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Abigail Carney is an independent consultant and facilitator in the arts, heritage and creative industry sectors. She works with clients to develop creative, effective and practical strategies to build capacity and audiences.
Abigail has worked with over thirty organisations across Scotland. She has twenty years experience as a practitioner and five years in consultancy, across all art forms,festivals, events and visitor attractions.
Consultancy – Audience development, organisational development, business planning, marketing and communications.
Facilitation – Sessions for Boards, managements and staff teams to identify opportunities, issues, solutions and strategies.
Mentoring – One to one programmes to develop individuals’ skills, knowledge and effectiveness in audience development, business planning and delivery.
Arts I Heritage I Creative Industries
Consultancy I Facilitation I Mentoring
Audience development I Organisational Development I Business planning I Marketing
Research I Planning I Implementation I Monitoring I Evaluation
September – October – December 2008: Abigail will deliver MARKET DAY in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, a one day interactive introductory course into marketing for people working in the arts and creative industries. Visit the Cultural Enterprise Office for more details.
Autumn 2008: Abigail and five UK associates have set up a group, funded by the Cultural Leadership Programme, to research and develop models of good governance practice for arts and community interest businesses.
Autumn 2008: Abigail Carney, Paul Pinson and Jane Hogg are delivering a mentoring programme for members of The Federation of Scottish Theatre. Details about STEP UP can be found on the FST web site.
Fife Contemporary Arts and Crafts: Abigail Carney and associate Jane Hogg are developing an audience development strategy via a mentoring programme.
Cultural Enterprise Office: Abigail is working with staff to develop CEO's marketing service which assists arts and creative industry clients via one to one advice sessions, marketing training and signposting to other providers.
Re:Create: Abigail is evaluating the artists strand of the Re:Create audience development project for Stills, Edinburgh Printmakers and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.
2008 work includes:
City of Edinburgh Council: Facilitation with CEC staff and five Edinburgh contemporary art gallery directors to review future development opportunities.
Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop: Business plan development to win SAC funds for a new centre. Building work will begin later this year.
Scottish Arts Council: A needs and demand assessment for a Young Person's Arts Award in Scotland, in association with management consultant Jane Hogg.
WASPS: Facilitations to develop the vision, mission, aims and management model of The Briggait, a new visual arts and dance facility in Glasgow.
Centre for Contemporary Arts: Board and management session to develop the vision and aims for the new CCA.
Re:Create: Facilitation to scope future audience development collaboration between Stills, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and Edinburgh Printmakers.
Cultural Enterprise Office: Facilitation for Artists as Leaders partners to review the pilot programme and inform future programmes.
Edinburgh Science Festival: Mentoring programme to produce a marketing strategy, including staff team session in vision / mission and business planning.
Glenkens Community & Arts Trust: An audience development strategy for CatStrand, a new rural community, arts and tourism centre in south west Scotland.
CatStrand: A successful application to the SAC for a one year development post to devise and implement an ambassadors, volunteer and friends programme.
Duff House: Research programme for a major arts facility in Banff, managed by Historic Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland and Aberdeenshire Council.
West Lothian Youth Theatre: Consultancy to inform the re-positioning and re-branding of one of the UK's leading youth theatre companies.
Abigail has been working in Scotland since 1984. After time spent with Assembly, Theatre Workshop and Traverse she joined The Royal Lyceum Theatre Company where she contributed to an increase in audiences from 40% to 80%. Here she was also Co-ordinator of the Edinburgh Capital Group, an independent business development and marketing consortium of 28 Edinburgh arts and visitor attractions. This led to a move to Edinburgh Tourist Board where she played a key role in initiating Edinburgh's Hogmanay. She then joined Scottish International Children's Festival which she and her colleagues transformed into national arts development agency Imaginate in 2000. Here she developed a range of highly successful audience development programmes until establishing her own consultancy in 2004.
Consultancy
Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop worked with Abigail Carney on a review of the Business Plan within the context of a major new building project and application to the Scottish Arts Council capital department. Abigail facilitated and led workshops with different stakeholders to identify priorities and clarify our objectives and provided invaluable support to ESW’s Director during the period spent revising and re-writing the Business Plan. It was essential that the Plan clearly demonstrated how ESW would manage change during the period of development and how the organisation would develop the project while still maintaining the core business. Following the work done with Abigail, funding was approved by the Scottish Arts Council.
Irene Kernan, Director, ESW
Abigail was a real asset to the Company and her delivery has always exceeded our expectations. Her commitment and expertise has been excellent, from consultation, to project delivery, to evaluation and reporting. Her warm personality makes her feel like she's one of the company, and never a "faceless consultant".
Paul Fitzpatrick, Producer, Catherine Wheels Theatre Company
I want to reiterate what I said when I first read the plan: it is impressive, comprehensive, realistic, "do-able" and reads like it is written by practitioners not consultants. Well done!
Martin Reynolds, Marketing Director, National Galleries of Scotland
Facilitations
Thanks for the session and your summary.
Both educative and enjoyable; it should be bottled.
Gill Khosla, Board Member, Glenkens Community and Arts Trust
Everyone at the meeting was delighted with how much we achieved in the time available under your guidance and felt that you led the group though the issues very successfully and succinctly whilst at the same time not making them feel like they were being too directed.
Suzanne Jeffries, General Manager, Benchtours
Thanks very much for the session on Friday - it was exactly what we needed. I particularly liked your super-focused style and the sprightly pace enabled us to air views but not get bogged down (you're also the fastest flip chart writer I have ever seen!).
Deirdre Mackenna, Director, Stills
Mentoring
I can’t recommend Abigail highly enough. Due to her involvement my ability and confidence have improved significantly and the organisation has also seen tangible benefits. On a personal level I have found Abigail to be extremely supportive and positive which has helped me through a period of change, I feel better equipped to deal with the greater responsibility that I now have.
Jen Wood, General Manager, Edinburgh International Science Festival