New beginnings for Threshold Studios
Our co-founder and CEO Uzma Johal MBE is moving on after 25 amazing years at the helm of our organisation to take up a role with arts agency Counterculture.
Samantha Lindley becomes Chief Executive and will lead our agency through the next exciting phase of our creative journey.
Uzma leaves on a high – we’ve just produced and delivered our most successful Frequency Festival to date. Plus We’re an ACE NPO organisation with a clear remit to develop our ambitions and we have a new partnership in place with Visit Lincoln and lots of exciting plans to help revitalize the city’s creative and cultural visitor offer and experience.
Uzma founded Threshold back in 1999 with Barry Hale and together they laid the foundations for what would become a vital cultural agency enabling creative talent from all walks of life and all stages of careers to access talent development opportunities.
“After 25 years at the helm of Threshold, the time is right for me to pass the leadership baton onto Sam. I am immensely proud of Threshold’s work to date, its impacts and reach. In 2022, our senior team and the Board embarked on an intensive period of fundraising and business development to drive forward our future ambitions for growth. Foundations have been laid that will ensure Threshold takes a leading role in the development of digital placemaking initiatives in Lincoln and beyond. Threshold is proud to be an ACE National Portfolio Organisation and a key partner in the city of Lincoln’s ambitious Be Lincoln Town Deal Fund, under the Lincoln Connected project in partnership with Destination Lincolnshire. We have also just delivered our most successful Frequency Festival to date – all initiatives that Sam has been so pivotal in driving.
Threshold is entering a period of growth and is being re-imagined beyond its founders. Barry and I started the organisation nearly 25 years ago as a voluntary artist led group, championing creative media for social change, and over that time there have been seismic shifts in the cultural landscape. We have witnessed the rise of technology, social, environmental, and economic highs and lows, and new challenges for the communities we have always been committed to serve. The legacy of this journey is an exciting one; under Sam’s leadership, the organisation will continue to thrive and grow, and I know her passion and commitment for what we have achieved over the years will continue unabashed.”
Sam has been co-director of Threshold since 2017 and her input has enabled the agency to embark upon an exciting period of organizational development. Alongside taking up the CEO reins, she will remain as Creative Director, overseeing all projects including the Frequency Festival of Digital Culture.
Sam says: “I wish Uzma the very best for her new endeavours. Having worked together for such a long time I am hugely appreciative of her leadership, and friendship over the years and everything that brought us to this this new chapter for Threshold’s future.
As we start to develop the next iteration of Frequency for 2025 and the next exciting stages of the Lincoln Connected project, our legacy of commitment to cultural equity and more will continue on as Threshold seeks to innovate, collaborate, and create impact in place as we enter the next stage of our journey.”
We wish them both well in their new roles.
Read the full announcement here:
New leadership for Threshold Studios PR