Jim was born in Glasgow, studied at Edinburgh University followed by a qualification in Youth and Community Work. Worked for 20 years in voluntary/community arts sector including working with local residents to establish the award winning WHALE arts and learning project (Wester Hailes Arts for Leisure and Education) in Edinburgh. Wrote and directed several community theatre productions and initiated the WHALE Fringe Venue.
In 1998 appointed as Director of Combined Arts at the Scottish Arts Council eventually taking on the role of CEO. Then became Executive Director North for Arts Council England, initiating and establishing the Creative People and Places programme. Returned to work in Scotland as Executive Director of the Saltire Society, then worked as the Coordinator for a trans European project, Arts Take Part, for Amateo, Europe’s network for active participation in culture. Since completing that project I have focused on coaching and on trying to write. I have had three short stories and several poems published.
During my working life I have completed an MBA, the Advanced Creative Writing course at the Open University and qualified as a Leadership and Performance Coach at Northumbria University Business School.
Non executive roles have included chairman of Imaginate, British Council Scotland Advisory Committee and Centre for Cultural Value advisory committee. As a founding trustee of Luminate, Scotland’s creative ageing organisation, and as someone working to develop as writer in his sixties, I am inspired by the words of Kahil Gibran. ‘Perhaps my evening will in fact be my dawn.’
