Frances du Pille and  Gabriella Román González spoke about their work, sharing their successful models for collaboration, creating teams and    facilitating talent.

BAFTA award winning Fran, shared how she had started her Higher Education in her late 20’s and    worked to make every role she gained as an opportunity to understand more about the sector, the business models and  how to build strong networks. She talked about how she had seen how to move from performing arts to producing TV series as a puzzle, that she approached with curiosity, and    found ways to learn while doing as well as taking formal learning. Fran showed her humility in terms of what elements of her work required creative risk-taking and  how she supported her team to be in service of great creative products. Fran expressed her approach to creating trusting, comfortable work environments that enabled people to create strong work that met their passion.

Fran also reflected on the need to remove work emails when on holiday, to have the support of her social network and  the importance of nature (particularly the sea) as something that restored her. There was further reflection on the role of connectors in the creative industries, and    for Fran, gaining an agent had been key. In reflecting on common themes in the work she is drawn to producing, the theme of human fragility is clear and  the desire for connection.

Gabriella spoke about her two enterprises, Mentoras Creativas – an organisation in Havana founded to support female artists to gain the skills, confidence and    needed to successfully navigate the art market and    Not The Owners – a curator-led gallery presenting work made by Latin American artists and    artists from the global majority.

She spoke about the business models she had developed for each organisation, and  how her financial model for Not The Owners enabled her to not only pay artists appropriately but to give donations to further the work of minoritised artists.

Gabriella reflected on how artists from the global majority and    Latin America are often expected to make work that reflects very stereotypical views of these artists living conditions, and    how she was working to show art that has a strong aesthetic rather than a feed in to cultural tropes. She spoke of the time she took to build trust with artists, government departments, and    the wider ecosystem needed. How that investment in people led to the successful work, risks and    impact.