LAWRENCE BECKO & JENNIFER RAVEN
ABOUT OUR PARTNERSHIP
We are an experienced research, evaluation and consultancy partnership working across the UK and internationally. We specialise in inclusive, non-extractive and participatory research methods. We have worked across performing, visual and digital arts, craft, heritage and nature conservation. We are comfortable operating in urban, rural, natural and digital contexts, and have worked across multiple territories: Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and North Africa, Central and Southern Africa and Asia.
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EQUITY, SOCIAL IMPACT & COMMUNITY ACTION
Specialists in inclusive, reflective and non-extractive evaluation and impact measurement
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CREATIVITY, CULTURE & ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
Published authors specialising in participant voice, community co-creation and shared governance
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CLIMATE, WELLBEING & NATURE CONNECTION
Passionate advocates for climate action who make environmentally conscious music and art ourselves.
Our work
About us
We have been working together for over a decade, co-leading research projects, developing community programmes, delivering consultancy and building organisations from the ground up.
Lawrence Becko BA MA
Consultant, facilitator, writer and designer
Lawrence is a creative consultant specialising in strategic mapping, community consultation, creative methodology design and communications. He speaks three languages and is and experienced writer and editor, who has published extensively on the subject of participant voice and democratic participation. He co-authored - with Jennifer - The Youth Voice & Participation Handbook for the Creative Cultural Sector (2020), and Arts Council England’s national public guidance on embedding participant voice into young people’s programmes. He evaluated Leeds 2023’s approach to artistic co-production, publishing a legacy toolkit for the sector, and co-authored British Council’s bi-lateral Next Generation Poland research project into young adults’ attitudes and behaviours, working with UK and Polish universities.
Cultural strategy and place-based consortia
Lawrence has extensive experience researching and writing cultural strategies, and convening place-based consortia. He facilitated the Fenland Culture consortium on behalf of Arts Council England, leading to a successful Place Partnerships bid in 2024. He consulted on Cambridge City Council’s cultural strategy, and produced the Cultural Education Strategy for East Cambridgeshire. He has convened and facilitated several regional networks, including the East Anglia Youth Voice Development Consortium on behalf of Norfolk & Norwich Festival, and Connected London, a peer learning network for Local Cultural Education Partnerships on behalf of A New Direction.
Organisational development and charity governance
Lawrence has further expertise in organisational development, change management and charity governance. He has delivered capacity-building consultancy to grass-roots organisations on behalf of Arts Council Wales and the School for Social Entrepreneurs, focusing on Black-, Asian-, migrant- and disability-led charities, including Urban Circle, Taking Flight Theatre and Centrala Space. Lawrence is a former Chair of Fairbeats, the refugee music charity founded by Jennifer, and Soundcastle, a music and wellbeing charity. He is a former Vice Chair and fundraiser for Kinetika Bloco, for whom he secured Arts Council England Catalyst funding, as well as NPO Status for the first time in 2018.
Nature connection and climate action
Lawrence is a passionate advocate for climate action, and brings extensive experience in applying community participation methodologies to natural heritage, wildlife and conservation settings. With Jennifer, he worked for two years advising the Norfolk Wildlife Trust Wilder Learning Team on engagement and participation, as part of a National Lottery Heritage Fund backed trust-wide capacity-building programme. With Jennifer, Lawrence led the design and co-creation process for Norfolk & Norwich Festival’s Common Ground Guidebook, an interactive promoting collaboration between young people, artists and natural heritage sites. Prior to this, Lawrence headed up public engagement at the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, bringing Antarctic cultural and natural heritage to life for audiences of all ages across the UK, including through a major partnership with the British Science Association and the British Antarctic Survey Archives which are inscribed in UNESCO’s Living Memory of the World. In his younger years, Lawrence volunteered at the UN World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, where he was received training in ocean biodiversity mapping.
Lawrence’s love of nature is reflected in his own artistic career: he is a published composer, music producer and multimedia artist who has been creating work about the climate crisis for 20 years. His music has soundtracked a global MTV campaign and featured across the BBC, Sky Arts and award-winning dramas including Grey's Anatomy and Vampire Diaries. completed a international residency in Montreal, a SPILL Residency and presented work for Metal. He is an avid allotment gardener with membership and site management experience.
Writing and communications
With a first-class degree in English and French Studies from the University of Birmingham and an MA in Media Production from Birmingham City University, for which he received an AHRB award, Lawrence is a highly skilled writer and visual communicator, creating high quality infographics, guides and learning resources for the likes of British Council and UNESCO. He created a leadership and wellbeing programme for the British Library, producing a series of webinars for the Living Knowledge Network, which were shared across European library networks. As the Communications Strategist for Every Copy Counts, he designed and executed a DfE-backed behaviour change campaign across UK schools and the wider education sector. He is a Level 7 Accredited Coach supporting creatives from early career stages to executive level.
Jennifer Raven BMus MMus
Evaluator, researcher and social impact charity founder
Jennifer is a highly experienced evaluator and researcher who specialises in ensuring that creative projects embed social justice, community action, and environmental connection. Jennifer’s experience spans the cultural, environmental, and community sectors. She has spent over a decade leading participatory evaluations for cultural institutions, orchestras and an extensive range of grass-roots, social impact charities. She is committed to using evaluation and research to help shift power away from traditional institutions and place it directly into the hands of local communities. Her expertise lies in designing accessible, non-extractive evaluation methods that ensure marginalised groups have a genuine say in how projects are run and handed over.
Evaluation on a local and global scale
Jennifer currently leads our place-based evaluation work with Peterborough Presents (the CPP led by Nene Park Trust). She is a lead evaluator for Arts Council England’s Creativity Collaboratives legacy programme across UK schools, and was a consultant on Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Evidence and Learning Scheme. Internationally, she authored the British Council World Voice Legacy Evaluation Report (2020) and co-authored the landmark Next Generation Poland research report with Lawrence. She led a landmark evaluation for Music Generation Ireland, and evaluated Action for Hope's programmes across Lebanon and Jordan.
She is well known for evaluating and advising on cutting edge music education initiatives. She led the evaluation for Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s Changemakers programme exploring disability and diversity in classical music, and with Dr Anna Bull, she devised, researched and wrote The Music Lab, a toolkit for embedding participant voice into music provision. She has produced evaluations for Clod Ensemble, Multi-story Orchestra, Wigmore Hall and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's Resound.
Early years creativity
Jennifer has specialist research interests in early years creativity. She advised the Arts Council England, Nesta and the National Foundation of Youth Music on early years policy, and is the lead researcher on Energiser, a multi-year national action research programme funded by Youth Music.
Charity directing, mindful operations and governance
Jennifer is the Founder and CEO of Fairbeats, a music charity working with young refugees, asylum seekers, and their families, giving her a deep understanding in embedding democratic governance, shared leadership, and participant voice into the heart of community organisations. She has successfully steered the organisation to investment from the Arts Council England, National Lottery Community Fund and the National Foundation for Youth Music. As the former Deputy Director of Sound Connections, she worked across the UK with community groups, cultural venues, arts organisations, Bridge organisations and Local Cultural Education Partnerships. At both Fairbeats and Sound Connections, Jennifer championed human-centred approaches to HR and operations, embedding wellbeing and reflective practice into the DNA of her teams. She completed the Inner MBA, developed by the University of California Berkeley and MindfulNYU.
Nature connection and sustainability
With Lawrence, she has advised Norfolk Wildlife Trust Wilder Learning and co-led the research process for the Common Ground Guidebook for Norfolk & Norwich Festival. From 2023 to 2024, she managed the community environmental initiative Greener and Cleaner in Bromley, where she designed frameworks to track household behaviour change, sustainable living practices, and how practical green steps can reduce eco-anxiety and improve local well-being.
Jennifer holds a first-class BMus in Music from the University of Bristol and an MMus in Music with Distinction from Trinity Laban, and is a core member of Planet Birdsong and Conference of Birds, a music-driven global citizen science initiative which promotes conservation and biodiversity by enhancing understanding of the beauty and diversity of birdsong around the world. Her early background includes environmental campaigning for the Surrey Wildlife Trust and running an ethical café in London, giving her a practical understanding of sustainable local food economies.