Claire Gulliver: independent cultural consultant
Quietly making extraordinary things happen
Once in a while a project comes up that aligns personal and professional to perfection. This video (8 mins) by Gillian Taylor, released in time for Mental Health Awareness Week 2022, captures one of those times. Led by textile artist Catherine West of Significant Seams, seven makers from in and around Bideford, Devon, experimented with Read More
Today I noticed that 2021 is the 10th year of my independent arts and culture consultancy business. That’s got to be worth some chocolate. I’m delighted and grateful to have negotiated the bumpy 2020s with some degree of success, helping clients ranging from individual artists and creatives through to national development agencies. This month I Read More
It probably started when I was at University. The constant sore throats, to my mind, not the predictable effect of immersion in germ-ridden studentdom, but throat cancer. My GP laughed. Even my dentist laughed. Throat cancer, said the GP, was something old men like him got. Fast forward 15 years. Another doctor’s consulting room, another Read More
I’m delighted to be joining the amazing freelance team at Torbay Culture. I’ll be overseeing the delivery of Torbay’s final Great Place Scheme projects and preparing the evaluation. Torbay’s scheme is one of 16 pilots across England which are changing lives and shaping places by embedding creativity and culture in local planning and decision-making.
I’m still trying to digest this week’s news that our previously ‘small state’, laissez-faire government is making a dramatic intervention to rescue the arts. It’s unexpected, unprecedented, and the relief across the entire culture and creative sector is palpable. I’m glad the government has listened to audiences and communities across the country saying that culture Read More
This squished, slumped ceramic trophy has been on my shelf since September. It may or may not contain gold bullion. The artist made hundreds and put gold in some (and pewter in others). If I pick up my trophy and shake it, it rattles. There’s definitely something in there. But to find out I’d need Read More
Was anyone else dismayed at the sorry spectacle of it? Of Colston’s statue being dragged, feet first, out of Bristol Harbour by a crane? Because that was my immediate, emotional reaction this morning. But it’s not about me. I have no lived experience of racism. Many of those who tore down the statue on 7 Read More
The heat of June is upon us. In Europe at least, we’re beginning to take tiny steps towards the new normal. As we sit on the cusp of the future, I’m enjoying taking moment to look back at what was good in the second half of 2019. Not least because family circumstances at that time Read More
I’m delighted to have supported ceramic artist Vicky Lindo in her successful bid for Arts Council funding for her latest project, Dead Dad Book. With partner Bill Brooks, Vicky will make a brand new collection of work inspired by her research into the life of her late father, a Windrush immigrant, absent father and alcoholic. Read More
I’ll be delivering the last few Devon D-Day World War II Heritage Trail booklets this week. The guide commemorates 12 of the most important military and cultural sites of the Second World War in North Devon. It’s unique in including sites of both strategic importance and human significance, and highlights locations from Great Torrington in Read More