Ruth Daniel (GB)

A former musician most notably playing with The Fall along with many other bands, who started a Manchester based record label at the age of twenty, then subverted the music industry through pioneering a music movement, Un-Convention, which brought people in the music infrastructure together across the world, to build new models and way of working - focussing on music as culture, rather than music as commerce. Ruth took Un-Convention to 25 countries and produced over 80 editions of the event.Ruth is now CEO and Artistic Director of In Place of War. In Place of War is a global organisation that uses creativity in places of conflict as a tool for positive change. We enable grassroots change-makers in music, theatre and across the arts to transform a culture of violence and suffering into hope, opportunity and freedom.In Place of War began with research into the transformative impact of arts in places of conflict, led by world-leading academics. This kick-started the creation of a new network of young creative change-makers spanning 24 countries in conflict. Today In Place of War works to support this network across three pillars: the creation of creative hubs; education and entrepreneurship and artistic collaboration.Ruth has pioneered the development of new creative hubs in a Congolese refugee camp; a prison in the war affected area of Uganda; with indigenous hip-hop artists in Uganda; on an island inhabited by single mothers in Lake Victoria; in Soweto, South Africa and in West Bank, Palestine. She has mobilised nearly 1,000 creative leaders across the world and was instrumental in creating In Place of War’s Creative and Social Entrepreneurial Programme, which has been delivered in thirteen countries across Africa and the Middle East. She has collected over £400,000 worth of music, studio, TV and film equipment to furnish new creative hubs.Along with her work at In Place of War, Ruth is an Artistic Advisor on the Futures Venture: Radical Independent Arts Fund, which awards radical artists funding for new work. Ruth and the trustees have awarded eleven grants to a diverse range of radical artists based across the UK. She sits as a Trustee at Comma Press, a publishing house based in Manchester. Comma’s Mission is to put the short story at the heart of contemporary narrative culture. She is also a Trustee at her local community radio station in Levenshulme, All FM.