Space for Exchange - Peer Perspectives: Daisy and Fliss  

25 September 2026

Space for Exchange is our free professional development programme in which peers who work with children and young people in the cultural sector are paired up over a five to eight-month process. We recognise the challenge for cultural education leaders to carve out a space to network and flexible opportunities to gain first-hand experience of different leadership cultures and creative practices. Space for Exchange gives participants permission to create this space and time, to learn, to reflect on our work, to share best practice with peers and build a stronger, more reflective cultural education sector together. 

In this blog series, we are sharing the experiences from the first cohort who took part in the pilot of the programme in 2025 – 2026. Together, they explored fundamental questions about their work — why they do what they do, what defines ‘good work,’ and who ultimately benefits — deepening both insight and practice. We’re delighted to share a glimpse into the connections and insights that emerged. 

Daisy Swift

Organisation: Fairbeats Music

Partner: Fliss Gush, Eastside

What I was hoping for?

A network of like-minded peers and a space to share and develop equitable, impactful practice together

What happened when I visited my partner

Fliss invited me to Eastside, where we had our first meeting and where we got into some juicy topics over lovely treats that Fliss had kindly provided … mostly we chatted about our respective organisations and programmes, and developing anti-oppressive and caring practices. It felt really good to share our experiences and approaches, and it was clear we had a shared ethos!

What happened when I hosted

Unfortunately, I couldn’t offer the same hospitality in return as Fairbeats works remotely but luckily Fliss and I live near each other so we went for a local coffee and chatted about what we’d like to do on our creative encounter (Plays? Exhibitions? Talks? Workshops? The possibilities were endless…), as well as what we could see of each other’s work, and we continued discussing aforementioned juicy topics from our first chat.

What surprised me was…

How well AND had matched us! It was immediately so easy to chat with Fliss; we had real alignment in our values and purpose, plus we lived near each other, which was a bonus.

The biggest challenge was…

Finding mutual availability for our creative encounters … we’re still trying …

The best thing about the experience was…

Invigorating chats with Fliss! And the opportunity to see some inspiring work through our creative encounters.

What we did for our creative encounter?

We went to see some incredible shows – A Grain of Sand and post-show talk at the Arcola, and Hadestown at the Lyric Theatre. And as a bonus we’re doing a collage social with Stick Together to round off the experience with a nice bit of participatory engagement J

One thing I’m taking from this exchange is...

A network of like-minded people with shared commitments and values. So pretty much what I wanted to get out of it, plus the bonus of a critical friend and soon-to-be collage buddy in Fliss.

The impact on the young people I work with is…

That the rich and thoughtful range of approaches and perspectives I’ve learnt from the cohort has prompted me to reflect on and develop my own practice. I always learn through listening, talking and reflecting so this was a really generative process for me.

Describe the experience in three words…

Engaging, reflective, enriching

Fliss Gush

Organisation: Eastside

Partner: Daisy from Fairbeats

What I was hoping for?

I wanted to connect with likeminded leaders in cultural education and gain insight into other organisations, their practice and challenges.

What happened when I visited my partner?

Daisy works for a small charity that all work remotely, so we actually met up in a coffee shop in South London. We realised that we lived really close together so it made it ideal to meet up on a work from home day.

We got a coffee and put the world to rights. We had loads of common interests and naturally found a flow where we discussed our roles, experiences and challenges.

What happened when I hosted?

When Daisy came to Eastside offices, she got the chance to meet my team and see our building. It was nice to bring context to what I did. I’d booked out a meeting room, bought a vegan sweet treat and we chatted away for an hour and a half or so, discussing options for our creative encounter, people we could connect each other with and finding commonalities.

What surprised me was…

How much common ground we found in our work, particularly around our interest in Anti-Oppressive Practice and care. It was helpful to have a place to discuss, learn and test ideas outside of my work place.

The biggest challenge was…

None really… but I suppose it was tricky to find a time for me to see Fairbeat’s work in action, but Daisy very generously put me in touch with colleagues from a previous work place, who I was able to connect with too. I then went to see a workshop run by Wigmore Hall which was super interesting and another connection made!

The best thing about the experience was…

Meeting like-minded leaders from a range of organisations, with time to discuss and get our teeth stuck into some of the knottier questions that face our sector.

One thing I’m taking from this exchange is...

Taking the time for reflection and my own creative practice is non-negotiable!

The impact on the young people I work with is… I found it hard to answer how

the programme has *directly* affected the children and young people I work with, but I certainly think the programme gave me the time and space for reflection on our work. It also gave me the confidence to ensure that this was happening internally at my organisation too.

Eastside is now carving out more time internally as a team to reflect and discuss various aspects of our work, e.g. Anti-Oppressive Approach; discussing project design, communications, recruitment. I am confident that this will lead to positive impact on the young people we worth with for the next academic year.

Describe the experience in three words…

Reflect, connect, energise!