Fiona Wotton - Strategist, Researcher, Creative Producer
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Fiona is Chief Executive of the Creative Kernow Group, responsible for the development of the organisation including business planning, strategic partnerships and income generation across the four companies in the group.
Prior to this she was a member of the senior management team at the charity - founding and running Cornwall 365, the cultural destination programme and popular What's On events. Fiona's PhD explored the sustainability of creative communities using Complex Systems theory. She is a Fellow of the RSA and the Clore Leadership Programme.
She lives in Pendeen with her husband, twin teenage girls, a puppy and a chicken.
@creativekernow
www.facebook.com/CreativeKernow
www.creativekernow.org.uk
1. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Surviving the early years raising my twin girls whilst trying to finish my PhD. I was very sleep deprived for a few years and wrote a lot of nonsense but learned a lot about how to prioritise and proved to myself that I was definitely a completer-finisher!
2. What motivates you to do what you do?
I believe our lives are brighter, happier and more fulfilling when we make time for creativity. But not everyone gets access to opportunity or encouragement or training and I'm proud of the role that Creative Kernow plays in providing support for creative communities and individuals whether they are trying something for the first time or turning their talents into developing a business. As well as the social importance of creativity we can see this in economic terms as the creative industries are growing faster than other sectors and make a growing contribution to Cornwall’s economy.
3. What do you owe your mother?
One of my earliest memories is following my Mum on my tricycle around our village as she sorted out allotments, broken paving stones and welfare payments as a parish councillor. She has given me a strong work ethic and sense of civic duty; empathy and compassion for others and a knack for starting productive conversations with total strangers. I wish I could have inherited her ability to knit and sew too though!
4. Which women inspire you and why?
The women who inspire me are the mothers and care givers who cheerfully pack more and more into each day to keep their families and communities happy and healthy whilst the world seems to continually conspire against them. There's plenty of them just in Pendeen where I live and millions the world over.
5. What are you reading?
I always have lots of books on the go at once. I'm reading Maps of our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer and dipping in and out of The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessell.
6. What gender barriers have you had to hurdle?
When I was younger I was often the lone female voice and was made to feel like my views were not worthy or intelligent enough or that I shouldn't be asking questions. So I stopped volunteering them and sometimes even stopped thinking them. It was easier just to defer to my male colleagues with the bigger voices but all the time it was eating away at my confidence. It stems from differences in the way which men and women tend to communicate. We are made to think of these differences as biological but this overlooks how socially constructed these behaviours are and how male colleagues also struggle to be heard if they don't conform with the supposed norm.
7. How can the world be made a better place for women?
Sadly we have to start with making it safe. We have to keep speaking out and acting to eradicate violence against women.
8. Describe your perfect day?
I would be awoken by sunlight and birdsong not an alarm. It would be sunny and warm and we would breakfast outside overlooking some amazing view. There would be time at the beach and siestas and cocktails. In the evening we would be outside listening to live music or watching theatre as part of some fantastic festival with all our friends as the sun set and the stars came out.
9. We've noticed there really aren't many (if any) statues of women around Cornwall - who would you like to see remembered?
After all the recent controversy about statues I wonder whether there will be a move away from this way of commemorating achievement? I'd prefer to remember people through something that gets used frequently and becomes a landmark. Think of all the Passmore Edwards buildings there are around Cornwall which are used as libraries or public spaces. So I'd love to visit the Emily Hobhouse Reading Room or the Rose Hilton painting studio.
10. Give us a tip?
Never underestimate the power of a few deep breaths.
