CHEAD collaborates with and values our work with partners to enhance arts and design creative education and to deliver benefits to members. The following is a selection of quotes from our key sector stakeholders demonstrating the impact of partnership working.
‘’Partnering with the CHEAD network over the past couple of years has helped us to strengthen creative education collaboration between the four nations of the UK and France. By bringing together higher education institutions across both countries, this collaboration has successfully championed innovative models for student and faculty mobility, collaborative research, and cross-border learning. Together, we are not just supporting an ecosystem of creative professionals from schools to art market connections, but we are actively cultivating a dynamic pipeline of new talent and driving the global reputation of our creative sectors.’’
Petya Hristova, Head of UK/France Spotlight on Culture, Directrice Royaume-Uni/France Spotlight sur la Culture, British Council.
‘’One of ACID’s 5 pillars is Education & Awareness. CHEAD’s fantastic support of this key value enables us to work together and maximise outreach to ensure students are equipped with IP knowledge to protect their designs, creations and future careers.’’
Laura Newbold-Breen ACID, Chief Operating Officer.
‘’The National Saturday Club and CHEAD share a commitment to ensuring that art and design education is valued, recognised and accessible to all. We greatly value Sandra Booth, Professor David MaGravie and the wider CHEAD team’s advocacy and support, and their understanding that meaningful access to creative learning must begin early. Our partnership reflects a shared ambition to widen participation, strengthen pathways into art and design higher education, and create lasting change for young people across the UK.’’
Lucy Kennedy CEO National Saturday Clubs and Creative UK Council Member, Chair of the Skills and Futures Working Group.
"CHEAD is an indispensable partner in advancing policy and advocacy for the visual arts. Its leadership brings together higher education institutions, cultural organisations and industry partners to build the evidence base, skills pipeline and strategic thinking that our sector needs. As we work collectively to strengthen the visual arts ecosystem, CHEAD's ability to connect research, education and practice ensures that the sector's voice is informed, collaborative and influential. Their contribution is critical to shaping a sustainable and ambitious future for the visual arts."
Paula Orrell, National Director, Contemporary Visual Arts Network, England and Creative Industries Council Member.
‘’CHEAD is a supportive, welcoming, and highly knowledgeable partner. Our shared sense of purpose strengthens the reach and impact of our campaign to raise awareness of the importance of craft education. Our collaboration is built on an aligned vision and shared priorities—particularly in advocacy and lobbying—and a genuine commitment to working together in a constructive and mutually supportive way.’’
Nicky Dewar, Director of Programmes, Crafts Council UK
“University Alliance have worked with CHEAD and specifically Sandra for a number of years brought together by the travesty of cuts and negative government rhetoric around creative arts and education. A collaboration that has worked on so many levels and delivered a coalition of the willing and produced a creative education coalition manifesto that has delivered tangible outcomes to the way creative arts education and the creative industries are now viewed by the government and key decision makers.”
Vanessa Wilson, CEO, University Alliance and Chair of Creative Coalition.
‘‘CHEAD have been a key partner in the Design Council’s Skills for Planet movement from the very start. We are looking to upskill 1 million designers with critical green skills by 2030, which requires swift action across the design ecosystem, starting with design education. CHEAD has made engagement at scale across design departments possible. Thanks to their ongoing support and willingness to champion our Skills for Planet work far and wide, we have a Skills for Planet Regional University Champion in each of the 12 UK regions, enabling further momentum-building and regional activation. We are hugely grateful to Sandra Booth and the whole CHEAD team for a collaborative, action-orientated partnership.’’
Rachel Bronstein Programme Lead – Skills, Design Council.
“CHEAD and NSEAD came together to address the decline of creative arts education in our schools, colleges and universities. Without decisive action from government, industry, and education creative education risks falling into the margins of the curriculum at the very time it is most needed. We believe that all learners deserve an excellent arts education. Our collective ambition is to secure equity of opportunity for all, a learner-centred, future-facing contemporary curriculum, supported by a valued, nurtured and diverse subject-specialist workforce.”
Michele Gregson, General Secretary/CEO, National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD)
“If industry and education are working well together, graduates enter their careers ready and equipped to contribute. We want this to be true for every design graduate, and we look forward to working with CHEAD to make this a reality nation-wide.”
Deborah Dawton, CEO, DBA
