the creatives

dolan hewison

After a successful career as a musician Dolan moved into events beginning with the famous Northern Quarter Festivals in Manchester in 1998. Since then he has worked as an events and production manager on many leading events of the last decade including Manchester Commonwealth Games 2001, Manchester Pride 2001 - 2007, BBC Music Live, Liverpool 08’ Peoples Launch, National Veterans Day and Manchester International Festival. 

In this time Dolan has developed a reputation for delivering site specific performances working in a creative and consultative way with Artists from around the world. Dolan is expert at dealing with the challenging nature of the work bringing a professional but light touch to his approach. He has staged town halls being turned into giant fountains, car parks into dance theatres and suspended aerialists from Victorian baths.

From 2001 - 2007 Dolan also worked as Director of GMMAZ (Greater Manchester Music Action Zone) LEading it from its inception to its current status as one of the most innovative organisations in its sector. This has led him to act as a consultant for other arts companies on organisational development, managing creative teams & fundraising, as well as an advisor to educationalists and the music industry.

karen jupp

Karen began her work in event management through her involvement in the local band scene of the 1990’s working at the renowned Manchester music venue, The Roadhouse. 

After leaving The Roadhouse Karen became involved in GMMAZ working alongside Dolan to set up the company and initial programming. During her time there as a Project Manager she was responsible for creatively producing the huge participative music programme the company delivered culminating in two large-scale music and multi media performances at the Bridgewater Hall in 2006 and the Lowry in 2007, which involved over 2000 children and young people.

Whilst working at GMMAZ, Karen simultaneously worked as an independent event manager and has built a strong reputation in the field. Karen’s eye for detail and strong leadership skills have seen her take on significant roles in national events including In The City, Liverpool Capital Of Culture (Launch event, Portrait of a Nation event and La Machine’s Spider, Antony Gormley’s One & Other and Virgin Media’s Speed of Light.

paula testa

Paula began her work in events during university where she gained work experience on the Commonwealth Games North West Cultural Programme in 2001. During that time, Paula gained a keen interest in the world of events and went on to work in a variety of roles at a number of event management companies in the arts and commercial sector. 

Paula has now gained almost 10 years of experience and has a CV that includes marketing work at Arts About Manchester, event and production management at GMMAZ and tour management for international artists for Sparklestreet HQ Ltd. 

Paula has a reputation as a first class organiser and as a person who brings a determination to see things through to the end.  It was her role as production manager of the GMMAZ performances at the The Lowry that brought them to the attention of David Price, National Manager of Musical Futures. He commented that the show set the benchmark for its production and performance for all such projects nationally. Paula brings not only theses standards to the team at CDH Creatives, but also her commercial music industry contacts and expertise.