Anamaria Wills

Consultant, coach & mentor

I’ve spent my career within the creative sector, first as a theatre producer working with a wide range of companies, from the UK’s National Theatre to Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre to Ariane Mnouchkine’s Theatre du Soleil.  In the ‘90s, I became very involved in the early days of establishing creative industries as a redoubtable force in the UK economy, and in 2000 I set up my company, CIDA (the Creative Industries Development Agency) with the aim of helping the sector itself recognise its newly acknowledged role in society!  We quickly developed an international reputation, and I worked in over 50 countries, with governments, statutory bodies, grassroots creative organisations and thousands of artists of every artform imaginable, to strengthen the capacity of the creative sector to be seen as an essential contributor to economic success.  Working on direct commissions as well as through the British Council and the EU, our clients ranged from various transnational partnerships across Europe; African governments including Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe; Singapore’s Workforce Development Agency; Latin American organisations in Colombia, Brazil, and Chile; festivals in Florida and in Trinidad; and, most recently, in Al Ula in Saudi Arabia.

In the UK, I now mentor a number of artists and arts organisations as well as being the Course Director for Creative Newham’s Cultural Producers programme, a three-year programme in East London funded by the Arts Council.  I’m Chair of the award-winning Balbir Singh Dance Company based in Yorkshire and an Associate of My Cake, the financial benchmarking specialist for the third sector.

Professional awards:

Outstanding Contribution to Theatrical Life - UK Theatre Mgt Association 
For “daring artistic innovation, internationally as well as in the community and its region; and for setting an example in the management of theatre” 

CIDA –   Most Creative Enterprise – Regional Media Award, Yorkshire, UK