01229 825085
Art Gene, Bath Street, Barrow-in-Furness,
Cumbria, LA14 5TY England, UK
Dr Nick Owen, MBE
Awarded an MBE for services to arts based businesses in 2012, I am passionate about generating inspiring and socially engaging cultural education and business both nationally and internationally.
I am a cultural architect: a creative organisational leader, researcher, designer, producer and educator who has worked in all learning contexts from Early Years to Higher Education and Life Long Learning. I was awarded a unique scholarship for a PhD in Creativity and Learning from Creative Partnerships which I completed at the University of Hull in 2008 and was then awarded Honorary Fellowships in Education at both the University of Hull and University of Tasmania in Australia. For me, the essence of cultural architecture is about regeneration: of individuals, their communities and our wider society. It’s is about re-visioning a new future and constructing a new world; and about fusing creative practice, teaching and learning and enterprise through meaningful and purposeful activity which not only satisfies the financial bottom line but aspires to reach the top lines of cultural, social and educational impact too.
I am currently CEO of The Mighty Creatives: the Arts Council Bridge Organisation for the East Midlands. I’ve worked in the public, private and social enterprise sectors in Nottingham, Cumbria, Liverpool, Leeds and London and have been especially inspired by the international collaborations I’ve been part of with colleagues from across the world. We may have all come from vastly different backgrounds but one thing has bound us all: the interplay of culture, education and enterprise which is at the heart of personal, social and economic regeneration.
My role in Art Gene since 2013 has been focused around managing a range of Community Consultation events in the Morecambe Bay area which focus on the built and natural heritage of the area. Between 2014 and now, these have included:
• Seldom Seen. This project explored the cultural heritage of Barrow and Morecambe Bay;
• Fort Walney, Uncovered. This project engaged local communities, archaeologists and artists in the exploration, interpretation and explanation of Barrow and Walney Island’s military heritage from World War I;
• Tracks of the Ironmasters. This was a community consultation project which focused on the interpretation of the two walking and cycling paths on the West Cumbrian Coast.
These projects engaged over 2,000 people in 41 events from Sunderland Point at the southern tip of Morecambe Bay right up to up to Workington and its suburbs at the northern borders of West Cumbria.