About
Programme Producers and Partners
AD:Vantage is produced by Helga Henry and Lara Ratnaraja. We are independent arts consultants with a particular interest in developing leadership talent in the arts, culture and heritage sectors. Previously we have delivered programmes in Birmingham including RE:Present and ASTON-ish. These programmes, like AD:Vantage were designed to transform the diversity of cultural leadership. You can find out more about them and us in the FAQs (Jump to FAQ).
The programme is funded by Coventry City Council and we are working in partnership with New Art West Midlands, Coventry Biennial and Warwick University.
Our Team
Producers
Lara Ratnaraja
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Lara is a freelance consultant specialising in diversity, leadership, collaboration, ideas, innovation cultural policy implementation within the HE, cultural and digital sector.
She develops and delivers projects and policy on how culture and digital technology intersect for a number of national partners as well as programmes around leadership, resilience and business development for the arts.
She is currently delivering and developing cross sector projects with private, public, HE and other education partners.
She co-produced RE:Present and ASTONish with Helga Henry ; leadership development programmes which supported the development of cultural leaders from diverse backgrounds so that the cultural ecology of the city better reflects its changing demographic. Funding partners were Arts Council England andBirmingham City Council.
She was also a broker on the University of Birmingham AHRC Funded CATH Project (Collaborative Triple Helix) which developed 19 collaborative projects across the East and West Midlands with academics , cultural organisations and digital SMEs. The research project led to long term collaborative working and investment. She subsequently became Senior Research Facilitator leveraging investment for further knowledge transfer and research collaborations between academics, cultural organisations and artists across the sector.
Lara has also developed, managed and delivered successful ERDF, ESF, ACE and other funded and non funded programmes and projects cross sectors and is well respected as a key influencer in the development of sector policy.
She is on the Board of Derby Theatres and Vivid Projects and the Advisory Groups for Coventry Biennial and SHOUT Festival. She is on the Midlands Area Council for Arts Council England, the Equality Monitoring Group for Arts Council Wales, and is a Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre Industry Champion.
PEC⧉
Photo credit: Ian Davies Photo
Helga Henry
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Lara is a freelance consultant specialising in diversity, leadership, collaboration, ideas, innovation cultural policy implementation within the HE, cultural and digital sector.
She develops and delivers projects and policy on how culture and digital technology intersect for a number of national partners as well as programmes around leadership, resilience and business development for the arts.
She is currently delivering and developing cross sector projects with private, public, HE and other education partners.
She co-produced RE:Present and ASTONish with Helga Henry ; leadership development programmes which supported the development of cultural leaders from diverse backgrounds so that the cultural ecology of the city better reflects its changing demographic. Funding partners were Arts Council England andBirmingham City Council.
She was also a broker on the University of Birmingham AHRC Funded CATH Project (Collaborative Triple Helix) which developed 19 collaborative projects across the East and West Midlands with academics , cultural organisations and digital SMEs. The research project led to long term collaborative working and investment. She subsequently became Senior Research Facilitator leveraging investment for further knowledge transfer and research collaborations between academics, cultural organisations and artists across the sector.
Lara has also developed, managed and delivered successful ERDF, ESF, ACE and other funded and non funded programmes and projects cross sectors and is well respected as a key influencer in the development of sector policy.
She is on the Board of Derby Theatres and Vivid Projects and the Advisory Groups for Coventry Biennial and SHOUT Festival. She is on the Midlands Area Council for Arts Council England, the Equality Monitoring Group for Arts Council Wales, and is a Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre Industry Champion.
PEC⧉
Photo credit: Ian Davies Photo
Advisory Group
Sonia Boué
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Becki Morris
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Craig Ashley
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Philippa Cross
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New Art West Midlands is the Contemporary Visual Arts Network for the region. Our purpose is to strengthen and develop the contemporary visual arts sector in the West Midlands, working collectively to safeguard the future of artists and our sector as a whole. Together with our partners, we create defining opportunities for artists and arts professionals to develop their practices through a distinctive, critically-engaged programme. New Art West Midlands plays a leading role in the development of strategic collaborations between Higher Education arts institutions, arts organisations, artists and independent arts professionals. In November 2019, we published No Limits – A Visual Arts Strategy for the West Midlands.
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Mojere Ajayi-Eugunjobi
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Kim Hackleman
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Kim Hackleman is the Community Embedded Producer at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry and a freelance producer, actress, director, writer, facilitator, and teacher. While at the Belgrade Theatre she has managed and facilitated LifeStage, (formerly Acting Out) (Belgrade Theatre’s groundbreaking, work-related learning programme for young people who find mainstream school challenging), produced the All Our Tomorrows Festival and the Partner Theatre Festival for National Theatre Connections, and co-produced Connectivity and Community: Celebrating with the Over 50s, in addition to directing, acting, and facilitating workshops. She sits on the steering committee for the West Midlands Creative Health Alliance and Coventry City of Sanctuary. She originally hails from the United States of America, where she received her B.A. and M.A. and began her work in theatre. She moved to Coventry in 2001 from New York City.
Funders
Coventry City Council
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Kim Hackleman is the Community Embedded Producer at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry and a freelance producer, actress, director, writer, facilitator, and teacher. While at the Belgrade Theatre she has managed and facilitated LifeStage, (formerly Acting Out) (Belgrade Theatre’s groundbreaking, work-related learning programme for young people who find mainstream school challenging), produced the All Our Tomorrows Festival and the Partner Theatre Festival for National Theatre Connections, and co-produced Connectivity and Community: Celebrating with the Over 50s, in addition to directing, acting, and facilitating workshops. She sits on the steering committee for the West Midlands Creative Health Alliance and Coventry City of Sanctuary. She originally hails from the United States of America, where she received her B.A. and M.A. and began her work in theatre. She moved to Coventry in 2001 from New York City.
Partners
Coventry Biennial 2021
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New Art West Midlands
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New Art West Midlands is the Contemporary Visual Arts Network for the region. Our purpose is to strengthen and develop the contemporary visual arts sector in the West Midlands, working collectively to safeguard the future of artists and our sector as a whole. Together with our partners, we create defining opportunities for artists and arts professionals to develop their practices through a distinctive, critically-engaged programme. New Art West Midlands plays a leading role in the development of strategic collaborations between Higher Education arts institutions, arts organisations, artists and independent arts professionals. In November 2019, we published No Limits – A Visual Arts Strategy for the West Midlands.
Website ⧉
University of Warwick
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