About
There is a quality of attention that becomes possible when people feel genuinely seen, when there is space to think slowly, and when creativity is invited into the room.
In that space, something opens up. Ideas that felt stuck begin to move. People connect with what they actually value. Groups who felt locked in conflict discover they have been speaking the same hope in different languages.
This is what I work towards, in classrooms, in strategy sessions, in one-to-one conversations. Not a fixed destination, but a set of conditions. When those conditions are right, change doesn't have to be imposed. It emerges from within.
I am Ollie Briggs: educator, artist, coach, evaluator, and organisational development practitioner. For fifteen years I have worked at the intersection of creativity, learning and change, as a teacher, as the founder of a youth arts organisation, as a researcher, and as a consultant to arts, education and community organisations across the UK.
My practice is rooted in the belief that creativity is not a luxury or a subject. It is a way of being with complexity. It is how we make meaning, how we imagine differently, and how we build the kinds of relationships that can hold real change.
What connects all of my work
Whatever the context, the same conditions matter:
Connection to self - clarity about values, capacity for honest reflection, a sense of meaning in the work.
Connection to others - relational trust, genuine dialogue, the ability to hold complexity together.
Connection to the wider context - understanding the systems we're working in, and imagining how they might be different.
When these are present, organisations develop strategies that actually reflect their values. Leaders find sustainable ways of holding their roles. Schools become places where staff and pupils are genuinely curious and alive to learning.
When they're absent, even the best intentions get stuck.
How I work
I draw on arts-based and participatory methods, visual mapping, making, movement, creative dialogue, that invite ways of thinking beyond the purely analytical or verbal. These aren't icebreakers. They surface what surveys and spreadsheets can't: the felt sense of a culture, the unarticulated values of a group, the imaginative possibility of a different way forward.
I am a certified Level 7 coach, an experienced evaluator, and a Visiting Lecturer at UCL/IOE and Research Fellow at Goldsmiths University. I bring rigour as well as warmth, and I am as comfortable with strategic frameworks as with a room full of curiosity and Post-it notes.
Who I work with
Schools and education settings - supporting teachers, school leaders and creative practitioners to develop arts-rich, creative approaches to curriculum, pedagogy and school culture, including staff wellbeing. [Education Consultancy →]
Arts, community and charity organisations - facilitating strategy, culture-building, values work and organisational development for charities, CICs and community groups rooted in social change. [Organisational Development →]
Leaders and practitioners - one-to-one and team coaching for educators, arts leaders, founders and practitioners navigating complexity, change or the weight of caring work. [Coaching →]
Projects and programmes - designing and delivering creative, participatory evaluation for arts, learning and social justice projects. [Evaluation →]
"One of the most powerful moments came when we realised, through Ollie's facilitation, that many of the 'conflicts' we felt were actually shared hopes expressed in different languages. That insight changed how we listen and move forward together." — Director, Neurodivergent-led Arts Charity, South East
"Ollie's warm and open approach was invaluable in helping me work through my priorities regarding ways to move forward in my career. His approach empowered me to find value in my work, to allow this value to lift my expectations for the future, and to help me formulate concrete plans."
The underpinning
For those who want to go deeper: my practice is informed by emergent strategy (adrienne maree brown), feminist and anti-colonial pedagogy, critical arts education, and somatic and arts-based approaches to knowledge. I hold a commitment to justice not as a fixed ideology but as an ongoing orientation, towards equity, towards voices most often unheard, and towards building conditions where everyone can think and act with greater freedom.
I also write and make music. You can find my research and writing at Research and Teaching, and my sound work at Sound.
Organisations and people I have worked with include: See Me Play, The Line, Arts in Ramsgate, Neurodivergent Friends Thanet, Essex Youth Services, Quench Gallery, Everyday Plastic, University of Illinois, Goldsmiths University, Kings College London, NSEAD, Institute of Education UCL, Autograph
Want to talk about what might be possible?
