Karen Merrifield is the founder of Innovate to Educate, a pioneering venture which supports businesses, heritage and cultural organisations to engage audiences creatively.
Karen’s career spans the creative, culture, and business sectors - a rich, cross-disciplinary journey that has uniquely equipped her for the work she leads today.
A cross-sector journey shaped by creativity and curiosity
Karen grew up in a working-class background and believed she could be anything she wanted to be. She was unaware of the structural barriers that make it so difficult for those without connections to have a creative career. She worked from an early age, getting expenses aged 9 from playing in a band, to waitressing, to leading educational tours across Europe for wealthy American students.
She later moved into the business world, eventually becoming a director at a family-owned publishing company, where she worked with some of the UK’s biggest brands and a network of talented Yorkshire-based creatives. Alongside her work, she studied part-time and gained an MBA, broadening her skills further.
In 2000, Karen launched her business, Innovate Educate Ltd, shifting her focus from corporate clients to the culture and heritage sectors. Her work took her into museums and visitor attractions, collaborating on high-profile projects such as shaping learning strategies for Edinburgh Castle with Historic Environment Scotland, and developing educational resources for Stonehenge.
Looking back, Karen now sees how her varied experiences across sectors — creative, commercial, and cultural — were quietly steering her toward the idea that would eventually become The Artery.
The Artery: a simple idea with powerful impact
Four years ago, Karen founded The Artery, a venture built around one powerful question: What happens when creatives, businesses and the culture sector collaborate differently?
The Artery supports:
- Creatives to gain or strengthen their business skills
- Businesses to work more effectively with creative thinkers
- The culture sector to understand its role in supporting innovation and community
Launching this strand of her business required patience and phased planning. The first step was a peer support programme for creatives in North Yorkshire in 2021, just after COVID. It became a lifeline for many and has since expanded to York and North Yorkshire, supporting more than 50 creative businesses to increase revenue, reduce isolation, and build collaborative, supportive communities.
In 2023, funding from Innovate UK allowed Karen to test what could happen when creatives and businesses worked together to solve real-world problems. The results were groundbreaking — and this approach is now a central part of The Artery’s mission.
Today, The Artery is leading transformative projects across Yorkshire, including:
- Buzzing Skipton, delivered with Skipton BID through Vibrant and Sustainable High Streets funding
- A major commission with Ousewem, led by City of York Council, bringing artists, communities, schools, and businesses together to develop the York Rivers Trail, exploring upstream and downstream stories of flood management
(Watch the project films here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmQkIgNtfF6mmrXcruhAiHw)
Overcoming challenges
Karen’s biggest challenge was designing a business model that could operate simultaneously in three sectors. She remembers saying “I couldn’t see a clear path forward,” and a colleague responded: ‘If there isn’t a clear path, it means no one else has tried this route before.’ That perspective — along with the advice to ‘take the first step’ — unlocked her momentum. The first step became the peer support programme, and from there, the path revealed itself.
Role models
Karen’s greatest inspiration comes from working with Quentin Blake. In their first meeting Karen expected him to make a big entrance, to be dazzling and probably intimidating. Instead, he arrived quietly but with a real curiosity.
He asked simple questions others were afraid to ask, lightened the room with laughter, and made space for everyone’s expertise.
“That meeting left a huge impression on me,” Karen says. It showed the power of humility, curiosity, and creating the conditions for others to shine also.
Stage of development
The Artery is now Karen’s full-time focus, with:
- four active peer support cohorts,
- three major business–creative collaboration projects,
- and a growing reputation for innovative, community-driven impact.
She describes this phase as “fascinating, engaging, and full of learning — which I absolutely love.”
Words of advice
“There’s a lot of noise in business — a lot of posturing and pressure to be someone you’re not. Just be yourself. Let your enthusiasm, skills, and passions shine through.”