Arts Derbyshire is supported by a team of trustees. The Arts Derbyshire board of trustees’ work supports our goal of enriching people’s lives through the arts. As well as supporting Derbyshire’s art scene through Arts Derbyshire, our trustees also have personal links to the creative sector, with many of them being artists themselves. Although you may have read about our trustees already here, in this series we want to introduce you to each Arts Derbyshire Trustee and let them tell you about their story and relationship with the Derbyshire arts scene.
In this article, we would like to introduce you to our Trustee Sharon Brown.
Having started her career in Fashion Design, Sharon has spent the past 20 years involved with Festivals and community arts. Her passion is for making art accessible to everyone and encouraging people to “have a go”. She has been a Director of Melbourne Festival since it started in 2005 as an opportunity to showcase Melbourne in South Derbyshire as a destination for the creative and performing arts with the added bonus of some amazing architecture. Roll forward two decades and the Melbourne Festival is counting down to it’s 20th Festival in 2025 and her team have now opened Creative Melbourne Gallery & Studios in Melbourne in 2021 putting art at the heart of South Derbyshire.
Sharon has been a member of Arts Derbyshire from its early days and helped form FESTIVITY, the Derbyshire festivals association over 10 years ago as a support network and showcase for the counties amazing Festivals – we currently have just under 100 Festivals earning Derbyshire a reputation as THE Festival County.
When the possibility of Arts Derbyshire becoming a charity, independent of Derbyshire County Council, was first discussed I joined the Team and was one of the first Trustees when the plan became a reality.
I enjoy being part of the team which has transformed Arts Derbyshire into the strategic arts charity for the county advocating for the arts and promoting the vibrant arts scene in the county, and ensuring that the views of the independent artists and Festivals are heard and I’m looking forward to exciting developments in 2025 with the Festivity tour and Derbyshire Makes.
Visit our Meet the Trustees page here for an overview of our board. Follow our Introducing Our Trustees series to find out more about each individual Trustee’s story and what Arts Derbyshire means to them.
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