Mary-Helen Young

Mary-Helen works with local authorities, developers, landowners and communities to secure the future of cultural assets, infrastructure and public spaces. When Bristol City Council withdrew core arts funding, she built the case for a new Bristol Cultural Investment Model that got it reinstated. Her work on a feasibility study for a new Bristol Music Fund, which invests a fee on all ticket sales back into the music ecosystem, won the Music Cities Award for Music Policy in 2026.

She's written the night-time strategies for Camden and Hackney, and led the Woolwich Night Time Enterprise Zone, which produced the UK's first night workers' handbook.

She is passionate about giving young people a voice in planning nighttime activities on high streets and in city centres – and has collaborated with fellow Born or Made members, We Rise, on two projects. One of these won a New London Architecture Young Londoners Award in 2024 for a youth-led vision for Brixton’s community spaces.

Working solo means she's usually the strategist, the finance person and the delivery lead all at once — which is exactly why she values a room of people who'll tell her what she's missed.