FUTURECITY - Key Persons
Alessandra is a highly skilled Curator who commissions and produces diverse projects within the creative, arts and media industries. Since 2010, she has worked with curator and exhibition-maker Judith Clark in the delivery and management of exhibitions of dress in museums, galleries and retail spaces worldwide. She previously worked in the film industry managing events to promote UK film culture and talent within the international marketplace.
Job Titles:
- Associate, Digital Scholar & Curator
Ali Hossaini works at the cutting edge of art, technology and business. His productions have been shown in museums, performing arts centers, galleries and festivals globally. An active consultant to museums, theatres and arts districts, he develops technology, design and strategic plans in cities around the world. He lectures regularly and is lead author of The Manual of Digital Museum Planning, released in 2017 by Rowman & Littlefield.
Job Titles:
- Associate, Craft & Design Specialist
- Strategic Advisor
Alice is Futurecity's strategic advisor for craft and design. Prior to this she was a design curator at the British Council, publishing The New English Dandy with Thames & Hudson, and curating a series of international touring exhibitions. As Director Arts & Culture India, she commissioned Tim Supple's seminal Midsummer Nights Dream, managed 13 staff across the continent and budgets up to 1 million.
Andy creates and leads a diverse portfolio of culture and placemaking programmes in Cambridge, working closely between clients and the local authorities vision for innovation and growth in the city. He transforms strategic thinking into deliverable programmes of public art commissions and cultural partnerships, building and integrating new communities across the city.
Anna develops and enhances Futurecity's human resources by planning, implementing, and evaluating all HR and employee relations strategies, policies and practices. She works closely with the team to plan resources and ensure all HR practices are legally sound. Anna is a fully qualified HR professional with over 20 years' HR experience with 17 of those post-qualification (CIPD Advanced Level 7 Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resource Management).
Ben has 20 years' experience in economic development and placemaking roles, including most recently as Chief Executive of the Waterloo Business Improvement District. With wide-ranging experience in programme development, policymaking and delivery, Ben's work for clients focuses on place development through cultural activation, retail and street markets, neighbourhood planning and place branding.
Cara is an arts and placemaking expert. Her passion for and dedication to people and place has led her to specialise in practices that are socially-engaged, community-led, and in embedded in place, whether that place be a team, a city park, a national museum or a rural town high street, doing this as a consultant, practitioner, researcher and writer.
Job Titles:
- Associate, Social Impact Entrepreneur
David is a producer of urban projects and advisor on entrepreneurship, social impact and the involvement of communities in development. David has founded pioneering ventures, including The People's Supermarket, Castleford Project and venture investor Wild Blue Cohort and worked in the UK, Canada, Russia and China. He was named recently in the Maserati 100/Sunday Times list of "game changing entrepreneurs".
Job Titles:
- Associate, Performing Arts Specialist
David is an experienced producer, cultural leader, writer and trainer with a demonstrable track record in supporting artists, delivering significant arts projects and influencing policy. From 2007 until 2012 he was Joint Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Battersea Arts Centre, a ground-breaking theatre in South London. He currently works independently for a range of clients including Futurecity.
Job Titles:
- Associate, Advisor on Saudi Projects
Don assists with the development of projects in Saudi Arabia for Future City. He brings unique experience to the role having served as Programme Director of the largest public art program in the world, Riyadh Art, implementing the masterplan developed by Future City. In this role he oversaw direct artist awards, artist competitions and architect/artist collaborative commissions for large scale pieces. He is very familiar with contracting, commissioning and procurement of public art in KSA. Prior to this role, he acted as Project Director for several museums and cultural projects in the Middle East, Egypt and India.
Job Titles:
- Associate, Senior Cultural Researcher
Anna is an adviser and scholar at the intersection of the arts and built environment with institutes of advanced study, industry and universities internationally, advancing insight on placemaking, civic agency and human thriving; culture, conflict and urban futures. Anna brings academic expertise to broader publics and practice, recently as Associate at Foster + Partners, and is an Associate of Thriving Cities Lab (US) and King's College, London.
Job Titles:
- Associate, Senior Curator
Fabienne has over 25 yrs of senior leadership, curatorial & producing experience delivering creative arts programmes and public art projects. In London, she established the Contemporary Art Society's Consultancy, leading a team delivering major scale strategies, public art commissions and curatorial projects, including the first statue of a woman in Parliament Square and long-term public art programmes for LSE, Cambridge and Bristol universities.
Job Titles:
- Leader
- Associate, Cultural Strategist
Fay is a social impact leader having established Seekd.co.uk, a platform for ethical jewellery brands, with a background in CSR and sustainability teams. Previous experience as Community Investment Manager for the London 2012 Olympics Village, on large scale mixed use developments for property developer Lend Lease, ran a youth enterprise charity, led local business partnerships and is a long-term trustee of the Newham New Deal Partnership (NDP).
Job Titles:
- Senior Cultural Strategist
Job Titles:
- Senior Cultural Strategist
Hamdee is a placemaker and urbanist who develops and delivers cultural placemaking strategies. She has international project experience and holds an MA in Urban and Regional Planning. She has helped transform underused and inactive public spaces through meanwhile strategies and public art. She has worked with local community leaders to promote cultural programmes and advocate spatial justice through creative placemaking initiatives.
Job Titles:
- Associate, Hospitality Forecaster
- Director at THC / Endeavour
Imran is a Director at THC/ Endeavour - a collaborative marketing communications agency. Previous work within the boutique hotel sector has included being Marketing Director for brands including My Hotels Group and the Great Northern Hotel. Clients such as The Pilgrm, The Zetter Group, Central Working, Gotham, citizenM, Bespoke Hotels and Shinola. Over the years Imran has worked with brands Somerset House, Coco de Mer, Film4, Tiffany & Co etc.
Job Titles:
- Associate, Cultural Researcher
With over thirty years' experience in the creative and cultural sector, Jez provides strategic advice across a broad spectrum of industries and sectors including music, culture, development, place-making and tourism. Founder of the Birmingham Music Archive, Co-Director of Un-convention and member of the Bearwood Promoters collective, Jez has spent a lifetime working and writing about popular music and its history, heritage and culture.
Job Titles:
- Associate, Cultural Strategist
Livia is a leading curator, scholar and serial creative entrepreneur with a 20-year career dedicated to setting up pioneering institutional frameworks and dynamic knowledge bases to nourish and sustain artistic practice. She has founded, led and advised numerous arts initiatives globally. Her current research and curatorial practice is centered on the built environment at the nexus of urban peacemaking and social practice.
Madison previously worked in the education sector across policy, governance and projects, working on a variety of projects across the arts and green programmes in schools. She holds an MSc in International Development and a BA in Geography, with a particular interest in sustainable development and a passion for improving accessibility to the arts. Madison provides support to both the strategy and arts team and supports the business function at Futurecity.
Maheer provides support to both the arts and strategy teams and helps generates project content. She holds a BA in Architecture and has significant experience in community engagement, design, and management. Previously working as design assistant for a social enterprise, she is committed to demonstrating the complex and powerful role culture plays in cities, exploring the role of spirituality, cartography, sports, design and animation.
Mark Davy founded Futurecity in 2007 (with offices in London and Cambridge) as a culture and placemaking consultancy and a platform for predominantly private sector involvement in culture-driven development of our urban centres. Under his leadership Futurecity has written over 50 cultural and arts strategies for large brownfield developments, regeneration areas and urban projects across the UK.
Rachel provides the coordination of Futurecity's business operations with an extensive management background within the architectural industry. She has a passion for delivering results and values the importance of integrating art and culture into all our projects. Rachel is a proponent of finding continual incremental improvement within the creative environment.
Job Titles:
- Associate, Senior Strategist
Rachel is an experienced cultural strategist and has developed place narratives and strategic frameworks for varied scales of mixed-use developments and cultural districts across the UK and internationally. She leads a social innovation lab at the University of the Arts London, focussing on co-design and placemaking.
Based between Antwerp and London, Rajesh Punj is a freelance art critic, correspondent and collector, with an academic background in Art History and Curating from Warwick University (UK) and Goldsmiths (UK) respectively. Well versed in European and American modern and contemporary art, with an appreciation of the newer markets in India and the Middle East, having traveled extensively, and interviewed leading artists, philanthropists, scholars and sculptors, for a wider worldview.
Producer and curator with twenty years' experience of collaborating with artists to create and deliver ambitious artistic projects both within cultural institutions and in the public realm, often through complex partnerships with cultural, educational and third sector organisations. From 2007-2015, Rob was Head of Programmes and Production at Artangel, London before joining Arnolfini where he was Director of Programmes for two years.
Sinéad plans and manages the delivery across the public arts commissions, strategies and exhibitions, providing a curatorial perspective. With over 15 years contemporary arts experience, curating, commissioning and producing projects with Artangel, Barbican, Liverpool Biennial and Museum of the Home, she has worked with many artists, organisations and stakeholders initiating and shaping new partnerships and programming opportunities. She holds an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths College.
Job Titles:
- Project Manager
- Associate - Senior Curator, Sydney
Sophie Forbat is a leading curator and project manager in Sydney. Working with Kaldor Arts Projects for eight years, Sophie has undertaken a wealth of ambitious art projects across the city including 13 Rooms and Marina Abramovic in residence. She is a strategic thinker bringing fresh ideas and approaches to the development and implementation of Futurecity's strategies and offers considerable experience in the delivery of complex projects.