Culture Syndicates CIC
Enabling | Enterprising | Empowering
our story
from strength to strength
The company achieved Community Interest Company status in 2014, marking a new step in our journey and strengthening our social purpose. As a CIC, our mission is to support museum and heritage organisations and to increase employability within
the sector.
So far, we have supported 66% of our former trainees into full-time work or study in museums and heritage. Seven years on, we are finding new and innovative ways to achieve our core mission and expanding beyond our initial East Midlands base.
We are working with an exciting range of partners to execute high quality projects across the UK and beyond. Through our continued expansion, we are able to offer exciting training and employment opportunities to people from a wide range of backgrounds.
As our work grows further, we will continue to champion sustainable projects and create fair opportunities for sector entrants.
our mission
supporting and sustaining
Culture Syndicates supports cultural organisations to promote and widen access to their collections for audiences locally, nationally and internationally, through sustainable partnership working.
At the heart of our work is a commitment to building employability for emerging professionals to develop an appropriately skilled and diverse workforce that is equipped to meet the needs of a changing sector.
enabling culture
We support cultural organisations to achieve best practice relating to collections, digital technology, audience development and engagement, evaluation, and workforce development.
building employability
We create paid developmental opportunities for emerging professionals and promote sustainable workforce development in the heritage
and arts sector.
our team
Neville Stankley
chief operating officer
Neville founded Culture Syndicates whilst working as a principal lecturer at Nottingham Trent University. He leads the management of Culture Syndicates, drawing upon his experience of heritage management, workforce development, and international exchange.
Elizabeth Neathey
Head of Workforce Inclusion
With Culture Syndicate's mission focusing on employability for emerging professionals, Elizabeth is developing approaches which will benefit anyone interested in working in the cultural sector. She is developing new partnerships and planning approaches to create meaningful sector development experiences and training opportunities.
Feixue Huangdu
Head of Digital Projects
Feixue is a digital media facilitator. She produces bilingual social media content and award winning live broadcast programmes, enabling cultural institutions to reach an international audience.
Alia Hamadeh
Marketing Assistant
Alia comes to Culture Syndicates with an impressive set of skills which is enabling her to spearhead our communications. Her background in architecture gives her a great insight to how the cultural sector works and communicates.
Mary Strickson
Development Officer and Heritage Assistant
Mary has joined our team as Development Officer, to support our work with current and new clients whilst keeping her link with the Heritage Assistants. Mary is experienced in research, facilitation of community arts and heritage projects and workshops, exhibitions, displays, and working with collections.
Ruth Gray
Heritage Assistant
Ruth completes project administration and research, and prepares funding applications under the guidance of the Head of Projects. She manages content creation for our digital media channels.
Lyndsay Thompson
Heritage Assistant
Lyndsay is a recent graduate and is a key part of the Heritage Assistant Team. She is experienced in collections, including collections care, documentation and loans processing.
Nisha Chudasama
heritage assistant
Nisha is a graduate in Archaeology and Geography. She has experience working on exhibitions, in digital humanities and with heritage organisations. She has an interest in building surveying and conservation.
Sophie Hazlewood
Heritage Assistant
Sophie is experienced in connecting people to their heritage through facilitating visitor tours and open days. She is interested in managing museum collections and making them accessible
Amy Hondsmerk
Heritage Assistant
Amy is experienced in working in outreach, interpretation and collection management projects.
Paul Baker
Director
Paul is a resilient museum leader with a proven success record in challenging organisational cultures and strategy.
Andrew Cooper
Director
Andrew is a commercial lawyer. He began working with Culture Syndicates as a member of our former advisory panel and now supports our strategic decision making as a Director.
Julia Knight
Director
Julia is a heritage leader who specialises in collections and people management. She has supported Culture Syndicates as a Director since 2017.
Phil Cave
Director
Phil, a former Director at Arts Council England, is a consultant specialising in public engagement. He founded the Creative People and Places programme and the national Creative Ageing Development Agency (CADA).
our manifesto
Introduction
manifesto
Below is our manifesto, this is what makes us tick and drives our work. Our team of staff and partners uphold the values within this manifesto in order to deliver the best possible support to cultural organisations and talented individuals from all backgrounds.
1/7
nobody works for ‘free’
We strongly believe that nobody should work for free and, where possible, people should be paid for their services. This is why we run our Heritage Assistant model as a paid alternative to volunteering and ensure that all placement students receive course credit and a reference for giving their time to us.
2/7
culture is by
and for everyone
We strive to make culture as inclusive as possible. We want to democratise culture through our projects and workforce development and ensure that everyone, regardless of background or ability, is able to access or work in museums and heritage.
3/7
development is career
long and career wide
To us, learning should never stop. We treat every project as a learning and development opportunity and ensure that our team and everyone involved reflect, learn and identify further development.
4/7
supporting, not exploiting,
cultural organisations
We know that the words “consultancy” and “bespoke” can often come with hefty price tags and that consequently many smaller cultural organisations cannot access specialist support. We therefore keep our prices fair and proportionate to a wide spectrum of cultural organisations.
5/7
moving beyond
buzzwords
Sustainability is a hot topic in the cultural sector. At Culture Syndicates, we ensure that all of our projects are truly sustainable by incorporating legacies into the planning stages and offering free follow-up support as a standard part of our service.
6/7
a syndicated approach
We realise that the key to achieving our social mission is working with a range of like minded partners and supporting organisations. In doing so, we are able to extend the reach of our projects and have a greater impact.
7/7
ongoing support for
maximum outcomes
As a standard part of our practice, we offer follow-up support to all of our clients to ensure that projects are embedded within an organisation. We also offer a continued network of support to our former trainees who move on to pastures new, to facilitate continued learning and sharing.
our partners
projects counter
who we are
Enterprising | Enabling | Empowering
Culture Syndicates CIC is a social enterprise that offers specialist support to enable cultural organisations to achieve innovation and resilience.
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privacy policy
company number: 9288909
who we are
Enterprising | Enabling | Empowering
Culture Syndicates CIC is a social enterprise that offers specialist support to enable cultural organisations to achieve innovation and resilience.
sign up our newsletter
privacy policy
company number: 9288909
Your help is
important
To date, we have supported over 100 sector entrants and students to gain paid employment and training.
Support our
mission
At Culture Syndicates, we aim for no less than ‘changing the world’ of museum and heritage careers. We are a social enterprise with the core purpose of providing high quality training opportunities for people from all backgrounds and abilities.
Our workforce development programme relies on earned income and grant funding to survive. If you would like to support our work, please consider donating to help those starting out in their careers.
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