Lori Anderson - Gamekeeper turned poacher

Creative Chit Chat - Dundee

5 weeks into a year-long role as director of Creative Dundee I chat to Lori about her journey, what interested her in the role and what she wants to achieve. Starting out, Lori’s journey has a bit of uncertainty that then led to working in the financial sector. After rising through the company she ended up being made redundant along with the rest of her department. This lead her to take stock and make a complete career change with the Nation Lottery Heritage Fund. She spent 9 years there supporting and getting involved in many amazing projects and gaining what would prove to be invaluable experience for the future. Lori said people have described the transition in her career as “gamekeeper turned poacher” as she went to work for organisations for whom the securing of funding is vitally important. The biggest of these was ‘Collective’ a project regenerating the Old City Observatory and surrounding area at the top of Calton Hill in Edinburgh. It was a 9-month role that turned into a 5 year position as she saw the project through to completion. Only being 5 weeks into the post when I chatted with Lori it was maybe unfair to ask what her ambitions are for the next 12 months. Her position is massively important for the city of Dundee and the creative community. It's only fair that there's a good period of understanding the lay of the land and maintaining the current programme before creating any new challenges. I was really pleased to hear that she received a ‘warm and fuzzy’ welcoming by Dundee and I’m looking forward to seeing what the Creative Dundee team achieve over the next 12 months and beyond. Lori’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/LoriVAnderson Collective - https://www.collective-edinburgh.art/ Creative Dundee - https://creativedundee.com