“To an Arts person like me, early Milton Keynes seemed an enticingly blank playlist. Everything needed doing, and if the city didn’t offer what you wanted you felt it was OK to just pitch up and make it happen. Others were doing the same so it wasn’t long before we were all collaborating, promoting and supporting each other’s activities, building momentum and ambition for anything creative, bold, diverse, engaging and fun. At the time, we didn’t realise that our energy and hunger would be a deal maker when Arts funders were deciding if they should invest in our city, but so it later proved.”

Up to 1992 my MK arts activities were community grass roots (part-time working musician, volunteer promoter of concerts and workshops, guitar club founder, Stables volunteer and supporter, general audience member. My inner Arts agitator didn’t find a more robust platform until I started managing the Stables in 1994, so it’s since then that I’ve been at my most meddlesome in helping to develop the sector.