Claire Antrobus

I am consultant, facilitator, trainer, mentor and coach. Based in York I work across the UK, mainly in the creative and cultural sectors but also with charities, universities, local authorities, schools.

Current and recent clients include organisations of all scales from volunteer and artist-led organisations through to local authorities, national institutions, funders and many of the UK’s leading galleries and museums. You can see what they say about working with me here.

There are three main areas of my work currently:

• Art gallery and museums– consultancy, research, evaluation, strategy development and review and interim leadership roles.
• Change creation – facilitating and enabling organisational development through consultancy and facilitation.
• Leadership development – including training, coaching and mentoring.

I regularly lecture, speak and write about these topics too.

• Strategy development
• Interim leadership
• Mentoring
• Evaluation
• Research
• Change projects

I began my career in education and curatorial roles in art galleries and museums, later becoming Head of Visual Arts for the Arts Council in London. I have direct experience of the full range of areas within art gallery management and leadership, from fundraising and retail management, business planning to commissioning contemporary art or managing residencies. This breadth of experience means I can offer a wide range of support services to galleries and museums.

Key consultancy projects include developing the pre-opening business plan for The Hepworth Wakefield; interim Assistant Director for Middlesbrough Museum of Modern Art (mima) 2011-12 and various projects for Tate including a review of interpretation strategy.

Whilst I am highly experienced and able to advise as required on various strategic and operational issues in the cultural sector, I don’t believe for one second that I have all the answers. In my experience plans and projects produce better results when client staff are closely involved, so I work in a collaborative and constructive way that builds on your existing strengths and increases your organisational capacity and resilience.

• Organisational development
• Change programmes
• Awaydays/ workshops
• Team development and planning workshops
• Facilitation of meetings/ events
• Training

Ten years ago I realised how important being able to respond to change was becoming to arts organisations and undertook training in leading change at Henley Business School. The scale of challenges we face as public funding declines, business models change quickly, technology enables new ways of working and drives audience expectations are significant. How we work and what our organisation do today is very different to 10 years ago. Being able to predict, respond and thrive in these challenging and volatile times is a critical skill – and one where organisations often need additional expertise and capacity.

Since 2010 I have led a number of major change projects in interim senior roles at Tate Liverpool and mima, as well as supported organisations including Turner Contemporary, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Focal Point Gallery and Ripon Museum Trust to develop their organisations.

I believe lasting change is created and led from within organisations and see my role as consultant as supporting individual staff and teams to enable this change. I will draw on my wide experience of working with other organisations to create meaningful and long-term change to provide examples, frameworks and tools you will find helpful in this process. But the process is always driven by the client and therefore the nature and scale of success will be determined by you and your team.

• Coaching
• Mentoring
• Management team awaydays
• Team development days
• Leadership development courses
• Training

As a coach and mentor I have worked extensively with artists, freelance professionals, managers, Trustees and leaders in a wide range of non-profit organisations including cultural organisations, schools, Universities, local government. I am accredited coach and a Member of the Association for Coaching, offering coaching face-to-face and remotely via Skype or telephone.

As a mentor I use many of the techniques of coaching, complemented with sharing of advice, experience and networks particularly in terms of career development; managing/ leading people and organisations; leading change and aspects of gallery management (fundraising, learning strategy, audience development). I regular mentor people through a number of leadership programmes including engage Extend, British Council Accelerate, Clore Emerging Leaders as well as individual clients.

As an independent trainer I run workshops on team development and dynamics (I am accredited as a Belbin trainer) and leading change. I also regularly deliver leadership and coaching training for Relational Dynamics 1^st.

An experienced facilitator I can design and deliver events and away days for staff teams and Boards including strategy or ‘away’ days, team development/building, creative workshops and leadership residentials.