Dr Eleonora Belfiore

Eleonora is Associate Professor in Cultural Policy at the Centre for Cultural Policy Studies at the University of Warwick, UK. She has published extensively on the notion of the ‘social impacts’ of the arts and the effect that the rhetoric of impact has had on British cultural policy, and on the ideological and value-driven dimension of cultural policymaking. Eleonora was author of a monograph on this topic entitled The Social Impact of the Arts: An intellectual history, co-authored with Oliver Bennett and published by Palgrave in 2008. She is currently developing a large-scale, interdisciplinary, international and collaborative programme of research activities around the concept of ‘cultural value’, its definition, and its place in current policy discourses and justification for public subsidy of the arts and culture. A volume entitled Humanities in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond utility and markets, co-edited with Dr Anna Upchurch, is going to be published in July 2013 by Palgrave.

Dr Chris Bilton

Chris is Director of the Centre for Cultural Policy Studies at University of Warwick where he specialises in management and policy in the creative industries. Before coming to Warwick, Chris spent ten years working in the cultural sector as a theatre performer and as a local arts development officer. He helped set up Warwick Creative Exchange to provide opportunities for academics and arts professionals to share ideas and develop joint projects – and to pursue his interests in digital innovation in the arts, the creative process and organizational change. You can find out more about Chris's current research here.

Catriona Firth

Catriona is Research Impact Officer for the Arts Faculty at the University of Warwick. In this role, she helps researchers to bring their research into the wider community by forging relationships with non-academic partners. She was Project Manager on the Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value and has presented on cultural participation and policy in national and international contexts. Her academic background lies in contemporary Austrian culture and German cinema.

Professor Lucy Hooberman

Lucy joined Warwick from the BBC and the Creative Economy. As a documentary producer for Channel Four she joined the BBC and worked editorially developing programme ideas and commissioning Independent Factual programmes. In 2001, Lucy joined BBC Imagineering, Sir John Birt's interdisciplinary innovation unit working to transform the BBC to prepare for changes ushered in by the internet and interactive television. During this time she founded and set up the Blog network, ushering in blogging and social media at the BBC.

Since joining WMG Lucy has been working and researching with the NHS, CISCO and the BBC. She is a founding member of the WCE and a board member of Fevered Sleep, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of BAFTA.

Dr Cath Lambert

Cath is Associate Professor in Sociology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick. Her research and teaching are in the areas of education, gender, research methods and live art. Her work includes exciting projects and adventures in research, teaching, art, writing, performance, serious play and collaborations of different kinds. She has an ongoing partnership with Fierce Festival in Birmingham exploring the pedagogic and political value of live art and also collaborates with Vincent Dance Theatre. She has published widely in all the areas above and has a monograph The Sociology of Live Art and the Live Art of Sociology coming out with Routledge in 2016.

Professor Jonothan Neelands PhD, DSc

Jonothan is a National Teaching Fellow, Professor of Creative Education at the Warwick Business School (WBS) and Chair of Drama and Theatre Education in the Institute of Education at the University of Warwick. He is an experienced creative workshop leader and drama practitioner, with an international reputation for delivering high quality professional training and development opportunities. As Associate Dean for Creativity in WBS, he is working with colleagues to develop a range of creative infusions and interventions both into the curriculum and the extra-curricular life of the School. Research interests include: the theory and practice of drama and theatre education; participatory pedagogies and politics; teaching artistry and the work of teaching artists; models of cultural and creative learning; the politics of cultural and education policy-making; teaching in urban settings; creativity and entrepreneurship.

Andrea Pulford

Andrea is Director of Planning and Operations at Warwick Arts Centre and has substantial strategic leadership and managerial experience across arts, libraries, galleries and museums. Warwick Arts Centre is a department of the University of Warwick and Andrea also works with university departments ranging from developing academic collaboration to overseeing governance and operations.

Andrea has worked in the cultural sector (HE, local government and independently funded organisations) for 20 years leading the strategic development of venues and community arts and overseeing programming, marketing, finance, development and operational teams. She has much experience of managing capital projects, growing audiences and income, developing partnerships, programmes and new business, and leading change to build resilient organisations. Andrea is Vice Chair at New Brewery Arts.

Vishalakshi Roy

Vishalakshi has over twelve years’ experience in the creative and cultural sector and in that time has managed and delivered over 150 projects. She founded Earthen Lamp in 2011 to provide bright thinking for the creative sector. She has a background in accounting, advertising and market research, holds a Master’s degree in Creative and Media Enterprises, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Advertising and PR. Since 2009, Vishalakshi has been using her industry expertise to teach audience development and strategic planning at The Centre for Cultural Policy Studies, where she is an Associate Fellow. Currently she is a Doctoral Candidate at the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group at Warwick Business School. Vishalakshi is a Certified Member of the Market Research Society and a member of the Arts Marketing Association. She is a Trustee of Birmingham Opera Company and Live and Local.

Dr Nicolas Whybrow

Nicolas is Reader and Head of the School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies at the University of Warwick. His research interests revolve chiefly around performance's relationship with the city and he has written two monographs, Street Scenes (2005) and Art and the City (2011). He has also edited two volumes for Palgrave Macmillan, Performance and the Contemporary City (2010) and Performing Cities (2014 and is currently working on a monograph entitled Contemporary Art Biennials: the Work of Art in the Complex City (forthcoming in 2018). Nicolas was invited to give a keynote on public art at the culmination of the 2011 European Capital of Culture in Turku, Finland and more recently he has been invited to give talks at various major public events in Europe, including Belgrade (Mikser Festival), Copenhagen (Metropolis Lab), Cologne (International Congress of Geographers) and at the Architekturforum Oberösterreich in Linz, Austria.

Dr Jane Woddis

Jane Woddis is an independent cultural researcher based in Birmingham. She worked professionally for many years in community-based and educational arts organisations, including senior management responsibilities for fundraising, planning and policy. She has recently completed research on a Norwegian Research Council project, ‘The relational politics of aesthetics: Negotiating relations between art and society through cultural policy’; and is an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies at University of Warwick. She was involved in setting up Warwick Creative Exchange and was its Project Manager until July 2015.