Aviana - Speak Up: Our Patch
About: Extraordinary Us
WE ARE EXTRA-ORDINARY.
AND YOU ARE TOO!
Extraordinary Us believes that you, individual or community… you are you-nique.
The world has been consistently told that there is something wrong with being completely middle-ish. It seems that being fantastically average has become utterly tragic. We are all encouraged to have some real ‘beef‘ with being perfectly imperfect.
Extraordinary Us is here to carve up that ‘beef’ - plating it up alongside broccoli, yorkshire puddings (x2), roast potatoes, stuffing and a generous serving of gravy. And a drizzle of mint sauce on the top for garnishing. [Vegan alternatives available - we want everyone to be meaningfully included].
This multidisciplinary production company based in Coventry is leading a confetti cannon war against anything or anyone that suggests that you are not ‘enough’.
Our battle cry: “I’m ordinary darling!”. If we can build you up to confidently and proudly shout that yourself… that is our apple crumble for pudding… with ice cream.
Let’s together make ‘ordinary’ the sexiest, tastiest, and most seductive word in the dictionary.
Extra-ordinary is officially in.
Roze Navab - Symphony of Us
OUR DIRECTORS
Chair and Director
Gemma Adams is a systemic learning and design specialist and founder of The Beeworx Change Agency. She helps organisations turn ambitious, values-led ideas into practical strategies, partnerships and programmes. Gemma has worked at a strategic level across government, public services, civil society, business and education for twenty years, including in-house innovation roles at Cranfield University and Forum for the Future, and leading flagship projects for Nesta Challenge Works, Ashden Climate Solutions and Cardiff University. She played a pivotal role in conceiving and creating an experiential systems-change leadership game that received the 2025 Financial Times Innovation Award for Responsible Business Education.
A deeply experienced facilitator, strategist and Non-Executive Director, Gemma brings systemic ways of working, creative challenge, organisational insight and a commitment to celebrating identity, belonging and human dignity.
GEMMA ADAMS
“I find Extraordinary Us’ purpose totally magnetic. The playful way it is engaging the arts and celebrating ‘ordinary lives’ is a gift to us all - especially in the West Midlands where we tend not to want to ‘make a fuss’.”
Gemma Adams
Director
Fiona Latter is a business coach and mentor with more than 15 years’ experience supporting creative freelancers and businesses. She led the first £1.3 million DCMS-funded Creative Scale Up Programme in the West Midlands and has supported over 250 creative enterprises, contributing to more than £3 million in contract wins for the creative economy.
Fiona’s career spans programme management, business development, partnerships, compliance and stakeholder engagement across funded initiatives. She has also established international trade missions to Malta, Brussels and Germany, creating commercial opportunities and relationships for West Midlands creative businesses and practitioners.
FIONA LATTER
“I’m really thrilled to have been asked by Extraordinary Us to become part of their Board in the hope that we will continue to do many more Extraordinary Things together”
Fiona Latter
Director
Mark Steele is a music and arts educator committed to widening access to creative opportunities. About to start his tenth year as Coventry Music Lead, he oversees music education across Coventry and the Heart of England Music Hub region of Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire, supporting thousands of young people each week and managing funding, partnerships and workforces.
Mark also chairs Coventry Cultural Education Partnership and has held advisory roles in music education. His experience spans governance, safeguarding, fundraising, strategic planning and inclusive programme development. He brings knowledge of Coventry’s cultural landscape and communities, and a belief that creativity helps people feel seen, valued and celebrated. Some of his recent career highlights have included putting on Lady Godiva’s Birthday Suit the Musical in Broadgate, launching music programmes for those excluded from school and touring Ed Sheeran around Coventry Music programmes.
MARK STEELE
“I am wholeheartedly committed to supporting the growth of the CiC and helping more people enjoy and grow from the work. Arts are for everyone and Extraordinary Us will make this a reality”
Mark Steele
OUR CORE TEAM:
Founder and Creative Director
Paul O’Donnell is a middle child, from the Midlands growing up with Type 1 Diabetes since the age of 2. He’s very middlish, and he makes ideas happen.
Paul’s also an artist, and producer whose work celebrates everyday people through ambitious, joyful and playful storytelling and interventions.
For Extraordinary Us he has initiated The Museum of Me, which builds personal museums around people’s lives, and led Symphony of Us as part of Coventry UK City of Culture 2021/2. His award-winning performance work includes We’ve Got Each Other: The Almost Entirely Imagined Bon Jovi Musical, while programmes such as Autumn Is Queer explore identity, belonging and civic connection. Paul’s practice is rooted in the belief that the personal is universal, that everyone is worthy of celebration, and that creativity or cultural connection can help communities see one another differently.
PAUL O’DONNELL
“It is such a delight to have this highly experienced team supporting Extraordinary Us’ next chapter”
Paul O’Donnell
General Manager
Bev Shephard is a strategic finance, HR and organisational development specialist with experience across the arts, creative industries and non-profit sectors. She’s also a trust and foundations fundraiser.
Bev has many hats. She’s Co-Director of including Figures & Forms, a co-operative providing finance and admin support to non-profits, Growing Me, a therapeutic toolkit for children who experienced early-life trauma, and Chair of Youth Landscapers Collective, an teen art collective in the National Forest. She also works with multi-disciplinary artist and activist Bobby Baker at Daily Life Ltd and producing company Arts&Heritage.
Bev has been active in the arts for 25 years. She was previously CFO of Brass Bands England, Finance Director at The Mighty Creatives, and a founder of Haarlem Artspace, a studio community of 45 artists with exhibition space and residency programme. She combines rigorous financial thinking with creative problem-solving, helping ambitious artistic ideas become resilient, practical and achievable organisations.
BEV SHEPHARD
“Almost everything I do is in support of a thriving, imaginative cultural sector. I particularly enjoy being a part of growing fledgling arts organisations into thriving established organisations.”
Bev Shephard
Impact Report: 2024
Our Core Values
