Building new models for how culture is funded, valued and sustained.
I work at the intersection of culture, capital and systems change, developing ventures, research and strategy designed to strengthen the infrastructure around creative work.
About
I’m a founder, consultant and former international opera singer working on the systems that shape the cultural and creative industries.
My work asks a deceptively simple question: what would we build differently if we treated culture as infrastructure?
After starting my career in opera, including as an ENO Harewood Artist, I moved increasingly towards entrepreneurship, research and systems change. Most recently, my research into capital concentration and the future of human value in the creative industries led to The Price of Presence: Culture as Infrastructure, which reached the global finals of the University of Oxford’s Map the System competition.
That research now informs two ventures currently in development: CreateMint, focused on capital readiness and new infrastructure for the performing arts, and Alionta, exploring new mechanisms for directing value back towards culture.
I recently completed the Global Leaders Institute MBA, where my work combined cultural entrepreneurship, systems thinking, research and venture development.
Today, I work with cultural organisations, funders, founders and other partners on questions of strategy, business models, capital, growth and systems change.
Consulting
Strategy for a cultural sector in transition
I work with organisations and leaders navigating questions that don’t fit neatly inside traditional arts consultancy: how cultural value translates into sustainable business models, where capital is failing to reach, how organisations become investment-ready, and how new models can be designed around the realities of creative work.
My work can include strategic research, systems mapping, business-model development, stakeholder engagement, market research, capital-readiness strategy and the development of new ventures and programmes.
I bring together the perspective of someone who has worked inside the cultural sector as an artist, studied its structural challenges through research, and now builds businesses designed to address them.
Current work
- CreateMint A new platform and accelerator for the performing arts, designed to help creative organisations become more strategically and financially resilient and better equipped to access capital.
- Alionta A venture exploring how everyday digital economic activity can create new funding flows for culture.
- The Price of Presence Research examining the widening gap between the economic value generated around culture and the financial sustainability of the people and organisations creating it. The project reached the global finals of Oxford’s Map the System competition.
Short bio
Catherine Young is a founder, cultural strategist and performer working at the intersection of culture, capital and systems change. She is the founder of CreateMint and Alionta, and led The Price of Presence: Culture as Infrastructure, a global finalist in the University of Oxford’s Map the System competition. She recently completed the Global Leaders Institute MBA and works with organisations and leaders developing new models for a more resilient cultural economy.
