We help creative and cultural organisations understand their numbers, develop their finance strategy and make confident decisions, from team training and coaching through to finance leadership.
Working across the creative and cultural industries: performing arts, screen and digital, creative tech, and the charities among them.
At The Clarity Studio, we believe creative and cultural leaders should never have to choose between artistic ambition and financial confidence.
Too often it feels like exactly that choice. The numbers become the thing that says no, or the thing that quietly worries you, rather than the thing that helps you decide.
That is the gap we work in. Not more spreadsheets, and not jargon, but clear thinking about money for people who lead brilliantly and did not come from finance.
Same organisation. Same money. A completely different relationship with it.
Whether you need end to end finance support or a sounding board, someone a leader can think out loud with and talk the numbers through without judgement, the aim is always the same: less worry, clear decisions, and the confidence that you are not missing anything.
Four ways of working, from building your team's confidence to leading the finance function alongside you. Step up or down as your organisation needs.
Practical workshops that give your people the confidence to read the numbers, ask better questions and hold their own with funders, trustees and auditors.
Guided group programmes for leaders who want regular, structured support and the reassurance of peers who understand the sector.
Coming soonFor leaders who want to feel genuinely on top of the finances: a private space to work through the numbers, the worries, the opportunities and the decisions.
Senior, hands-on finance direction, alongside you or running the whole function: board-ready reporting and insight, planning and strategy, funding and tax reliefs, transforming your finance systems and team, and the difficult decisions.
Not sure which is right? That is a normal place to start. Most conversations begin with what you are facing now, and we work out the rest together.
You are here to make work that matters: seasons and shows, screen and games, platforms and products. The money behind that work moves differently from any other sector, and we understand exactly how.
Whether your Arts Council and funder reporting swallows weeks, your forecasts are more hope than model, or your board papers raise more questions than they answer, we help you build finance that actually works, and then run it.
"Bringing real financial rigour to organisations driven by something other than money."
The Clarity Studio is led by Sara Vening, a Chartered Management Accountant, EMCC-accredited coach and Fractional Finance Director with three decades in finance.
Her career runs from Northern Rock and the landmark sale to Virgin Money, through finance leadership at Virgin Money Giving and the Virgin Money Foundation, to a CFO role at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, where finance and culture properly met.
When you appoint The Clarity Studio, I am your lead partner. The thinking, the advice and the accountability sit with me. Five promises, made to every client:
A first conversation is free, informal and without obligation. Bring a worry, a decision or an opportunity, and we will help you see it clearly.
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