Penny Mills

Penny is Co-Director of Culture People CIC and an experienced evaluator, consultant and facilitator specialising in cultural programmes that place communities, participation and inclusion at their heart. She works with cultural organisations, local authorities, funders and place-based partnerships to develop meaningful evaluation frameworks that balance strategic ambition with practical delivery, helping organisations understand what has changed, why it matters and how learning can inform future practice.

Penny has developed evaluation frameworks and led evaluation programmes for initiatives including the Mayor of London's London Borough of Culture, LEEDS 2023, Creative Barking and Dagenham, Luton Culture, Ashfield Creates and a range of National Lottery Heritage Fund projects. Her work frequently focuses on co-creation, accessibility, community engagement, capacity building and cultural participation, using mixed-method approaches to capture both measurable outcomes and the stories behind them.

Previously, Penny worked at organisations including The Royal Court Theatre, Edinburgh International Film Festival and Edinburgh International Festival. She joined Audiences London in 2006 before becoming Consultancy Director at The Audience Agency, where she led consultancy and evaluation work with cultural organisations across the UK.

Having started out with a degree in Archaeology and Anthropology, she strayed into marketing and communications and even contemplated life as a sailor. She has since come full circle, applying her curiosity about people, culture and communities to help organisations better understand the places and audiences they serve. Penny holds an MA in Cultural Policy and Management from Heriot-Watt University and is currently studying Public Policy Analysis through the London School of Economics.

Areas of expertise

• Audience Development & Participation

• Engagement strategy

• Evaluation and impact