Partner Biographies
Shea Debnam Associates operates as a flexible partnership of consultants. We bring together tailor-made teams of specialists in response to the needs of individual projects or programmes. Our lead partners are:
Jim Shea
Originally from Southampton, Jim’s career has taken him to the north and the midlands as well as the south east of England and northern France. His early career was in sales management and marketing in the corporate sector, working particularly within the petrochemical and marine industries.
His practice as a visual artist led him to study Fine Art at North Staffordshire Polytechnic and a career in the arts. As Senior Assistant Keeper at the City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke on Trent in the late 1980s he organised touring exhibitions of contemporary visual art, artists’ residencies and commissions. As Public Art Officer for Brighton Health Care NHS Trust in the 1990s, Jim commissioned works of visual art, crafts, music and dance and established a fundraising trust comprising corporate bodies and high-profile individual givers.
As Senior Officer and Acting Director, Visual Arts and Media, at Arts Council England, South East from the late 1990s, he was responsible for the development of the visual arts infrastructure in the south east region at venues such as the De la Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, the Towner, Eastbourne, and the Turner Contemporary, Margate.
Jim brings to his consultancy work a current knowledge of management and organisational structures within the public and private sectors, informed knowledge of the performing as well as the visual arts and a strong conviction that organisations succeed best by investing in their people and embracing the interests their client groups. Jim’s areas of special interest are in change management, organisational development and, the arts and health.
Neil Debnam MA
Neil is an experienced organisational development and business planning consultant, with a background in arts development within socially inclusive contexts and with particular experience in income generation strategy development and in working in local authority and central government policy. Neil is an Associate Member of the Institute of Fundraising.
Neil grew up in Cornwall, where he studied and practiced as a visual artist. In the early 1990’s Neil’s academic studies took him to the University of Kent at Canterbury where he graduated BA (Hons) in History & Historiography of Art, then to Brighton where he gained an MA in European Art History from the University of Sussex.
In 1997, after a period working in the commercial insurance industry, Neil moved to the Lottery and Resources Department at South East Arts Board (SEAB) where he advised artists and arts organisations on the newly established Arts Lottery revenue and capital programmes. At SEAB, he went on to work as Planning Officer (Local Arts Development), where he led on work with voluntary and community organisations. As Strategy Officer at the newly created Arts Council England, South East office, he led on local authority-led partnerships and regional development and policy on arts and young people and cultural diversity, including leading delivery of the Celebrating Diversity strand of the regional New Audiences Programme.
Neil and Jim jointly set up independent consultancy Shea Debnam Associates in 2003, specialising in organisational development and financial and operational sustainability. Alongside this, Neil has also worked as an external grants assessor for the both Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the national DfES-funded Mediabox programme.