Introducing our new Director, Dan Kelly

We’re pleased to share that Dan Kelly, was elected to our Board at our AGM this year. Here, for Trustees, Week, we speak to Dan about his co-operative journey, and why he’s joined us.

“Like a lot of people in this sector, I do about five jobs. Being fundraising and development coordinator for Two Queens, an artist-run gallery and studios in Leicester is my main thing. I also work as an associate with CASE, the East Midlands co-operative development agency. 

My involvement with co-ops began about five years ago through my work at Two Queens. We’d been running since 2012, but a few years ago we faced circumstances that made the organisation quite precarious. I was looking for solutions that would safeguard our long-term sustainability – how we could stay open, stay in our building, and make the organisation stronger.

Through that process I discovered the potential of co-operatives. Becoming community-owned could give us the resilience and accountability we needed. In 2023 we converted to a Community Benefit Society and became a co-op. Later that year we ran a community share offer, raising £150,000 as the first step in a longer-term plan to buy the freehold of our building and develop it as a strong community asset.

For Two Queens, becoming a co-op has been transformative. We’d always operated in a co-operative spirit, involving our studio holders in decisions, but we weren’t formally accountable to them. Converting to a Community Benefit Society meant stepping back as directors and opening the organisation up to genuine community ownership.

It might look like giving away power, but actually it’s what made the organisation stronger. Instead of four directors, we now have 250 members who care deeply about Two Queens and have literally invested in it. That combination of financial and emotional attachment has made us far more resilient and ambitious.

That share offer was how I first connected with Co-op and Community Finance (CCF). I spoke to Tim (CCF Business Development Manager) a lot during the process, and he introduced me to others in the movement, including Jo White at Co-op Futures, who we worked with on the project. CCF also connected us to the Reach Fund and provided equity match funding on our share offer through Community Shares ICOF. It was a real eye-opener to the role co-operative finance can play.

That experience made me increasingly aware of the value of CCF’s work and why it matters. When the opportunity came up to join the board, I wanted to get involved.

Part of what I hope to bring is a perspective from the arts and culture sector. I want to build understanding and confidence in social investment within the arts – and through CCF, help more organisations see co-ops and co-op finance as a route to long-term sustainability. Arts organisations often default to grant funding and have relatively little awareness of social investment or co-operative finance. I’d like to build confidence in the sector that these forms of finance can be viable and powerful tools.

I also think it’s important to bring in new perspectives. There’s a lot of conversation in the movement about succession planning and about growing the co-operative economy again after years of decline. I’m not the youngest person around, but I’m part of a generation that’s just becoming immersed in co-ops – including through the Barefoot training course – and I see my role as helping to carry that momentum forward.

I think there’s a huge untapped potential for co-operative models in the visual arts, and part of my motivation for joining CCF is to help make that potential better known.”

We’re delighted to have Dan on board and are excited to hear more from his perspective.