Resilience and recovery advice sessions
UPDATED 3 FEBRUARY
We are organising one-to-one advice sessions to help people responsible for managing culture and heritage in the Torbay local area. This will be followed by a group session on 30 March 2021. We are also providing advice surgeries for individual creative practitioners.
People managing organisations:
The advice surgeries for managers and leaders of organisations have a focus on resilience and recovery issues. Robyn Brown, currently Assistant Director Operations, North East, for the National Trust is facilitating these. Robyn has extensive experience of crisis management, and was a key figure in helping heritage settings respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. She knows Torbay’s heritage and culture sector well, as she was General Manager for the Trust’s English Riviera porfolio for 12 years. More information about Robyn is below.
Who should attend these sessions? aimed at supporting people responsible for managing culture and heritage sites, settings and organisations. They are designed to be flexible and responsive to need, so when you contact us to request a session please let us know any areas of concern/issues.
When will these surgeries take place? available during February and March on Thursday or Fridays at a time to be arranged by mutual agreement between attendee and Robyn.
To participate: attendance is free, places are limited. We ask only that once dates are finalised, and you agree to attend, that you commit to participating on the agreed dates so places are not taken up for someone else who may need it.
Group session: workshop on 30 March, 10am-11.30am is to faciliate mutual support.
Time commitment and equipment required: we will be running surgeries via Zoom so the only equipment needed is your ability to participate via that platform. We anticipate surgeries will be approximately one hour duration each.
To reserve a place: please email [email protected] to express interest, or telephone Jane on 01803 208 678. We will then follow up with more details. We want to organise these so they are accessible in regards to time of day, so when you contact Jane, please indicate if morning, afternoon, or end of the day is most convenient and we shall try to accommodate this. In the event there is strong demand we will look to organise further sessions to respond to need.
Individual creative practitioners:
These are available for individuals working in Torbay’s creative sector and will be facilitated by Cat Radford, someone who knows Torbay’s independent creative sector very well and has been instrumental in developing collaborative practice. One of the themes we identified as being of particular interest was relating to creative wellbeing project advice and collaboration between health and arts sectors, including social prescribing. To assist people interested in this area of work Cat will be providing a number of individual advice surgeries to:
act as a sounding board for your project, whether you are just starting out or looking to develop what you already do
explore how you might evaluate the successes and challenges of a project or evidence impact
talk about effective partnership working between culture and health practitioners
help in how you might go about managing a project
support brain-storming, creative renewal or problem solving
Who are these aimed to support: primarily aimed at individuals, or perhaps pairs of people who work closely together, whether you work freelance, for an organisation or in a portfolio way. Sessions are open to people working in either the culture or health sector. We’ll prioritise enquiries from the Torbay local government area but if we have availability will widen this out.
When will these surgeries take place? during February and March on Fridays at a time to be arranged by mutual agreement between attendee and Cat.
Time commitment and equipment required: as noted above, these will be via Zoom.
To reserve a place: as noted above, please email [email protected] to express interest, or telephone Jane on 01803 208 678.
We will organise a group session if there is demand and this will be communicated with those requesting a one to one advice surgery.
The Facilitators
Information about Robyn Brown
Robyn is currently Assistant Director Operations for the National Trust in the North East. She has a particular interest in urban work, cultural programming, and diversity and inclusion; and is passionate in developing brilliant visitor experiences, much of which was begun during her time in Torbay.
As an experienced project manager and director she has led several multi-million pound projects for the National Trust in her 22 years with the charity, and as strategic lead for the operations of the North East, Robyn also has accountability for the staff and volunteers, and the business and conservation work in the region’s diverse range of properties. Robyn is a senior leader coach for the Trust which is something that she absolutely relishes.
Information about Cat Radford
Cat’s extensive experience includes her previous work for Torbay Culture as Creative Commissioning Lead, where she managed several complex arts, health and wellbeing projects with partners in the NHS, public health, Local government, the creative and community sectors.
As lead for the Changing Lives strand of Torbay’s Great Place Scheme she was responsible for ensuring that robust evaluation took place, and shared learning resources were made available. Through that work, Cat helped us to strengthen links between the health and wellbeing sectors, and local creative practitioners and culture organisations. Recently Cat supported the coordination of a collaborative Torbay area bid to the Thriving Communities fund.
These sessions, part of Torbay Culture’s local sector support, are possible thanks to the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage. The Culture Recovery Fund is being delivered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England, using funds provided by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
