WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO
CLA has been championing a right to arts and culture for every child for more than a decade. Find out more about our work, our team, our governance, our advisers and our history.
Quicklinks
CLA is the leading source of arts/cultural education news, insight and opinion. We use evidence to demonstrate the ways in which an arts-rich education provides skills for life and skills for work, enabling all children to fulfil their potential. Click here to see what we do and how we work.
Here is a brief summary of the history of the origins and work of CLA. (For a full timeline of arts education developments since 1982 see The Arts in Schools Timeline.) READ MORE
Every child should have access to the benefits that arts and culture bring. See below to read our statement about equitable access to the arts for every child.
Equality of access to arts and culture is the right of every child and should be unaffected by income, ethnicity, gender, disability or location. This is a social justice issue: research shows that children with an arts deficit are disadvantaged educationally and economically while their more fortunate peers – generally from more affluent backgrounds – are more resilient, healthier, do better in school, are more likely to vote, to go to university, to get a job and to keep it. Participation in the arts fuels social mobility.
Children who feel ownership of the arts also feel more confident in their ability to create, challenge and explore; they learn to participate not just in arts activities but within society. Access to the arts is access to our national life.
There is a wealth of detailed evidence to show that studying the arts fosters creativity, innovation, empathy, and resilience, and that the arts enrich young lives, making them happier and healthier. The arts also give children the skills needed in a labour market that places an increasingly high premium on creativity.
The UK’s children do not have equal access to arts and culture. We must work together – policy makers, funders, schools, teachers, artists and cultural organisations – to ensure that every child and young person experiences a broad and balanced curriculum that enables them to fulfil their potential. Otherwise the arts will continue to be the preserve of those who can afford them.
CLA has a small part-time team working across policy, membership and communications. Please bear with us if it takes them a while to get back to you.
Baz Ramaiah, CLA Policy Associate
Baz has spent nearly all of his professional career working in education. After studying philosophy at King’s College London, he worked as a special educational needs teaching assistant, before spending five years teaching in inner city schools in East London and Manchester. He moved out of the classroom and into educational technology, joining the founding team of Teacher Booker while completing an MPhil in Psychology at the University of Cambridge where his field work involved teaching and researching in two Pupil Referral Units in London. He then joined Teacher Tapp, the UK’s biggest daily survey of teachers, as Research & Programmes Lead where he led an Innovate UK-funded trial of daily teacher surveying. He has written on issues related to education, politics and data for The Evening Standard, Schools Week, Teach Primary, Teach Secondary, Cambridge University Press, The Tribune and The Jacobin. He is Head of Policy at the Centre for Education and Youth (CfEY). He spent 18 months seconded to from CfEY CLA as Head of Policy (2002-2024) and is the author of the CLA annual Report Card 2024.
Professor Pat Thomson, CLA Senior Evidence Associate
Pat Thomson PSM PhD FAcSS is Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham and University of South Australia. She is a former headteacher and senior civil servant. She researches arts and creativity in schools and communities, as well as school change and school leaders’ work. Her current research on arts-rich primary schools in England is on artsprimary.com and its predecessor, the Tracking Arts Learning and Engagement project, with the RSC and TATE, on researchtale.net and “Schools and Cultural Citizenship: Arts Education for Life ” (Routledge 2023, with Christine Hall).
Sally Bacon (Co-Chair)
Together with Pauline Tambling, Sally is co-author of The Arts in Schools: Foundations for the Future, a major Gulbenkian Foundation report published in March 2023. Sally has spent her career championing cultural learning across the education, arts and philanthropic sectors.
She was Executive Director of the Clore Duffield Foundation for more than 20 years, where she was responsible for the Foundation’s multi-million pound grant-making programme and for building a portfolio of nearly 70 Clore Learning Spaces in cultural organisations across the UK. She chaired the working group which resulted in the creation of Clore Leadership in 2004, and founded the Cultural Learning Alliance in 2009. She is a writer and editor, has a particular focus on strategy development, and is programme lead for The Mildred Fund, which supports visual art programmes in museums and galleries for 14-19 year-olds. Sally has been a school governor and a Museum of the Year judge, is a trustee of Koestler Arts, and a board director of FrameWorks UK, which provides communications research and support to reframe social issues. Sally was awarded an OBE in 2017 for services to cultural learning.
Derri Burdon, Chief Executive, Curious Minds (Co-Chair)
Derri is Chief Executive at Curious Minds, a Wigan based creative education charity working to tackle unequal access to arts and culture for children and young people. She is also Chair of Wigan’s Cultural Partnership Board and Governor at a secondary school. Prior to joining Curious Minds, she was Head of Enrichment for Learning for Bolton Council’s Educational Improvement Service where she was responsible for leading several high-profile education and regeneration initiatives including Find Your Talent and Inspiring Communities. Inspired by her own family and childhood experiences, Derri is passionate about improving outcomes for all children, especially the most disadvantaged and vulnerable. She is driven by the passionate belief that rather than attempting to ‘close the gap’, we should be filling it with enriching and inspirational cultural and collective learning experiences that the most fortunate families take for granted.
Lucy Butterfield
Originally from Manchester, Lucy is a communications specialist with more than a decade of experience in the arts, culture, charity and media sectors, having begun her career in communication consultancy. She leads PR for all arts, entertainment and kids content at Sky, working across a range of arts programmes, including Portrait Artist of the Year. Sky Arts went free-to-air in 2020 to bring more art to more people. Prior to joining Sky, Lucy worked at Shakespeare’s Globe, where she was responsible for running theatre’s press office, implementing press campaigns across all theatre season shows and an expansive education programme.
Rob Elkington MBE
Rob is the Director of Arts Connect, based at the University of Wolverhampton. He joined from The Royal Shakespeare Company where he worked as Head of Education Partnerships, leading the Company’s learning and performance network programme across England, the professional development programme for teachers, and HE partnerships. He worked for Arts Council England as Director of the Creative Partnerships team in Birmingham and started his career as co-founder of The Play House, an educational theatre company working with children, schools and communities in the West Midlands and with international partners. He has worked in many roles from a teacher/actor to Executive Director. Rob is a Clore Leadership Fellow, and a Trustee of Victoria Park Multi-Academy Trust and of Writing West Midlands.
Alice King-Farlow
Alice is Director of Learning and National Partnerships at the National Theatre. She leads a large team and national programme, encompassing work with schools, young people, community partners and on skills and careers, as well as the NT Archive. She oversaw the opening of the NT’s Clore Learning Centre, the development of the NT’s national the Theatre Nation Partnerships network, and the launch of the National Theatre Collection. Before joining the NT Alice worked independently as a consultant, producer, researcher and writer for major performing arts organisations across the UK, including the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera, The Sage Gateshead, the National Theatre, Barbican Education and others. From 1991 to 2003 Alice worked in opera, first at Opera North in Leeds, and from 1996 at English National Opera where she managed the education programme, ENO Baylis. In 2006 Alice was awarded the Youth Music Fellowship on the Clore Leadership Programme for the cultural sector.
Amy McGann
Originally from Rotherham, Amy has more than 20 years of experience in cultural education, currently serving as the Head of National Schools Programmes at the Royal Opera House, engaging more than 45,000 pupils annually. She began her career as a professional dancer and has held various roles across the public, criminal justice, education and cultural sectors, including performer, educator, artistic director, consultant, producer, and strategist. Amy has spear-headed education and community initiatives for renowned artists and organisations, notably as Director of JumpStartMove, and interim Head of Learning at the Southbank Centre. A staunch advocate for social justice, Amy believes fervently in the power of activism to ensure that every child and young person has access to high quality arts and cultural education and is provided the opportunity to realise their full potential.
Steve Moffitt MBE
Steve Moffitt has worked as part of the cultural education sector for 40 years and is a passionate advocate for high-quality practice. Since 2008 Steve has been CEO of A New Direction, an award-winning cultural education agency working across the education and cultural education sectors. In previous roles Steve led on delivery of the Creative Partnerships programme in London, was Head of ENO Baylis at English National Opera, Artistic Director and Associate Director of Theatre Venture, and a drama practitioner with Community Arts Workshop. Steve was awarded an MBE for services to Arts and Culture in the 2024 New Year’s Honour list.
Tina Ramdeen, Associate Director of Young People, The Roundhouse
Tina is the Associate Director of Young People at the Roundhouse leading the organisation’s work with young people, and a Trustee for Camden Spark – Camden’s Local Cultural Education Partnership. As a cultural education specialist working within formal and informal education, public and voluntary sectors, Tina is passionate about providing equitable access to high quality creative opportunities, progression pathways to diversify the creative industries, and empowering young people to use creativity to affect social change. Tina sits on the DfE and DCMS Expert Advisory Panel for the Cultural Education Plan, and advises cultural organisations on policy and practice relating to working with young people, with a specific interest in supporting organisations to embed youth governance structures to enable young people to influence decision-making within local and national cultural institutions.
Ian Thomas
Ian is Head of Research and Insights, Arts, British Council, where he leads on the evidence and learning from across the British Council’s global arts programmes including the development of a What Works Approach to Cultural Heritage Protection. Ian has more than 20 years’ experience in working across a range of arts and cultural organisations, previous roles include at Arts Council England and Telford and Wrekin Council and as a board member for a number of arts organisations. Ian is a former Visiting International Research Fellow at the University Southern California, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has written and presented on a range of international platforms around cultural heritage and sustainable development.
Andria Zafirakou MBE, 2018 Global Teacher of the Year
Andria Zafirakou is a Vice Principal of England’s only seven-consecutive time Ofsted rated ‘Outstanding’ school. Her specialist subjects are arts and textiles and for the last 19 years has worked in some of the most marginalised communities in London.
She has been recognised as an education leader through accolades such as being a recipient of the million dollar Global Teacher Prize in 2018, a Culture Leader by the World Economic Forum, a Member of the The High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession, which was established by the UN Secretary-General in 2023, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Worcester, and was nominated by the late Queen Elizabeth II for an MBE for her services to education. She is the author of the bestselling book Those who can, Teach, which was published by Bloomsbury in April 2021 and her most recent book Lessons in Life was published by Quercus in May 2023.
Anne Appelbaum
Director Children & Young People, Arts Council England
Ros Asher
Creative Learning Consultant, Education Advisor
Kate Atkinson
Head of Programmes, Clore Leadership
Rebecca Barnett
Learning Director, Aurora Orchestra
Steven Berryman
President, College of Teachers
Hugh Blackwood
Teacher of Drama, Vice Chair of the Drama and Theatre Education Alliance (DTEA)
Carolyn Bradley
Arts Education Consultant and PhD researcher, University of Leeds
Molly Bretton
Head of Learning, Royal Academy of Arts
Alexandra Brierley
Director of Creative Engagement, Southbank Centre
Sam Cairns
Southampton CEP and freelance consultant
Dr Helen Charman
Director of Learning & National Programmes, Victoria & Albert Museum
Lauren Christy
Talent Manager, Sky Studios, Elstree
Susan Coles
Freelance arts, creativity, educational consultant & Vice President International Society for Education through Art
Michael Corley
CEO, Babylon Arts
Lizzie Crump MBE
UK Strategic Lead, What Next? & freelance consultant
Steph Cubbin
Head of Art and Design at St Marylebone and Arts consultant
Lucy Cuthbertson
Director of Education, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
Marcus Davey CBE
Chief Executive & Artistic Director, Roundhouse
Holly Donagh
Director, Strategic Learning, Insight & Influence, Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Joe Duggan
Head of Communications & Digital, National Youth Theatre of Great Britain
Mezze Eade
Freelance practitioner & Education Associate, Old Vic Theatre
Kate Fellows
Head of Learning & Access, Leeds Museums & Galleries
Philip Flood
Director, Sound Connections
Montserrat Fuentes Romero
Director Culture: Xacara
Hannah Fumoleau
Interim Head of Young People’s Programme, Sage Gateshead / North Music Trust
Louise Govier
Chief Executive, Artswork
Peter Gregory
Principal Lecturer in Education (Creative Arts), Canterbury Christ Church University
Michele Gregson
General Secretary, NSEAD
Matt Griffiths
CEO, Youth Music
Joe Hallgarten
Teacher and Education Consultant
Mimi Harmer
Director, The F-List for Music
Chloe Hughes
Engagement Programme Manager, The Box, Plymouth
Prof. Penny Hay
Professor of Imagination, Bath Spa University
Alison Holdom
Grants Manager, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Sue Horner
Board member, Coventry University & former Director of Curriculum for England
Damali Ibreck
Arts education: research, curation & production
Tarek Iskander
Artistic Director & CEO, Battersea Arts Centre
Anthony Jackson
Former Director of a specialist visual arts college, National Specialism Coordinator for Visual and Media Art with SSAT
Veronica Jobbins
Dance & arts education consultant
Kevin Jones
Education adviser
Adam Joolia
CEO, AudioActive
Sharon Kanolik
Engagement Producer & Creative Learning Consultant
Hannah Kelville
Freelance youth arts fundraiser, North East
Lucy Kennedy
Chief Executive, National Saturday Club
Greg Klerkx
Writer & producer
Patricia Lankester
Founder CLA member & High School Governor, Norfolk
Sally Manser
Former head of ROH Bridge, freelance consultant
Catalina Marin
Group Director, Activate Learning
Naomi McCarthy
Senior Policy & Campaigns Officer, Independent Society of Musicians
Jenny Mollica
Interim CEO, English National Opera
Jacqui O’Hanlon
Director of Creative Learning & Engagement, Royal Shakespeare Company
Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE
Freelance arts & cultural consultant
Ray Oudkerk
Vice Principal, The Brit School
Dr Nick Owen MBE
CEO, The Mighty Creatives
Dr David Parker
Research consultant
Joan Parr
Head of Creative Learning & Young People, Creative Scotland
Vee Pollock
Dean of Culture & Creative Arts, Newcastle University
Adam Power-Annand
CEO, Speech Bubbles
Kelly Quintyne
Freelance Producer
Radikal Queen
Poet, musician, performance artist, teacher
Paul Reeve MBE
Chief Executive, Into Film
Emma Ridgeway
Director, Foundling Museum
Dan Roberts
Headteacher, Devonport High School For Boys
Ryan Ball
Director of Education, Design & Technology Association
Keith Saha
Co-Artistic Director, 20 Stories High
Beth Sedgewick
Community Programme Manager, Oxford Playhouse
Becky Swain
Director, Manchester Poetry Library
Adam Tulloch
Founder & CEO, Total Insight Theatre
Henry Vann
Teacher, Bedford School & Bedford Borough councillor
Dr Erin Walcon
Co-Director & Co-Founder Doorstep Arts, University of Exeter lecturer in Applied Drama
Julie Ward
Creative Producer at South Tyneside Cultural Education Partnership
Theresa Ward
Headteacher, Creative & Performing Arts College, Riddlesdown Collegiate
Sharon Watson MBE
DL CEO & Principal, Northern School of Contemporary Dance
Jasmine Wilson
Head of Public Engagement Trinity Laban
Kithmini Wimalasekera
Team Leader, V&A X Adobe Artists in Residence Programme
Rachael Woodhead
Director of Creative Communities, Creative Kernow
