CAKE: Choose to challenge gender bias in the creative industry

Hannah Matterson is the CEO of Generator North East – a music and digital business support agency, working to develop the creative industries across the North East and to strengthen the music industry in the region by supporting artists in their careers. She is also a director of We Make Culture, an arts participation organisation which delivers music projects across the North East to promote community and wellbeing through music.

She has worked with businesses in all sectors, promoting innovation and collaborative partnerships, through her role at Manchester Metropolitan University, and now works with the music and creative digital sector in the North East through Generator’s Digital Union network and Tipping Point Talent Development programme. She was part of the team who worked to deliver Sunderland’s UK City of Culture 2021 bid and the redevelopment of a cultural quarter in Sunderland. Hannah is currently the lead governor for employment and industry at Sunderland College. She has developed and delivered festivals in music, creative writing and short film and has a wealth of experience in fundraising and business development. She is particularly interested in partnerships between the creative and cultural industries and other sectors. 

Since starting at Teesside University in 2018, Laura has held a leadership role in the establishment of the MIMA School of Art and Design, Borderlands, a £2.9m Creative People and Places project for Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and the Middlesbrough Cultural Partnership. The school brings together art and creative industry courses with a focus on employability, transferable skills and global, creative perspectives. MIMA is a catalytic, creative hub for the sector, the school, the region and Teesside University. Laura oversees the work of the gallery in creative collaboration with Head of Programmes, Elinor Morgan.

Laura’s previous roles include Programme Director at Foundation for Art and Creative Technology and Curator of Public Programmes at Tate Gallery, Liverpool and Co-Director, Site Gallery. In the last five years, Laura has served on the boards of Engage, FutureEverything, Workplace and the Advisory Board of the Arts and Humanities Research Council. She completed a Core Leadership Fellowship (2008) and is a Leverhulme scholar at Durham University’s Centre for Visual Arts and Culture.

Ila is a passionate, self-shooting assistant producer / journalist that has worked in British film and television for the last decade. Since graduating from the University of Sussex, Ila has gone on to work for several big-name broadcasters over the last decade including the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV with Emmy and BAFTA winning directors.

Ila has been involved with production on many different levels including undercover filming and investigations but has a primary focus on sensitive access-based documentaries that have been broadcasted on the likes of Dispatches and ITV Exposures. Her directorial debut is in production with Spring Films. Take a sneak peek at one of Ila’s films for India’s 1^st best trans model agency > https://vimeo.com/364019529

Ila is a member of the We are Doc women group – a fantastic collective for women who work in TV around the country. To find out more, please visit: wearedocwomen.co.uk