the hub

About

the hub is a dynamic and entrepreneurial arts and creative enterprise development practice. Our ‘think and do tank’ model brings together a team of highly skilled, industry savvy consultants, researchers, producers and trainers.

Our mission is to develop new thinking and practice in the arts; to create and work on projects that excite us; to enable others to better meet their potential, and to share our knowledge to improve our cultural landscape.

We do this across five key programme of work:

We work in two distinct, but linked, ways. Firstly, in our ‘hub lab’, we initiate our own projects, to respond to issues that we believe are important and explore creative opportunities which excite us. Secondly, we work with a range of clients, bringing to their projects an unparalleled mix of real breadth and depth, in terms of our skills, experience, knowledge and understanding of the creative sector. By doing so, we’re constantly learning, and sharing that learning with the people with whom we work.

Our ‘think and do tank’ approach means that our team is up-to-date, knows the landscape as well as ‘their stuff’. We’re as comfortable flying around in so-called ‘blue skies’, maybe working on a major sectoral research project, such as Musicians… Have Your Say, or working with individual creative businesses like Birds Eye View film festival on a business plan, fundraising ideas or a digital strategy as we are ‘getting our hands dirty’, working on our own plans for a new live event or a training programme like our Music Connections programme, producing some digital content or pitching in as part of the production team on one of our events or tours, such as Phrased & Confused.

These twin functions – thinking and doing – are absolutely central to our philosophy, practice and business model. Combining them keeps our ‘tools’ sharp, and sets us apart from other consultancies, research agencies and creative producers. Very few organisations involved in thought leadership and strategic thinking in the creative industries are also active practitioners, and conversely, very few practitioners apply their in-depth knowledge to the bigger picture. So, our think and do tank approach marks us out from the crowd.

We work in this way because we value our independence, because we’re excited by ideas, and because we’re motivated by a desire to develop our cultural landscape.

If you’d like to find out more about us, just get in touch and we can start the conversation.