The Challenge Group and Young Challenge Group

Our panels of industry experts & young people offering programme advice and guidance

• David Parker (Chair)

  David Parker is a consultant specialising in research and evaluation in the arts and education sectors. He has a longstanding interest in education programmes designed to unlock the creative potential of young people and has contributed to a range of studies that seek to explore new methods of measuring and valuing creative development in schools. He has over 20 years’ experience as Director of Research at Creative and Cultural Skills, Director of Research for the Arts Council England’s Creative Partnerships programme, Head of Research at the British Film Institute and as Research Fellow at Kings College London based in the School of Education.

• Dinah Bornat

  Dinah Bornat is a co-founder and Director at ZCD Architects. The practice is design lead and has a particular focus on projects with a social purpose. Dinah is a Mayor’s Design Advocate, a design review panel member for Harrow Council and has numerous advisory and consultancy roles focusing on urban design around children and young people. She has published and continues to produce research in this area.

• Jacqueline Rose

  Senior Manager Culture & Creative Industries. Jacqueline Rose joined the Mayor of London’s Culture Team in 2005 and is responsible for strategy and major programmes. Jacqueline has delivered large scale cultural events across the capital and internationally. One notable achievement was as Director of Big Dance, the world’s largest dance festival from 2006 to 2016 which was a keynote cultural participation programme for London 2012. Jacqueline was seconded to the BBC in 2015 to set up Get Creative - a new public engagement programme. Previously, she was a senior dance policy maker at Arts Council England.

• James Banks

  James Banks is Director of London Funders, the membership network for funders and investors in London’s civil society, who aim to equip funders from all sectors with the knowledge and networks they need to fund a sustainable voluntary and community sector, to meet the needs of Londoners. James has worked and volunteered in London’s civil society sector for nearly 20 years, and immediately prior to joining London Funders was Chief Executive of Greater London Volunteering, the membership body for social action charities, where he worked with the Mayor’s office to successfully bid for London to be recognised as European Capital of Volunteering in 2016.

• Peter deGraft-Johnson

  The Repeat Beat Poet is Peter deGraft-Johnson, a Hip Hop Poet and broadcaster, performing across the UK and internationally at venues including the Southbank Centre and Ronnie Scotts in London, and alongside writers like Margaret Atwood, Salena Godden, and Roger Robinson. He is also the co-founder of the Hip Hop open mic night Pen-Ting, a house emcee with Hip Hop label and jam night Imaginary Millions, and the host of multi-award nominated Lunar Poetry Podcast, which is archived in the British Library. In 2019 Peter was been nominated for a Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship, selected by BBC 1Xtra and the Roundhouse for their Poetry Collective programmes, and in 2020 was an Obsidian Foundation fellow. In 2021 Peter was an inaugural writer-in-residence at the Library of Africa & The African Diaspora in Ghana, and his debut book A Testament To Life & Death will be released in February 2022.

  Outside of his creative work, Peter also works as a researcher and consultant, and has worked with BBC Radio, BBC Comedy, and A New Direction.