Ideas Master
York‘s Guild of Media Arts has a new Master from December 4th 2017: Ideas Group marketing director, Ann Gurnell takes up the reins to lead this 21st century Guild into its 3rd year. – Just another 657 years to catch up with some of the county’s oldest Guilds such as The Company of Merchant Adventurers*
Did you know UNESCO has a global creative cities network which leads creative thinking, cultural expression and leadership around the world. The best of the best to make the world a better place to live and work and thrive and learn?
Amongst those are the leaders of Media Arts – the 21st century arena where science and technology meet arts, culture and communication. It now touches on all our lives particularly where our mobile phones bring us engagement with music, video, games, TV, animations, film, theatre and brand communications and advertising in an instant. Just eight cities across four continents are privileged to be designated UNESCO Cities of Media Arts and York is one of them. As a result of the city’s designation York created the Guild in 2015 to support and nurture the city’s media arts talents.
Ann is a founding member with other Ideas Group colleagues: “It’s an honour to be part of the Guild and now its Master; a meeting of the past and future that York – and the UK - does so well. For example, York’s oldest Guild was behind the founding of Science City York for whom we did the original brand development and where we still have our offices. Equally, the city’s rich heritage and culture are brought to life for all audiences by digital age storytelling and our team has worked with Merchant Adventurers’ Hall and York’s Chocolate Story to do just that. This has put York on the global stage in digital arts and media leading to the UNESCO designation and creation of the Guild of Media Arts. The city has a real opportunity to develop a global reputation for its expertise, education and excellence in media arts and at Ideas Group, we look forward to working with members and partners in the city and beyond. Not least in our brand, design and experience arena developing inspiring solutions to engage with customers, audiences and stakeholders for our clients.”
“Ideas Group is very proud to be part of the Guild and have Ann leading them in 2018.” Ideas Group founder and managing director Nick Townend commented, “We’ve been based in York since 2003 and work with clients in York and around the world to develop their businesses, destinations and brands, so it’s great to be supporting the city and have the creative media arts skills expertise celebrated, recognised and encouraged.”
* The Company of Merchant Adventurers’ is also an Ideas Group client. Ann and the team support their marketing and rebranded their guild hall just this year.