ACADEMIC STAFF PROFILE

Susanne Burns
Lecturer

Susanne Burns is course leader for the MA Cultural Leadership programme which she has led since its launch in 2007. The programme is run within the Cultural Leadership unit that also offers a range of CPD programmes and a series of open events for the cultural sector and carries out research for the sector. With funding from NWUA, the unit is currently researching and developing programmes to meet the higher level skills of leaders working within the sector.

She works part time for LJMU and spends the rest of her time working as an Independent Development Consultant in the Cultural Sector.

She has extensive experience of working in Higher Education as she was Head of Management at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts from 1994 -2001 where she ran the Arts Management undergraduate programme. She is an external examiner and contributes guest teaching throughout the UK including work for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Birmingham Conservatoire. Susanne is also an accredited Coach.

She has 24 years of senior management experience in the arts sector, specialising in research, evaluation, strategy, organisational development and planning. She is based in the North West, but has worked nationally at a senior management level. Her arts management career began when she joined Northern Arts as their first Dance Officer in 1984 and she has since worked for a range of funding bodies on a freelance basis as well as working at senior management level for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and FACT.

Her consultancy work has encompassed dance, theatre, music and the visual arts. She currently has a diverse portfolio of clients, including the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Arts and Regeneration Consortium, Youth Dance England and Arts Council England.
 
She has recently completed some major research projects including the evaluation of Youth Dance England’s DCMS funded Next Steps/ Dance Links project, the Paul Hamlyn JADE Fellowships and the evaluation of British Dance Edition 2008. She led the high profile Dance Training and Accreditation Project and carried out research for Palatine on Dance in HE in 2006/07.

She is currently leading the Arts Council’s national Dance Mapping research that will be published in Spring 2009.

She is Chair of the Foundation for Community Dance and a member of the Management Group for the longitudinal Impacts08 research into the impact of Liverpool’s year as Capital of Culture 2008.

Download list of published works