Sunderland College’s Digital and Creative Faculty Director Sheree Rymer will play a key role in improving people’s lives across the city through arts and culture.
Sheree has joined the Board of Sunderland Culture as an independent trustee and will support the organisation’s founding partners in driving its ongoing growth and development.
Appointed Director to lead the college’s Digital and Creative provision in 2021, Sheree and her team have provided young people across Wearside with access to learning opportunities, experiences and careers, also helping to raise the city’s profile within the creative industries through her roles as Trustee for the Sunderland Empire and member of the City Learning Group.
Sheree said: “I’m honoured to have been appointed to support and represent Sunderland Culture as a Trustee. With my background in education and the creative arts, I wanted to further my relationships within the city to help find innovative ways to involve the people of Sunderland with cultural activities.
“The city has a rich heritage of nurturing exceptional talent, but for too long we have lost this expertise to other cities. Sunderland Culture gives us an opportunity to ‘train and retain’ the skills in the area and bring new diverse artistic works to the people. It will ensure we flourish and develop to become a leading city in celebrating and enhancing cultural life in the area that people value and enjoy. I truly wanted to be part of this.”
Sunderland Culture was founded through a partnership between Sunderland City Council, University of Sunderland and Sunderland MAC Trust. It is both a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity.
Its mission is to ‘improve life for everyone in Sunderland through culture’ and the organisation works across five venues owned by its partners. These include Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, National Glass Centre, Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, Arts Centre Washington, and The Fire Station.
Sunderland Culture also works with local, national and international artists and organisations to deliver a citywide cultural programme in community settings. It is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.
College governor and Manager of Young Asian Voices (YAV) Kamaswaredas Ramanathas (Ram) has also been appointed as an independent trustee.
Sunderland College, as part of college group EPNE, receives an Outstanding rating across the board in its latest Ofsted inspection.
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98% of our students progress to a positive destination
(*Destination data for Sunderland College students aged 16-18, academic year 2017/18).
Our achievement rates are well above the national average.
We are the College of the Year.
(*Top college nationally for BTECs, Pearson 2019)
100% of our HND and HNC students progressed to employment or further study.
(*Destination data, academic year 2016/17, HNC 19+)
We have recently invested £50 million in our facilities.
