22
Oct
Harrogate charity with South American connections creates new leadership roles
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A Harrogate charity that works with people with disabilities in the UK, Peru and Ecuador has announced a new leadership structure to help strengthen its impact and make it more sustainable over the long term.
Artizan International has appointed a new chief executive officer (CEO) and an operations and finance officer (OFO), supported by an overseas lead role based in South America.
Artizan’s programmes support more than 50 young disabled adults each week in Harrogate through training, social inclusion and creative enterprise.
The charity's centres in Santo Domingo province in Ecuador and Arequipa, Peru provide work opportunities to adults with disabilities, who make items that Artizan International sells online and in its shop on Oxford Street in Harrogate.
Artizan International's shop in Harrogate sells dozens of items made by adults with disabilities in South America.
The new CEO, Liz Cluderay, has worked with Artizan since 2017, and has played a key role in growing the charity’s Harrogate services from two weekly therapeutic craft sessions into a vibrant community hub. Today, Artizan’s activities include a full timetable of creative sessions, community events, training enterprises, school partnerships and the popular training café on Cambridge Road in Harrogate town centre.
Ms Cluderay will focus on strengthening partnerships, sharing Artizan’s inclusive model internationally, and creating new opportunities for creative empowerment around the world.
Staff and students from Artizan International standing beneath the 'HARROGATE' letters made by the charity that are installed as public art on Cambridge Place in Harrogate.
Sarah Davis has been appointed operations and finance officer. Since joining Artizan four years ago, she has transformed the organisation’s systems, strengthening governance, finance and operational processes. Her work has created a strong and sustainable framework to enable Artizan to grow.
Terry Wilcox, chair of Artizan International's trustees, said:
This evolution marks an important milestone in Artizan’s journey, strengthening our ability to deliver life-changing creative opportunities for disabled people in the UK and in South America. Our new model reflects our values as a charity, ensuring that collaboration, innovation and sustainable growth remain at the heart of everything we do.
After years of dedicated service and visionary leadership, our directors have laid the foundations for this next chapter. This new structure builds on that legacy and positions Artizan to meet the opportunities and challenges of the future with clarity and focus.
Our mission remains unchanged: creativity, inclusion, and opportunity remain at the heart of everything we do, wherever we are working.
We are committed to continue the incredible work of our founder, Susie Hart, and build on her legacy of creating empowering opportunities for people with disabilities across the world.
Susie Hart MBE founded the charity as CraftAid International in 2013 after living for 10 years in Tanzania, where she founded the social enterprise Neema Crafts. The charity's name was changed to Artizan International in 2019.
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