Born and educated in Scotland, Anne has worked in the UK cultural sector for over 35 years, with a specialist focus on community engagement in the arts. Her early career included posts with the Scottish Mining Museum and Aberdeen International Youth Festival, before moving south to the West Midlands to join Birmingham City Council’s arts and museums team. She went on to become Education Director with Birmingham Royal Ballet from 1999 till 2007.

Awarded a prestigious Clore Cultural Leadership Fellowship in 2005, Anne subsequently joined Watford Palace Theatre as Executive Director. She later moved into a consultancy role supporting the education and community programmes of cultural organisations including the Royal Opera House, BalletBoyz, A New Direction, Salisbury International Arts Festival and Arts Council England.

Anne returned to Scotland in 2012 to become the founding Director of Luminate, Scotland’s creative ageing organisation. Originally set up to run a nationwide creative ageing festival, Luminate has evolved into a charity that works all year-round to support the development of creative ageing practice across Scotland.

The organisation aims to have a lasting and significant impact on the participation of older people in creative activities through collaborations engaging older people as audiences, participants and artists; pilot projects exploring new ways of working; and professional development for artists, care and community professionals. Collaborations with care providers, community partners and older people themselves are central to Luminate’s work.

In her current role Anne has spoken at conferences worldwide including in Australia, Japan, the Netherlands and Germany, and through research visits and exchanges has built collaborative relationships with creative ageing colleagues across Europe, the USA and Asia.

Luminate continues to be supported by its founding partners – Creative Scotland, Age Scotland and the Baring Foundation. The organisation is co-located in Age Scotland’s office – the national ageing charity – and works closely with Age Scotland colleagues. More information about Luminate can be found here: https://luminatescotland.org/ and here: https://singing.luminatescotland.org/.Outside her work with Luminate, Anne is Chair of the Board of All or Nothing Aerial Dance Theatre, Scotland’s leading aerial dance company whose work includes both professional performance and an extensive community programme; she is also a trustee of the Eric Liddell Community, an Edinburgh-based dementia charity.