Past projects
Tourism and travel
How it began
Sharon’s interest in tourism began back at university, where she studied languages. She spent her college vacations working for an American educational travel organisation, accompanying American and Canadian teachers and their high school student groups on cultural tours of Europe. She was soon asked to spend summer breaks working in the company’s Paris office overseeing other tour managers who were on the road – there were up to 60 tours going through Europe at any one time, each with around 40 young people and their teachers! She also spent one memorable summer in Rome as head of Italy operations, which turned out to mean sipping drinks in baroque piazzas with the teachers whilst the students were confined to writing up their notes on the day’s educational activities… In spare moments between term time studies and university holidays, Sharon was asked to design specialised tours for choirs and also students of art history.
Recent projects
Sharonarts has been involved in recruiting and training new tour managers for another educational travel organisation and writing the resultant evaluation report and blueprint. Sharonarts was also commissioned to write educational background notes on various European destinations including Italy, Rome, London, Rothenburg and Munich.
Sharonarts designed and delivered a group tour to Trier and the Moselle region in Germany, focusing on the magnificent Roman monuments to be found there and the equally splendid Riesling wines.
Sharonarts also set up a tour to Ponte de Lima in Northern Portugal, which combined walking, port tasting, opera and chamber music, this latter performed by the London Bridge Ensemble.
Ponte de Lima, Portugal (Paul Burton)
Arts projects
Sharon founded the Visions Festival back in 1994 partnered by the University of Brighton and was its artistic director for several years. The festival aimed to champion contemporary puppetry and animated theatre, then seen by many as a “poor relation” to mainstream theatre. Under Sharon’s direction, the festival helped to discover Improbable Theatre (who later went on to create the acclaimed Shockheaded Peter). The festival also brought many international companies to the UK for the first time. Sharon’s role, in addition to artistic direction, was to secure funds for the festival, oversee marketing and to make links nationally and internationally.
Quijote (Don Quixote), Bambalina
Titelles at the Visions
Festival
Sharon has founded or helped coordinate several festivals and arts events in Richmond, outer London. These included the Richmond Festival which spanned several art forms including theatre, classical music, jazz and the visual arts. Also in Richmond, on behalf of the local council, Sharon set up and coordinated the early editions of Leap into Dance, a festival featuring contemporary dance and ballet. This rapidly grew into a popular annual festival for all London dance enthusiasts. The first outdoor street arts events on the then newly-opened Richmond Riverside area were coordinated by Sharonarts in partnership with CrowdPullers.
Sharonarts has delivered training, lecturing and mentoring for several arts administration and management courses from diploma to Masters level and also occasional lectures on arts subjects as varied as twentieth century French drama or Diaghilev and the Russian Ballet.
Sharonarts has set up international touring for theatre companies based in Germany and Austria and coordinated fundraising and marketing for a theatre project at Vienna’s Natural History Museum.
