This month has marked several milestones for Collective Wisdom, including our second anniversary and the arrival of three new associates and one new staff member, bringing the team to 42. It’s been a busy and rewarding month across awards, festivals and cultural projects, with momentum carrying us into an exciting third year. Read on to see what we’ve been up to and to meet the new joiners…
Sahar Beyad has 15 years’ experience leading communications and PR across the arts, culture and creative sectors. She has worked with organisations including Somerset House, National Museums Liverpool and the National Portrait Gallery, as well as creative businesses and lifestyle brands. Most recently, Sahar was PR Manager at Somerset House, where she led communications across exhibitions, events and Somerset House Studios. Previously, she was PR Lead at the International Slavery Museum, part of National Museums Liverpool, where she led communications for major exhibitions and the museum’s £57m Waterfront Transformation Project. She has also worked with the National Portrait Gallery on its Inspiring People project and was an Account Director at Camron PR, working with clients including Airbnb, Design Miami, Clerkenwell Design Week, Ace Hotel and WeWork. Her work spans strategic communications, media relations, stakeholder engagement and supporting organisations through complex, sensitive and high‑profile projects. Sahar now works independently across the arts, culture and creative sectors, with recent projects including work for the Museum of Thackray in Leeds, FRAUD as part of Kingston Gallery, CLAY 1A and AstaGuru. She is also a Trustee of The Mosaic Rooms.
Jane Gentle is a PR and media training specialist with more than 25 years’ experience in communications and publishing. Most recently Deputy Communications Director at Penguin General, Penguin Random House, Jane led award‑winning campaigns for bestselling authors including Barack and Michelle Obama, Jamie Oliver, Dolly Alderton, Stanley Tucci and Bruce Springsteen. Alongside PR campaigns that make an impact, Jane offers media training that builds confidence and helps people communicate with clarity and purpose. In a previous role at Mumsnet, Jane was a media spokesperson who appeared on national and international TV and radio, giving her a unique perspective on both sides of the interview. She combines empathy for what it’s like to be in front of the camera with PR expertise to help people tell their stories, communicate clearly and feel prepared when they step away from the laptop and into the spotlight.
Grace Hilton completed an internship at Collective Wisdom from November 2025 to March 2026 as part of her module ‘Professional Practice Project’ within her BA Arts Management degree at Goldsmiths, University of London. After achieving her highest mark in this module and graduating this summer with First Class Honours, she has now joined the team part-time, assisting across a range of tasks and projects. Since joining Collective Wisdom, she has supported with work for a number of clients including Big Creative Academy, Simon Woodroffe, Mallika Kapur’s The Next Edition, Culture Croydon, The Stage Debut Awards, Theatro Technis, and The London Mozart Players.
Mari Siôn has spent almost two decades working across Wales’ creative sector, particularly in the world of books and literature. Her career has included roles with Literature Across Frontiers, Wales Literature Exchange and the Books Council of Wales, with a focus on bilingual communications and digital content. Since 2020, she has also developed her work in podcasting as both a presenter and producer. She currently produces Sut i Ddarllen (How to Read), a Welsh-language vodcast celebrating books, and the joy of reading, shortlisted in two categories at the 2026 British Podcast Awards.
September saw The Stage Debut Awards return for 2026, with Netflix as headline sponsor for the second year running. Approaching its 10th anniversary, the awards celebrated breakthrough performers and creatives making their first professional or West End debuts. Hosted by actor, writer and SNL UK star Hammed Animashaun, the ceremony brought together a strong line‑up of nominees and industry guests, including Ralph Fiennes, Robert Aramayo and Jordan Luke Gage. Award presenters included Tanya Reynolds, Marisha Wallace, Michael Rishawn and Tyrone Huntley, with Sting delivering a major performance during the evening as well as presenting one of the category awards.
Collective Wisdom have supported The Stage throughout the campaign, working on the shortlist announcement and managing press activity around the ceremony. seven members of the team were on site on Sunday to oversee media, coordinate interviews and ensure nominees had their moment in the spotlight, before issuing the winners announcement. Across the campaign we have secured more than 90 pieces of coverage, including interviews with nominees, with further features set to follow the winner announcement.
See the full list of winners here.
The Queen’s Reading Room Festival returned to Chatsworth, Derbyshire for its fourth year on 19 and 20 September. This year’s programme brought together an outstanding line-up of authors to celebrate books and ideas in a remarkable setting, providing up-close moments with writers, conversation, and chances to hear directly from some of today’s most compelling voices. Headliners included Clare Balding, Harlan Coben, Lee Child, Meg Mason, Elif Shfak, Louise Penny, and Ann Cleeves. Alongside more than 100 pieces of online coverage, we secured print coverage in Hello! Magazine featuring Cecelia Ahern, an interview with Reeta Chakrabarti in Country Life and a feature on the impact of the festival in Le Monde.
As we continue our work with Wrecsam2029 following the bid submission in August, the team has been supporting activity across the county. This month, the Stiwt Theatre marked its 100th anniversary with In A Hundred Years / Ymhen Can Mlynedd, a new bilingual production led by Bethan Jones and Daniel Lloyd of Theatr Clwyd. The centenary celebrations highlighted the theatre’s long-standing role as a cultural landmark, and coverage was secured across Arts Professional, LeaderLive, Golwg360, Broadway World, Nation Cymru, Newyddion S4C, and on Welsh language television channel S4C.
The month also saw commemorations for the 92nd anniversary of the Gresford Disaster. Wrexham Miners’ Project, an ambassador of the Wrecsam2029 bid, led a programme of exhibitions, storytelling and remembrance at the Miners Rescue Station, including Gresford: The View from the Pitch, which explored the relationship between Wrexham AFC and the Gresford Colliery community. Coverage appeared in The Leader, Nation Cymru, Wrexham.com, and BBC Radio Cymru.
The Wrecsam2029 team also travelled to Cardiff for an event at the Pierhead building, meeting Welsh politicians, cultural leaders and businesses to showcase the ambition behind the bid. Hosted by broadcaster and ambassador Siân Lloyd, the event featured speeches and performances from partners across Wrexham’s cultural sector. ITV Wales were on site throughout the day, resulting in a feature on the evening news and the story was covered in The Leader and The Herald.
Yesterday marked the end of Appledore Book Festival’s 2026 edition, which celebrated its 20th anniversary with more than 90 events across the distinctive North Devon village. Visitors enjoyed a wide range of events and talks from bestselling authors and national treasures such as Pam Ayres, Ben Miller, Caroline Quentin, Sophie Raworth and Liz Earle. As part of this year’s campaign, we partnered with Times+ on a competition offering two VIP tickets for the festival’s opening day, return London–Barnstaple GWR travel and a two‑night stay at The Seagate in the heart of Appledore. The competition generated 1,000 new newsletter sign‑ups for the festival, marking a significant boost to its audience reach.
Last week, English PEN, together with Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann and the Estate of Seamus Heaney, announced the shortlist for the PEN Heaney Prize 2026, for which Collective Wisdom is overseeing the PR strategy for a third year. The prize recognises a single‑author poetry collection of outstanding literary merit that engages with the impact of cultural or political events on human experience. The winner will be announced at the ceremony in Leeds on 1 December, judged by Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Vona Groarke and Stephen Sexton, with Mick Heaney as non‑voting chair.
So far coverage has been secured in BookBrunch, The Bookseller, Library Journal, The Poetry Society and Polish outlet Instytut Ksiazki.
Last week we supported Battersea Arts Centre in announcing Room 13, a new piece of experiential horror theatre created with Immersive Octopus and running from 16 October to 1 November. Designed as an intimate, spine‑tingling encounter, the production draws on BAC’s history, local folklore and paranormal stories to invite audiences into a sealed chamber uncovered after the 2015 fire. Blending immersive performance, special effects and a fictional narrative that plays with the building’s atmosphere, Room 13 offers a distinctly eerie experience in the lead‑up to Halloween. Coverage of the announcement appeared in The Stage, WhatsOnStage, Time Out and Broadway World.
Today marks the beginning of the British Library’s American Writers Week, a five‑day programme presented in association with Festival America. Running from 28 September to 2 October, the week marks the 250th anniversary of the establishment of the United States and brings together acclaimed authors including Joyce Carol Oates, Alison Bechdel, Armistead Maupin, Rabih Alameddine, Jeanine Cummins, Daniel Kraus, Viet Thanh Nguyen and Katie Kitamura. The programme explores the creative lives, histories and identities shaped by the United States, offering audiences the chance to hear directly from some of the most compelling voices in contemporary literature.
We were delighted to see that our former client, The Portico Library in Manchester, has secured £6.4 million from The National Lottery Heritage Fund in order for them to execute ‘Portico Reunited’. The project will bring together all three floors of the building for the first time in over a century via a lift and make the building accessible for the first time in its history. We worked with The Portico on a four-year marketing and comms strategy as a part of their funding bid, which will enable the creation of new spaces for reading, creativity, discovery and learning that are open to everyone.
Last but certainly not least, this month we celebrated Collective Wisdom’s second anniversary, sharing a wonderful evening with our team, clients and industry friends at our Southwark home. Following a spectacular first year, we have continued to grow and now stand at a team of 42, bringing together leading talent from across the cultural sector to deliver thoughtful, ambitious work. This year’s projects have been some of our most rewarding yet, and we’re excited to see what year three brings!
