Vanessa is Executive Director of Cultivate, the cultural organisational development agency and a freelance consultant. She began her career in the arts as the first General Manager at Perth Theatre and went on to hold roles in major UK arts organisations including Traverse Theatre Edinburgh, Birmingham Rep, Nottingham Playhouse and Leicester Haymarket. She worked with Arts Council England specialising in marketing and audience development and business planning for major capital projects.
Vanessa is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, was Chair of Origin, previously Retina Dance from 2012 to 2017 and has served on a range of arts Boards including Riverside Studios, Dance 4, Audiences UK and American theatre company, Fusion.
Vanessa has developed a range of toolkits, templates and training workshops on Governance, Business Planning, Marketing and Audience development. She recently led on the partnership with Arts Manager International with Michael K Kaiser on the ACE Building Resilience Fundraising and Diversification of Income programme. She is an adviser for the Creative United Prosper North and Rebuilding Heritage programme.
