The British Council
London, UK
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. We do this through our work in arts and culture, education and the English language. We work with people in over 200 countries and territories and are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021–22 we reached 650 million people.
Staff on the project
Alison
Driver
Alison has been working in cultural relations for over 25 years. She is currently the Arts Manager for Italy, with responsibility for developing and overseeing the British Council’s arts work across the country. In this role, she works in partnership with arts professionals and institutions across Italy to develop opportunities for effective cultural engagement with the UK. These partnerships lead to activities which enable cultural professionals to exchange expertise, build new networks and develop their skills, with inclusion and diversity a key consideration so as to introduce Italian audiences to new voices and diverse talent from across the UK and Northern Ireland. She has prior experience of working on EU-funded projects and as a project manager and is an accredited Mental Health First Aider, by MHFA England.
Sarah
Bagshaw
Sarah is the Head of Arts in Paris, with responsibility for the strategic lead and implementation of the British Council’s arts work in France. This involves partnership and programme development across a range of art forms and themes with French arts organisations to support international opportunities for UK artists and arts professionals. She is experienced in project design and delivery, intercultural competence and in her knowledge of French and UK cultural sectors. Sarah has experience of working on EU-funded projects and previously managed a 2-year cooperation project supporting disabled artists and audiences with 4 EU arts partners. Sarah is trained as a British Council Accredited Diversity Facilitator which means she is mandated to talk about the British Council’s global work in equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). She has understanding and experience of key EDI topics and issues (ex. disability, race, gender, religion, unconscious bias) and supports organizational capability in EDI by running workshops and leading and facilitating training sessions.