Kate Danielson Logo

CREATING SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS, PROGRAMMES AND PRODUCTIONS WITH ARTS, CULTURAL ORGANISATIONS AND ARTISTS.
Taking care of the business side of creativity.

07815 736156

About

I am Kate Danielson and I have been a producer and programme director in the arts and cultural sector for over 30 years. Since 2010 I have been at the forefront of the drive to open up careers in the arts for those without the funding or networks to work for free. Changing the diversity of the sector is a long-term goal and I use my experience of working in partnerships to create change and being an Ambassador for how to do it and why to do it.

I have a long track record of creating financial stability in organisations, as an experienced trustee, consultant and fundraiser, with a particular focus on promoting the social impact of the arts. Working closely with funders throughout my career, I have developed an in depth knowledge of philanthropic funding.

I work in music, theatre, visual arts, cross arts and festivals and have experience in both the commercial and subsidised sectors. I create partnerships, find funders and provide the links between creative teams and the business world. My aim is to build powerful partnerships and get things done with the right team sitting round the table.

Gloucester

In Gloucester, I was a founding member of the Interim Culture Board, building partnerships across the city to ensure that culture is embedded in the heart of the city's development for the good of all. A £1.5m grant in 2017 from ACE/HLF's Great Place programme has created significant changes in the city. Since 2017, I have been Project Director for the Gloucester Roundhouse Exchange, working with the Culture Trust to bring together £450,000 multi-year funding from Paul Hamlyn Foundation and from Great Place to create partnerships both within the city’s cultural organisations (the brilliant Strike a Light, The Music Works, the Guildhall, Your Next Move) and, as a city, with the Roundhouse in Camden. The aim is to provide opportunities for the city’s young people, the leaders of the future, who have been missing out on accessing creative skills and careers.

Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries

I have always been passionate about supporting emerging talent and have a strong background working with those starting out in their careers. With my fabulous colleagues at Jerwood Arts, I devised and have run the Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries programme since 2010, providing a step-change opportunity for creatives from socio-economic backgrounds that are currently under-represented across the arts to develop and thrive. The fourth edition launches in September 2020 with 50 new organisations and 50 Fellows partnering to create a change to the way the arts and cultural sector recruits and retains talent from different backgrounds.

Garfield Weston Foundation 60th Anniversary

As project manager for Garfield Weston Foundation’s 60th Anniversary in 2018, I worked with the Director to plan and manage a range of very special events and projects to celebrate the huge impact the Foundation has had on this country as one of the largest UK grant-giving charities. As well as celebrating the £1billionth grant, the one-off Weston Anniversary Fund for community capital projects distributed over £11million to charities across the UK. We produced the 60th Anniversary Book and a film to mark the occasion.

My clients, past and present, include:

  • Jerwood Arts
  • Royal Drawing School
  • Garfield Weston Foundation
  • Gloucester Culture Trust
  • Gloucester City Council
  • Cheltenham Festivals
  • Create Gloucestershire
  • Jerwood Foundation
  • Punchdrunk Theatre
  • Bristol Old Vic
  • WOMAD
  • Crafts Council
  • London Word Festival
  • A New Direction
  • St George's Bristol
Kate Danielson

Key Roles

Director
Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries

With funding originally from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Arts Council England, we launched the pilot of the programme in 2010 to provide a route into a career in the arts for those without the means or networks to work for free. It is still the only national arts-wide programme focussed on improving the socio-economic diversity of the arts and with my colleagues at Jerwood Arts, we begin the fourth edition in autumn 2020. The issue remains as acute as ever with extensive evidence that the arts remain dominated by those from the highest socio-economic backgrounds, and that those without a financial head start in life suffer for not having the right networks, the right set of cultural references, and the knowledge of the right way to present themselves to get ahead in the arts.

In each edition of the programme, we work in partnership with 50 Host organisations to create 50 paid, year-long creative Fellowships - with the Fellows meeting up and creating a strong nation-wide cohort and the Hosts taking part in an 18-month organisational development programme.

In July 2019, I co-authored the Socio-Economic Diversity and Inclusion in the Arts: A Toolkit for Employers to share learnings from the programme, partnering with the Bridge Group to bring in research and advice from other sectors and to encourage others to take a strategic approach. I wrote the evaluations of the first 2 editions (Pilot Programme & 2014-16 Edition) and contributed to the evaluation of the 2017-19 edition written by our evaluator, Annabel Jackson Associates.

At the end of 2019, I was invited to take part in Arts Council of England’s webinar to launch the introduction of their new measurement of the socio-economic make up of the arts workforce in England: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1RncRZbh5E (from minute 10 onwards).

Executive Director
Cheltenham Jazz Festival

Working for the first time with BBC Radio 2, and commercial producer and Cornbury Festival director, Hugh Phillimore, we took the Festival from a niche jazz festival to one with mainstream appeal, providing much-needed financial stability. High profile crossover artists appeared at the Festival, including Madeleine Peyroux, Eartha Kitt, Van Morrison, the Guillemots and Imelda May. New British talent was identified and developed via the Jerwood Jazz Generation programme, giving valuable early support to now well-known musicians such as Soweto Kinch, Seb Rochford, Denys Baptiste and the late Abram Wilson.

The Jazz Festival goes from strength to strength and is now one of the leading Jazz Festivals in the country, continuing with its strong partnership with Radio 2. I am delighted to have sat on the Jazz Festival Advisory Group since 2010.

Trusteeships
Orchestras for All AND Francis W Reckitt Arts Trust

Orchestras for All was set up in 2011 to open up access to the life-changing experience of ensemble music-making for 11-18 years olds with complex lives. At OFA young people discover a sense of belonging that has a measurable impact on their confidence and self-esteem. As Chair from 2014-16, I worked closely with the Artistic Director/Founder and small team to deliver a very ambitious programme of activities and remain now as a trustee.

The Francis W Reckitt Arts Trust is a charitable trust which supports residential stays by professional artists, writers, composers and others for short periods away from home for holidays, convalescences or quiet working time. As a trustee, I assess applications and allocate funding and develop the Trust’s close working relationship with Hawkwood College, a beautiful educational, arts and residential centre in Gloucestershire.

BBC Performing Arts Fund: Set up with funding from the BBC’s telephone voting shows, the Fund supported talented emerging professionals and community groups to develop their talent and take the next step up. The Fund closed down in 2016 when telephone voting moved to a free, online service. As a trustee from 2010-16, I was responsible for allocating funding, including interviewing applicants, and oversaw the Fund as an independent charity operating within the BBC.

Producing

Founder & Producer
Pangloss Productions, London

I set up a new theatre company to present the work of young British and American playwrights, including Rod Williams, Lucinda Coxon, David Beaird and Malcolm Sutherland with his adaptation of Iain Banks’ The Wasp Factory. Productions featured actors at the start of their careers, such as Daniel Craig, Christopher Ecclestone and Douglas Henshall as well as established actors such as John Bardon and Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men).

Associate Producer
Fifth Avenue Productions, NYC

Working with the late Karen Goodwin and Elizabeth Williams, I coordinated private investments in the US for Cameron Mackintosh’s musicals worldwide, including productions of Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Follies and Miss Saigon. Also co-produced the original production of Sondheim’s Into the Woods, Blind Boys of Alabama’s The Gospel at Colonus and Annie 2.

Further Work

Consultancies

I have undertaken a wide range of consultancies, including fundraising strategy for the Punchdrunk Theatre Company, Bristol Old Vic and London Word Festival; a scoping study for a new crafts award for the Crafts Council; a local marketing campaign for WOMAD Festival; recruiting a new Director for Jerwood Charitable Foundation; and guest lecturing on Event Management for University of Gloucestershire. In my work with Cheltenham Festivals, I project managed the development of new digital technology designed to improve the evaluation of cultural events. With funding from the Digital R & D Fund for the Arts (a Nesta, ACE and AHRC scheme), I created an effective team drawn from Cheltenham Festivals, the technical team at i-DAT in Plymouth and the research partner at the University of Warwick to create this new product, Qualia. Report on the project here http://artsdigitalrnd.org.uk/projects/cheltenham/

Fundraising

Fundraising has always been integral to my work and being successful at it has been a vital part of every project and role. I spent ten years as a fundraiser (as Trusts and Individual Giving Manager at Cheltenham Festivals and Development Manager at Wigmore Hall and Richmond Theatre, London), I managed fundraising teams in my producing roles and now provide consultancy in all aspects of fundraising for organisations of differing sizes and in-house expertise. I was delighted to work with the Royal Drawing School from 2014-17 to develop a funding stream from trusts and foundations.

Testimonials

“Working with Kate over the past two years has been as enjoyable as it has been rewarding. She has played the leading role in transforming our fundraising with major charitable trusts and foundations and combines a clear strategic vision with effective practical support.”
Mark Chester, Executive Director, Royal Drawing School
“This business needs more like Kate Danielson. Knowledgeable, approachable, energetic and efficient. I have worked with her on many shows for the BBC at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and have always been impressed with just how effortlessly she manages people, talent, resources and finance. If you get the chance to work with her — do!”
Anthony Cherry, Executive Producer, BBC Radio 2
“For the past two and a half years, Kate has chaired the trustee board of Orchestras for All (OFA) with huge skill, tact and commitment. She has the wonderful and rare combination of being incredibly supportive and generous with her time and praise whilst also not being afraid to have difficult conversations and make some tough decisions. We are so grateful for her clarity and calmness during our start up years. I can confidently say that OFA would not be in the position it is in now if we had not had Kate as Chair to help us get here.”
Marianna Hay, Artistic Director/Chief Executive, Orchestras for All.
“I have known Kate Danielson for over ten years and worked with her on two major initiatives – the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and the DCMS Jerwood Creative Bursaries Scheme.”

“I admired Kate’s energy and talent on the Jazz Festival when it was sponsored by Jerwood, and following this success I asked her to take on the development and management of the DCMS Jerwood Creative Bursaries Scheme. This scheme has been a resounding success and I attribute much of that to Kate who approached this new initiative with an open mind and great enthusiasm; she developed the scheme professionally and with the benefit of her considerable experience in the art world.”

“I very much hope to work with her again, which would give me great personal pleasure.”
Alan Grieve, Chairman, Jerwood Foundation
“Kate Danielson played a pivotal role in turning round Cheltenham Jazz Festival setting it firmly on the road to the success it is today. She identified a number of strategic goals that would make a major difference to the Festival. She stayed focused on building the relationships and deploying the resource needed to achieve the goal. She built long-term partnerships for the Festival with funders, artists and with the BBC. She was not afraid to make unpopular decisions.”

“Kate is a strategic thinker who identifies what needs to be done and gets on with making the changes and implementing the plans. She has excellent writing skills and adores the arts. Kate can bring passion, judgement and outstanding management skills to any project.”

Donna Renney, Chief Executive, Cheltenham Festivals