Greenfield Arts are incredibly sad to be losing Creative Director Katy Milne as she moves on to new adventures in a new arts and cultural role across South Tyneside.
Katy has been an exceptional leader at Greenfield Arts and an integral part of Greenfield Community College for over sixteen years, elevating the arts and creative learning through a range of valuable and innovative partnership projects and creative programmes.
Katy has been responsible for bringing initiatives to the school and wider community by working alongside a range of partners. She is a tireless advocate of self-led learning and worked with TED prize winner Professor Sugata to initiate and host one of seven labs worldwide at Greenfield Arts, enabling students and young people to develop skills, be curious and grow to be self-led learners. Katy has also led both the Men’s Cree and Youth Cree for 10 years at Greenfield Arts with funding from Public Health, supporting creativity and well-being in the community that cascades to support others. She has been responsible for wider projects such as ‘Cutting Loose’ festival programme, numerous art installations that have toured across the community/region to over 50,000 people and has supported artists, school residencies, live performances and been integral to achieving many arts awards and the school’s Artsmark status.
Just this month, as our world opens up, Katy is celebrating the culmination of community projects such as ‘Shout About Shildon’ celebrating the people and the place; a pop-up musical performance with input from the Cree; the ‘Shildon in Motion’ artistic gateway at Shildon Station, student recognition for their poetry through the Terry Kelly awards and the creation of a film promoting a culture for creative learning led by student leaders.
Katy leaves a lasting legacy of creative learning and enquiry through the many partnerships and initiatives she has nurtured, including her work with professional artists and organisations such as the Anne Frank Trust, creating a strong voice led by the young leaders and securing funding to ‘make things happen’. Her personal touch and attention to detail is inspiring.
Katy has told us how proud she is of the creativity we continue to see across the community and the spirit of enquiry, curiosity and connection that we value so deeply at Greenfield Arts. Katy expressed how honoured she feels to have worked with so many amazing people across the community for the last 16 years, people who have been open to creatively explore ideas, collaborate, enquire, reflect and create. Katy told us how much she will miss working at Greenfield Arts, and across such fantastic communities here, as she moves on to new opportunities this June.
Katy has been instrumental in planning the next eighteen months of programming and securing funding for this activity. The work will continue through the physical resources she has developed and inspired, such as the student journal, our creative arts centre spaces and the student creative platform.
Her passion for the arts, curiosity and self-led learning will continue in the hearts and minds of those she has inspired. With planning and funding in place she has ensured a smooth transition for the Greenfield Arts team to take forward.
“We wish Katy the very best as she moves to a new challenge and look forward to seeing the creative impact in South Tyneside. We wish her well” said Executive Headteacher, David Priestley.