Changing the way arts and cultural organisations are run and led
image: Nicholas Green
About
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FentonMicklem is the creative partnership of cultural leaders Matt Fenton and David Micklem. Together they provide a wealth of strategic and practical experience supporting cultural organisations to bring their communities closer to the heart of what they do.
Working alongside a diverse network of specialist collaborators, they balance the business needs of your organisation with the need for lasting change.
Programmes
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Practical Cultural Democracy
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The challenges and pressures facing UK arts and cultural organisations are immense. At the same time, the need for the arts, and for artists, has never been greater.
To face an uncertain, fast-changing future, organisations need to be relevant, responsive and resilient. They need to inspire and entertain, while reflecting the diversity of the places in which they are based. And increasingly, they need to become more culturally democratic – celebrating everyone’s culture, giving voice to local communities in how they are run, managed and curated.
Arts leaders understand that to do this, they need to change too.
They want to embed the spirit of Arts Council England’s 10-Year strategy, Let’s Create, within their organisations, but few have shown how to do this in practice. Some are concerned it means giving away power, or that the role of established repertoire, highly-trained artists and expert curators is at risk.
Boards can also find cultural democracy challenging. They might understand the need for change, but in reality be overly conservative, pursuing a charitable mission through models and structures established many years ago.
If this resonates with your organisation, and is a journey you and your team want to take, get in touch.
Who
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David Micklem and Matt Fenton bring unparalleled experience from careers running arts venues, co-ordinating national funding programmes, commissioning major events and festivals, overseeing capital redevelopments and establishing new cultural organisations.
As consultants, they provide a wealth of practical experience in supporting cultural
organisations of all scales and artforms to bring their communities closer to the heart of
what they do. They unlock a diverse specialist network of collaborators to support the
specific needs of your organisation.
David Micklem
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A writer, producer, experienced cultural leader and strategic thinker with a demonstrable track record in supporting artists and arts organisations, delivering significant arts projects and influencing policy. David's specialisms are in strategic planning and supporting arts organisations to contemplate and articulate their core purpose - what do we do, why, and for whom.
Matt Fenton
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A practicing theatre director, producer and dramaturg, Matt brings wide experience from a range of Artistic Director and Chief Executive roles across the arts, including at Contact Theatre and Lancaster Arts. He supports organisations to experiment in practical ways with new forms of governance, programming and audience engagement.
Press and writing
Creative decision-making is
better shared
David Micklem
Arts Professional
2023
Reflections on
power and privilege
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David Micklem
Culture Reset
2023
Postcards to the Future
David Micklem
Changing the world
with Olivia Lee (age 20) (Podcast)
2020
Citizen Curators
at the helm
Matt Fenton
Arts Professional
2022
Young People
in decision-making
Matt Fenton
Exeunt Magazine
The Legacy Tapes
(Podcast)
2016
Theatres as
social enterprises
Matt Fenton
The Stage
2018
Board Diversity & Young People in Decision-Making
Matt Fenton &
Reece Williams
CultureHive
Arts Council England
2017
Case studies
South Asian Arts - UK
Throughout 2024, FentonMicklem are leading South Asian Arts-UK's Step Change programme, an organisation-wide strategy to grow the company's ambition, scale and reach following major funding uplift from Arts Council England. The project covers education, talent development and community-led decision-making, as well as providing 1-1 support for the Chief Executive and Chair.
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“Working with FentonMicklem has been a truly valuable experience. Their thoughtful and strategic approach helped us align our growth with our vision, ensuring we’re well-prepared and confident for the future. Matt and David’s contribution has left a lasting impact that will guide SAA-uk for years to come. We highly recommend FM for their expertise, professionalism and ability to deliver meaningful, lasting results.”
Keranjeet Kaur Virdee, MBE, Chief Executive
The Junction, Cambridge
Over the summer of 2024 FentonMicklem was engaged by the board and Exec of The Junction to develop an ambitious new business plan for the organisation. The project engaged the full staff team, young people and artists in an open democratic process to explore options for The Junction that build on past successes and acknowledge the changing cultural ecology in the city.
"It has been brilliantly useful to work with David and Matt on the development of our new ten-year business plan. Their skills, experience and knowledge, while centring access, inclusivity, representation, sustainability, artists and audiences, have been truly invaluable. They acknowledge that we are the experts in our business, while being constructive critical friends in telling compelling stories and taking new approaches to familiar challenges. The additional capacity they have given me, personally and professionally, has been crucial to this work.”
Matt Burman, Artistic Director & Chief Executive
64 Million Artists
David co-founded (with Jo Hunter) 64 Million Artists in 2013 to unlock the creative potential of everyone living in the UK. He’s developed thought leadership around the notion of Cultural Democracy – the idea of a culture that is debated, designed, made by, with and for everyone.
Contact
As AD/CEO of Contact, the leading UK cultural organisation to place young people at the heart of decision-making, Matt restructured the organisation to place the young people’s team at the centre, absorbing programming and producing within that team to respond to young people’s priorities and interests.
He then increased young people’s representation on the board of trustees to minimum 50%, overseeing the appointment of Contact’s first young chair, Junior Akinola. Young people were at the helm of the organisation’s major £7million capital redevelopment, appointing architects and construction team. In 2022 Matt handed over to Keisha Thompson, the first AD/CEO from Contact’s local community.
Theatre Royal Plymouth
David led a year-long consultation process for TRP CEO James McKenzie-Blackman to radically re-imagine creative leadership for the organisation. The resulting appointment of six creative leaders provides a solid basis for a more distributed and representative way of making artistic organisations.
“David has been my go-to consultant over many years. He knows how to ask the right questions to make you see things differently. He facilitates meetings, away days and seminars in a safe, supported and inclusive way that delivers results and helps drive change. He's supported me to be a better leader and he's encouraged organisations I have run to reframe their purpose for a 21st century world.” James McKenzie-Blackman, CEO