Speakers include Sophie Hayles (Chief Executive of The Crescent Arts Centre & Belfast Book Festival), Ciara Hickey (Culture Development Officer at Belfast City Council), and Patricia Hamilton (Director of the Aspects Irish Literature Festival). Convened and moderated by Dr Zeynep Bulut (Senior Lecturer, SARC Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Sound and Music, QUB), the panel will discuss the critical and creative work of women leaders in arts and culture sector for empowering, promoting, and sustaining diversity and gender equality.

Sophie Hayles joined as Chief Executive, The Crescent Arts Centre & Belfast Book Festival in August 2019. Previously Sophie worked for the British Council – in Belfast and other locations, a European Capital of Culture (Aarhus) Whitechapel Gallery, London, and as a consultant in fundraising and strategic planning. From Yorkshire, England, she moved to Northern Ireland in 2015.

Ciara Hickey is a Curator and writer based in Belfast. She is currently Culture Development Officer at Belfast City Council and was previously co-Director of Household, an arts organisation that supports high quality art in the public realm. Recent projects include Red Sky at Night, a night time festival of new international commissions across the city of Belfast and UPHOLD, a not for profit commissioning platform for promoting and selling contemporary art. Ciara was previously curator of the Freelands Artist Programme through PS2. She was curator of Belfast Exposed Photography and initiated Belfast Exposed Futures Programme for early career artists, establishing exhibition partnership with Seen Fifteen, Peckham 24, Landskrona Photography, CCI Paris, Unseen Amsterdam. She currently sits on the panel of Golden Fleece Visual Arts and Craft Award Ireland. From 2008-2010 Ciara co-organised the art Space Delawab in her home, and has continued to pursue an interest in the domestic space as a site for contemporary art. She recently co-authored (with Trish McTigue) the article, Home-made in Belfast: domesticity as creative practice in Northern Irish art for the Irish Studies Review.

Patricia Hamilton is Director of the Aspects Irish Literature Festival in Bangor. She has served as Arts Officer with Ards and North Down Borough Council since 2012, where she delivers an annual arts programme and works closely with artists, writers, and community partners to support and develop the local arts sector.