I recently supported Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisations (GMCVO) to write up case studies related to their Ambition for Ageing project, a £10.2 million programme aimed at reducing social isolation amongst older people across Greater Manchester.
I loved working with the team at Manchester’s Portico Library, editing the exhibition labels for their new exhibition Fancy Pants. The exhibition presents titles from the Library’s collection alongside new artworks that examine how dress and costume’s relationships with gender, class, power and identity have always been complicated.
Pleased to *announce* I played a small part in lining up Manchester duo Jeuce to open for Escape-ism (Ian Svenonius of Chain and the Gang fame) at his London show.
September 13, come on down.
Sarah here, writing with some hard news. For a variety of reasons, we’ve decided it’s time to pull the shutters on Impolitikal.
The short version is that, despite our team putting a lot of energy into making Impolitikal happen, we simply don’t have the temporal or financial resources to grow beyond where we are now, or do justice to the vision of what we’d like to be.
I’m coordinating US folk legend Michael Hurley’s 2018 UK and Ireland tour. Tour announcement below — please email sarah@sarahillingworth.com with any media enquiries.
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American alt-folk icon to tour the UK & Ireland in June
Michael Hurley (a.k.a. Doc Snock) is a quiet legend, a wry conspirator in the stand-up of life. “The world is his front porch” and, come June, the American alt-folk icon’s vista will be a collection of very special venues in Scotland, England and Ireland.
The 76 year-old Hurley has been making music for nigh on 50 years. Having broken ground as part of the Greenwich Village folk movement of the ‘60s, he continues to perform his uniquely crafted — and vast — catalogue of tunes, performing odes to aliens, tea and women for spellbound audiences at home in the US and abroad.
I recently took on a full time role as Communications Manager for the Open University’s Learning and Teaching Innovation portfolio. The role sees me lead on internal communications for the University’s 450-person Translation department, which oversees the procurement, development and production, and delivery of the OU’s many distance learning modules.
I also lead on the University’s National Student Survey (NSS) campaign, and supporting work in relation to increasing student satisfaction and improving the student journey — as well as internal campaigns around commercial projects, including the OU’s FutureLearn offering and the DfE-funded Bringing Learning to Life project.
The role required a relocation, and I am now based in Milton Keynes (UK), the site of the University’s physical campus.
It was a pleasure to work with the team at Manchester’s The Physio Lounge, to review and reboot their social media activity and offer general communications support.
I can also personally vouch for the quality of their services!
A marketing brochure I helped to copy-edit earlier this year, that highlights the work the University of Manchester are doing in support of their Global Inequalities research beacon, has just been published.
Check it out, and if you’d like to be kept up to date on the Beacon click here and sign up to the mailing list.
I am currently helping to create content for, and edit the websites of two research projects out of the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester.
The first is titled Effective States and Inclusive Development, and focusses on the politics of international development — a particularly compelling topic in 2016. The project has been running for several years, and was just awarded funding for another three, so both its scope and depth are likely to expand.
I was recently interviewed by Martyn Pepperell for Junkee, about living life the freelance way. Read Digital nomads: How to do life your way — Q&A version below.
Sarah Illingworth 
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