Staying awake: why supporting culture keeps me sharp

I’ve been working in the creative industry for nearly 40 years. I turned 60 last year. And I feel more alert, curious and engaged than I did at 40.

That hasn’t happened by accident.

Alongside my day job as co-founder and creative director of a strategic brand communications agency based in the North East of England, I’ve taken on trustee and board roles with organisations including Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Durham Culture Trust and NE1, the Business Improvement District in Newcastle.

People often describe this kind of work as “giving back”, which I get – but it’s not the way I see it.

I don’t do this just to be generous. I do it to stay awake.

The North East has always been good at this. We’ve never had the luxury of complacency. We make things work with less, we collaborate out of necessity, and we tend to value substance over noise. That mindset carries straight into our cultural organisations.

Long careers come with a risk. You can get comfortable. You can start relying on what’s worked before. You can slowly lose touch with things and how people actually feel, not just what the data says.

Being close to culture is one of the best antidotes I know.

In these roles, I’m surrounded by artists, producers, civic leaders, young people and community voices – many rooted deeply in place, many bringing in new perspectives. Cultural organisations here often operate with limited resources and long-term responsibility, dealing with real issues: identity, belonging, mental health, inequality and the future of our towns and cities.

You can’t switch off in those rooms. You can’t wing it. And you can’t stay comfortable for long.

Yes, I bring experience to the table. Decades of running a creative business, making decisions, understanding brands and audiences. But I take far more away than I give.

I see how cultural signals emerge locally long before they become national conversations. I’m reminded that creativity isn’t just output, it’s stewardship, listening and care. Especially in places where culture plays a vital role in confidence, connection and pride.

This has shaped how I think about leadership. It’s made me more curious, even more grounded and, if anything, more optimistic (if that’s possible!). It’s reinforced my belief that age really is just a number if you stay open, involved and willing to learn.

Looking back, I realise I’ve been practising something without realising it has a name: civic creativity. Using creative thinking not just for commercial outcomes, but for the health of the places we live and work in.

At a time when it’s easy to feel pessimistic, working this close to culture has done the opposite for me.

My hope is that more leaders, founders and creatives, particularly those rooted in place, see involvement in culture not as a side project or a badge, but as part of staying relevant, useful and awake.

Because if you want to understand what’s really going on, you could do far worse than start close to home.