Alun Bond M.A., B.A. Dip Dram
Alun Bond worked within the UK public funding system for almost ten years. He was Assistant Director and Head of Performing Arts at Northern Arts and Director of Performing and Combined Arts at West Midlands Arts. He previously worked in professional theatre. Alun is an M.A. graduate in European Cultural Administration (Warwick University) with a range of experience of international work and specialist knowledge of European Union cultural policy and support for the cultural sector.
He has served on the boards of several major regional theatres and as an Adviser to the Arts Councils of England and Wales, including nine years on the Arts Council of Wales Lottery Capital Committee and as a lead consultant on capital assessment teams for the Arts Council of England.
Alun has worked extensively on strategic developments with a variety of Local Authorities, arts organisations and Higher and Further Education institutions. He has undertaken several national and regional research projects and reviews for the arts funding system, including a 10-year review of the Arts Lottery Capital Funding Programme for the Arts Council of Wales in 2011 and several major strategic studies for Arts Council England. He has considerable experience of organisational and financial review and working with design teams to develop business and operational models for major capital projects.
Sue Roberts B.A., B.Ed.
Sue Roberts is a former Director of two arts access agencies, Equal Arts (based in the North of England), and Artlink, the former arts access agency for Lincolnshire and Humberside, providing professional arts opportunities for elders in care, for people in hospitals, prisons and in special educaton. She previously worked as a freelance arts journalist and arts project manager (including work with English Touring Opera) and as County Arts Officer for Lincolnshire; as coordinator of the Lincoln Literature Festival; and in Further and Higher Education in the West Midlands and Lincolnshire.
Sue has extensive experience of live arts touring. For over 20 years she ran countywide rural and community touring schemes (funded by Local Authority consortia and Arts Council England) programming over 500 live performances a year. She was a Board member of the National Rural Touring Forum and an acknowledged leading specialist in touring live arts to rural areas. She has a particular interest in arts and health and pioneered the nationally acclaimed arts and older people programme in Gateshead, still at the forefront of this work. Her past consultancy contracts include evaluation of arts and health programmes in hospitals, and other settings, and work on strategic policy development in the arts and health sector. Sue also works with older people as a dementia poet in nursing homes in Herefordshire.