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Sarah McBriar

Entrepreneurship Expert


Profile

Sarah McBriar is the creative director and founder of Up Productions Ltd and AVA.

Sarah has founded and pioneered AVA, an Audio-Visual Arts movement, producing 5 Festivals & Conferences in Belfast, 4 in London, and over 45 Satellite events across Manchester, Glasgow, Mumbai, Amsterdam and Dublin.

Known for her 'innovative and bold' approach to projects and productions alike, her leadership has gained the prestigious Innovate UK award amongst the most challenging year for arts and culture.

Experienced in managing budgets of circa £1M, and Top Tier artist, coupled with grass-root community led programmes, Sarah brings a wealth of experience and direction to large scale productions.

Sarah is a qualified Prince II Project Manager, and a Lecturer at CSSD, producing the University’s first online Creative Producing course.

Sarah is a leading voice on the Northern Ireland Music Steering Group, currently bidding for Unesco Status, and lobbying government for Covid Industry Support. She is a member of AFEM, SSS and IEF.

Sarah's passion for community, creativity and development is reflected in her professional life. Career highlights span from research assistant within the European Social Cohesion Laboratory at London School of Economics, to pioneering and project managing a large-scale tourism development project for Manchester City FC between 2012-2015 acquiring international investment and achieving leading attraction status in the City, to working as the assistant producer at Block 9 on the Glastonbury 2014 team, and artists management at MIF.

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