In conversation with the team behind Sky Arts: Bringing Arts & Culture to the Screen

In September 2020, Sky Arts became free to air resulting in a 180% audience increase. Over the past year Freeview viewers of the channel have embraced the opportunity to watch Sky Arts and they now account for 62% of viewing to the channel. Joining us in conversation is Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts & Entertainment, Vanessa Woodard, Head of Partnerships, Sky Arts and Barbara Lee, Commissioning Editor – Entertainment with host, Elizabeth Day.

They’ll talk about the principles of Sky Arts, what the team did in response to the pandemic and specifically how they adapted to bring performances to screen when theatres and music venues were closed, using examples such as turning National Theatre productions Death of England: Face to Face and Romeo & Juliet from live in-person theatre productions into single dramas adapted for television. They’ll also share insights into how the team are working to aid cultural recovery in the arts industry and create communities beyond the screen with shows such as Sky Arts Book Club and Portrait Artist of The Week.

Death of England: Face to Face premiers Thursday 25 November 2021 on Sky Arts and Freeview Channel 11 but attendees will have the opportunity to preview the drama before the session. A link and access code will be shared ahead of the event. To receive a screening link, you must book a ticket by 14:00 on Friday 19 November.

Phil Edgar-Jones

Director of Sky Arts & Entertainment

Phil Edgar-Jones is responsible for driving the vision and strategy of the UK’s only dedicated arts channels, broadcasting 24 hours of content a day. He joined Sky as Head of Entertainment in 2012 and was appointed the Director of Sky Arts in 2014. He oversees all entertainment series in production across Sky’s channels – Sky 1 HD, Sky Living HD, Sky Atlantic, HD, Sky Arts HD and Sky Movies, and it was in this role that he commissioned a wealth of successful programmes for Sky Arts including Portrait Artist of the Year, Brian Johnson’s Life on the Road; Tate Britain’s Art Walks, Treasures of the British Library, The Glyndebourne Opera Cup and many more; and for Sky Max his team looks after A League of their Own; The Russell Howard Hour; Never Mind the Buzzcocks; Rob & Rom Vs among others.

Prior to that, Edgar-Jones was Creative Director of Remarkable Pictures (part of Endemol UK) where he oversaw Big Brother during its Channel 4 years and a number of entertainment projects including the first constructed reality show in the UK, The Salon as well as Space Cadets, Shattered and Seven Days on the Breadline.

Edgar-Jones has also worked at Ginger TV (Exec Producer, The Priory); Absolutely (exec Producing The Jack Docherty Show and working alongside writers such as Mitchell and Webb, Armstrong and Bain, Cecil and Riley); and before that on The Big Breakfast, The Word and The Sunday Show.

Vanessa Woodard

Head of Partnerships, Sky Arts

Vanessa joined the Sky Arts channel team in 2017 as Head of Partnerships. She is responsible for raising the profile and awareness of Sky Arts off air and within the wider arts community through partnerships and collaborations with arts organisations and institutions. Vanessa has recently launched the Sky Arts ‘Access All Arts’ week, a new initiative to support the arts in primary schools, has initiated joint projects with Coventry City of Culture and runs Sky Arts’ National Theatre Live sponsorship. In 2020 she was instrumental in delivering the channel’s Free to Air move.

Before taking on her current role Vanessa was the Brand Marketing Controller for Sky Arts, running the 2015 channel relaunch campaign, and prior to that held various positions at Sky across Marketing including in Sponsorship, Promotional Marketing, Project Management and Procurement. She has been at Sky for 17 years and prior to that was at Gillette (Procter & Gamble).

Barbara Lee

Commissioning Editor – Entertainment

Barbara joined Sky as a Commissioning Editor for Arts & Entertainment in 2012. Before that she produced entertainment and factual shows for all the major broadcasters. Her slate at sky includes award winning series A League Of Their Own & Roadtrip, Rob & Romesh Versus and There’s Something About Movies for Sky Max. She has commissioned a wide-ranging slate of shows for Sky Arts; documentaries including The Art of Drumming, Statues Redressed, Charles Hazlewood: Beethoven & Me, as well as Brian Johnson’s A Life on The Road, Landmark, Frank Skinner & Denise Mina’s Literary Roadtrip and Bafta winning Life& Rhymes.

Event Schedule:

16:55: Please join the webinar waiting room

17:00: Conversation begins

17:45: Attendee Q&A opens

18:00: Finish

How will the online event work?

This event will be live streamed via Zoom.us. Viewing details will be sent via your confirmation.

Attending participants will not be visible to others and will be muted throughout the session. After the talk, there will be an opportunity for audience members to ask their questions to the panel by using the Q&A feature.

This event is for existing WFTV members only. If you are not a member and would like to join, membership costs just £100 + VAT/yr , please click here or email admin@wftv.org.uk

At WFTV we’re really keen to ensure that all our events are accessible for everyone. So if you have any particular access needs, please can you let us know before an event and we will do our best to accommodate you. We would be grateful if you can give us as much notice as possible – please contact admin@wftv.org.uk