Media Profile | Kelly Allen, Deputy CEO
About Kelly
Kelly Allen is Deputy CEO at Curious Minds. She has 25 years’ experience working in cultural education and participatory arts. She has a BA honours degree in Community Arts from Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and has led the design, initiation, delivery and development of high-quality participatory arts programmes in roles spanning community and arts organisations, local authorities and schools.
Kelly’s work has consistently focused on those who face specific barriers to arts engagement. Her broad experience has given her deep understanding of the arts education eco-system, and a passion for improving it. At Curious Minds, she particularly enjoys designing interventions which lead to sustained change.
Kelly is a fierce advocate for improving professional pathways and conditions for the practitioners who provide inspirational cultural opportunities for children and young people.
Kelly grew up as a working-class kid who was lucky enough to have an excellent drama teacher and a wonder-full local youth theatre. She is driven by a desire to eliminate luck as a factor in other young people accessing quality, transformational arts opportunities. For this reason, Kelly is also a proud and longstanding Trustee of Burnley Youth Theatre, who embody exactly this.