civic Engagement, Michael Eades, has described the partnership as an opportunity to explore local/national civic collaborations.
Goldsmiths, University of London is known for its creative approach to teaching and research and is home to around 8,000 students. In February 2026, we appointed three research students from Goldsmiths’ MA in Arts Administration & Cultural Policy, Bettina Bakos, Coco Farinet-Brenner and Ana Pires de Carvalho Albuquerque, to work with us as part of the partnership exploring Creative Democracy, supervised by Dr Tricia Jenkins.
achates
Future Arts Centres works with Achates, a cultural consultancy supporting organisations across the UK arts and heritage sector with fundraising, strategy, recruitment and organisational development. Their purpose-led, audience-informed approach focuses on building resilience and long-term sustainability.
As part of this partnership, FAC Co-Directors Gavin Barlow and Annabel Turpin serve as Achates Recruitment Champions, contributing their sector knowledge and leadership experience to strengthen recruitment practice across the cultural sector.
Future Arts Centres has previously collaborated with Achates to support members in developing approaches to fundraising, including individual giving.
Through this ongoing partnership, we are exploring how sector-led approaches to recruitment, leadership and income generation can support arts centres to thrive in the years ahead.
TJ CULTURE LTD
Operating across the UK and internationally, TJ Culture Ltd is led by Tim Jones FRSA, a cultural strategist with over 20 years’ experience.
Tim works at the intersection of culture and the built environment, advising developers, asset managers and local authorities on how to make cultural commitments that hold up: at planning, under scrutiny, and on the ground. His track record spans major urban districts, city-wide cultural strategies and complex regeneration programmes across the UK, including work with organisations such as Landsec, the City of London Corporation and the Barbican.
Future Arts Centres and TJ Culture recently collaborated on the Placemaking with Purpose roundtable and insight report, exploring how developers and arts centres can build deeper, smarter partnerships that deliver lasting value for places, people and projects. We continue to work together through sector events such as UKREiiF, sharing learning and strengthening the role of culture within development.
Dave Moutrey and University of Manchester
Future Arts Centres is pleased to be working with Dave Moutrey and the University of Manchester on a project documenting the important role of arts centres.
Arts centres play a critical social and economic role in the cultural infrastructure of towns, cities, regions and nations. They are democratic spaces that shape arts practice, audiences, communities and places, yet are rarely written about or celebrated.
With the support of Future Arts Centres and the University of Manchester, Dave is undertaking research into arts centres as places for artistic production at the intersection of art forms, rooted in their communities and places. He is developing a podcast series and book exploring their history, business models, and role in artist development, audience development and place-making.
As part of the project, Dave is visiting arts centres across the UK and Ireland to interview leaders, artists, audiences and other stakeholders about why arts centres matter.
Based in Manchester, Dave Moutrey has held leadership roles in the arts since the 1980s, including leading Manchester City Council’s cultural and creative industries policy and strategy, following a six-year secondment as Director of Culture. Until March 2024, he was Director and Chief Executive of HOME, having previously served as Director and CEO of Cornerhouse.
If you would like to contribute case studies or data to this research, please contact Dave directly at artscentres@moutrey.com.
ASSOCIATES
MARK ROBINSON
Mark founded Thinking Practice in 2010, to write, facilitate, coach, evaluate and advise across the cultural sector. Future Arts Centre published Tactics for the Tightrope: Creative Resilience For Creative Communities in 2021. He is interested in evaluation as a shared creative process, and a way of thinking collectively.
Mark was previously Executive Director, North East at Arts Council England. He ran festivals, poetry publishers, arts organisations and worked in adult education after an early career in restaurants. Mark is also a widely anthologised poet whose Selected Poems, How I Learned to Sing was published by Smokestack Books. His latest collection, The Infinite Town, takes its title from a public poem installed on Stockton High Street, and was published by Smokestack Books in 2024.
DEBORAH REES FRSA
Deborah Rees is a highly experienced arts and cultural leader with more than 30 years’ experience in the sector, including 20 years in chief executive and director-level roles. Most recently, she served as Director of Cast, Doncaster’s flagship theatre, where she led the organisation’s strategic development, community engagement and cultural impact.
Deborah brings extensive knowledge of the cultural sector and its role in supporting education, health and wellbeing, social cohesion, and improved outcomes for underserved communities. Throughout her career, she has developed and delivered ambitious programmes that widen participation in the arts, including arts and health initiatives, youth engagement projects, and community-led development programmes.
Deborah has particular expertise in business planning, change management, governance, artistic policy development, and the implementation of values-led strategies. She has successfully developed collaborations with organisations at local, regional and national levels, and has considerable expertise in funding and resource development.
She currently serves as a Board Member of Graeae Theatre Company and as Vice Chair of Scala Arts Centre, Worcester’s new cultural venue opening in 2027. Deborah is also a designate Board Member of Yorkshire Funders, and served for eight years as a core consortium member for the Arts Council funded Creative People and Places project in Doncaster.