Wendy Smithers - Director
Before setting up the hub with Julia in 2002, Wendy worked as a freelance consultant for Wimbledon Theatre, Orange Tree Theatre and Riverhouse for eighteen months. Previously Wendy was Development Manager at the Barbican Centre from 1996-2001, working across a variety of cross-arts festivals. This followed a two year spell at Classic FM, the UK’s leading national commercial radio station.
Wendy has been busy running and developing the hub’s training programme as well as leading on finding partners and sponsors for the hub’s own projects. Wendy is currently working on fundraising consultancies for a number of clients including the world’s biggest rugby club, Leeds Rhinos, who are looking to appoint an artist-in-residence for a year. Wendy is interested in exploring what can be learnt from outside the cultural sector; she seeks to increase the hub’s knowledge and skills by working across other sectors such as sports or business, and brings relevant information and ideas back into the company and to our clients. Wendy is a member of the Institute of Fundraising, a founding fellow of the Arts & Business Fellowship, the network for people who “connect creativity with commerce” and is a member of the Institute of Directors.
