UK Arts Consultants | Arts and Cultural Consultancy | Brian Debnam Newcastle UK

Brian Debnam and Associates Ltd, an Arts and Cultural Consultancy, is based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. The consultancy specialises in project management, feasibility studies, organisational development, strategic and business planning in the arts and cultural sector and in the arts sector of higher and further education.

UK based clients for the arts consultants have included Arts Council England, Ballet Lorent, Live Theatre, Theatre Royal Newcastle, Newcastle City Council, Sedgefield Borough Council and Northern Film and Media.

In South Africa Brian Debnam and Associates Limited has worked as an arts consultant with the Johannesburg Development Agency providing consultancy support to the Market Theatre, Dance Factory, Bassline, Bus Factory, Festivals and Events and the development of the Newtown Cultural Precinct Improvement District. Other arts and cultural consultancy projects have included the Statue of Freedom in Port Elizabeth and Thesele, a theatre company in Soweto. Brian Debnam and Associates Ltd are also involved with the Swallows Partnership, facilitating cultural exchange between the Northeast of England and the Eastern Cape.

Arts consultancy work in the FE and HE sector has been undertaken with Huddersfield and Northumbria Universities in UK. Brian Debnam has also lectured in arts management at the University of Witwatersrand in SA and the University of Northumbria in Newcastle, UK.

Brian Debnam has over 30 years experience of working in arts and cultural management in UK, Australia and South Africa. In Australia he worked for the Arts Council and Australia Council, as a theatre director and producer and director of a performing arts training college. In UK he was Head of Performing Arts for Northern Arts in the early and mid 1990s and from 1999 as Acting General Manager and Director of Resources for the North Music Trust he was instrumental in the organisational development, business planning and fundraising for the Sage Gateshead (a £70 million Arts Lottery project) before establishing his arts and cultural consultancy practice in 2003.

The Arts and Consultancy practice has worked in partnership with other arts and cultural consultants including Peter Stark, Roger Lancaster and Tony Pender to deliver specific projects and employs a research associate to provide in house support. Brian Debnam Limited shares office premises with Xsite Architecture, a small practice with recent experience in the development of buildings for the arts and Joined up North another practice working as arts consultants.