Lara Ratnaraja

Lara is a Cultural Consultant who specialises in diversity, innovation, leadership, collaboration, and cultural policy implementation within HE, cultural and digital sectors. She co-created the Hello Culture event series https://www.hello-culture.co.uk/  (how cultural and digital technology intersects).

She has developed, managed, and delivered successful ERDF, ESF, ACE, AHRC bids, and programmes working within the public sector, HE and he commercial sector. She works or has worked with the University of Birmingham, Coventry University, Birmingham City University STEAMhouse and University of Salford delivering and developing projects on diversity, digital engagement and research collaborations between arts, HEIs and SMEs.

Other consultancy clients include Southbank, OPUS, mac, Arts Council Collection, National Theatre Wales, the ICO, CAN, Warwick Arts Centre, Jerwood Arts, FACT and Artangel and the Fifth Sector for whom she worked on a number of place-based projects including Manchester, Rushmoor, Derby, Leicester and Tees Valley.

With Helga Henry, she co-produces a series of leadership programmes:  RE:Present, ASTONish,  which supported the development of cultural leaders from diverse backgrounds so that the cultural ecology of Birmingham,  better reflects its changing demographic; AD:Vantage which  placed the vantage point of d/Deaf, neurodivergent and disabled creative practitioners at the heart of leadership and EmPOWer for OPUS,  that supported diverse Neighbourhood Producers who were part the  Commonwealth Games Festival Sites.

She was the broker at the University of Birmingham on the AHRC Funded CATH Project (Collaborative Triple Helix) which developed 19 collaborative projects across the East and West Midlands with academics from the both Birmingham and Leicester Universities, cultural organisations and digital SMEs. The research project led to long term collaborative working and investment. She subsequently became Senior Research Facilitator leveraging investment for further knowledge transfer and research collaborations between academics, cultural organisations and artists across the sector.

As Sector Development Director – Creative, Cultural and Digital, Business Link West Midlands she ran  a £6 million programme for the creative, cultural and digital sector

Lara is on the board of Derby Theatre, Vivid Projects and Coventry Biennial and the Advisory Group for  SHOUT Festival.  She is on the UK Council for Creative UK and the Equality Monitoring Group for Arts Council Wales.