NEWS RELEASE
Northern Heartlands appoints new staff team
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Northern Heartlands, the Great Place Scheme for rural Durham, has appointed five new
members to the project team.
The new team bring a wealth of skills and knowledge to cultivate engagement and
discussion between local communities and commissioned artists in the area, as well as
encouraging new thinking about how community aspirations can be translated into future
policy and plans.
Northern Heartlands welcomes: Jill Cole, Director of Northern Heartlands; Emily Diamand,
Head of Learning and Influence; Anna Collins and Tariq Imam as Community Facilitators;
and Jayne Bradley, Administrator, who will take up their positions between July and
September 2017.
Jill Cole is well known in theatre and arts communities in the North East and nationally, she
has worked for many years on a freelance basis with wide variety of arts organisations. With
first-hand knowledge of the operational and organisational dynamics within the cultural
sector and a strong track record in community initiatives, Jill will manage the team to deliver
this exciting and ambitious Great Place Scheme initiative.
Jill said: “I’m delighted to have joined Northern Heartlands. I look forward to working with the
new team, board members, partners and the community in helping to ensure that investment
in arts and culture also has the biggest possible impact on local economies, jobs, education,
community cohesion and health and wellbeing.”
Emily Diamand will be delivering the Northern Heartlands learning programme and will pass
that learning on to policy makers and influencers. Emily has significant cross-cutting
experience; she has been a farm worker, an adviser and policy writer on food, farming and
rural issues for national and international organisations.
Community Facilitators Tariq Imam and Anna Collins will be working closely with
communities and organisations in rural Durham. Tariq’s previous roles at The Sage
Gateshead, East Durham Creates and Roots and Wings have provided him with the
experience of developing a wide range of partnerships within local communities. Anna’s
experience as Senior Volunteer Casting Administrator for Kynren, the open air live show at
Bishop Auckland, saw her establish solid relationships with local schools, businesses and
community groups as well as trainers and volunteers.
The Northern Heartlands team and advisory board will be supported by Jayne Bradley, an
experienced administrator in both the corporate and charitable sectors.
The team will be supplemented by a number of commissioned artists and academics who
will work with the staff and with local communities.
Graham Young, chair of Northern Heartlands, said: “We are very pleased to welcome the
team. They bring with them an abundance of expertise and knowledge from differing
backgrounds, and their skills will undoubtedly complement each other, meaning Northern
Heartlands is best placed to deliver a project that makes a difference.”
More details about the Northern Heartlands scheme can be found at:
http://www.northernheartlands.org/
ENDS
Picture caption: Northern Heartlands team L-R: Jill Cole, Emily Diamand, Tariq Imam,
Anna Collins, Jayne Bradley
For additional information, please contact:
Katharine Capocci T: 03000 261223
E: [email protected]
http://www.northernheartlands.org/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Northern-Heartlands-13148
Twitter: @NHeartlands
Notes to editors:
About Northern Heartlands
Our mission is to use a cultural landscape perspective, using the arts to engage targeted
communities and communities of interest in;
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understanding the past and how that has transformed the landscape and its people
understanding what people value in their communities
identifying and exploring new challenges
influencing their own future
Northern Heartlands has been supported by a grant from Arts Council England and the
Heritage Lottery Fund.
Thanks to National Lottery players, Northern Heartlands is one of 16 places across England
that will collectively receive £20 million to put arts and culture at the heart of their
communities.
The investment is part of the Great Place Scheme – a National Lottery-funded programme to
ensure that investment in arts and culture also has the biggest possible impact on local
economies, jobs, education, community cohesion and health and wellbeing.
It also aims to persuade local councils, civic organisations and businesses to invest in and
put culture at the heart of their thinking.
The Great Place Scheme is a pilot and partnership between Arts Council England, Heritage
Lottery Fund and Historic England to fund activities which can be built on in the future, and
whose learning can be shared with other places.
The Northern Heartlands concept and approach emerged from the successful Heritage
Lottery-funded Heart of Teesdale (HoT) Landscape Partnership which concluded in
October 2016.