Adair, Christy
Christy Adair is Professor of Dance Studies at York St John University. She has been involved in dance since the 1980s and her writing has received international acclaim, particularly Women and Dance: sylphs and sirens (Macmillan, 1992) and Dancing the Black Question: the Phoenix Dance Company Phenomenon (Dance Books, 2007), which offers a significant critique of issues related to contemporary performance. Shecontinues to focus on gender and ethnicity in relation to dance studies and performance andhas conducted research into contemporary dance in East Africa. She has also been part of a British Council funded team from York St John University delivering a programme for a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in Kenya. Christy is currently working on an Arts and Humanities Research Council project British Dance and the African Diaspora 1946-2005 andis on the editorial board of Choreographic Practices and Dancelines: Research in Dance Education.
Akerman, Jeremy
Jeremy Akerman is an artist and freelance curator; he is co-director of akermandaly.com; an organisation that specialises in commissioning and publishing writing by artists. He is guest curator for HSBC’s art collection at Canary Wharf and teaches ‘An Introduction to Curating at Central St Martins’ college. Akerman Daly website hosts artist’s residencies and a library, runs courses teaching writing skills for artists and regularly posts out text based artworks free to subscribers. Akerman’s own artwork is painting and photographic collages, which he shows periodically; he also takes a keen interest in the work of other artists and anything to do with artist’s books. For his many curatorial projects he has included paintings, sculptures, photography, installation and performance art making exhibitions held both in the UK and in South Korea.
Allen, Paul
Paul Allen was the first non-London-based Critic of the Year in the British Press awards and has written on theatre for Morning Telegraph (Sheffield), The Guardian, Plays and Players, The Stage, Country Life and the New Statesman. He presented the BBC Radio 4 arts magazine Kaleidoscope until 1998 and subsequently Night Waves on BBC Radio 3 until 2006, when he became the first Fellow in Creativity and Performance at the CAPITAL Centre of the University of Warwick. Paul has chaired the Arts Council of England Drama Panel and Theatre Writing Committee. He has had some two dozen radio and stage plays produced professionally, including an adaptation of ‘Brassed Off’ seen at the National Theatre and from Norway to New Zealand. He currently chairs Music in the Round and is deputy chairman of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough.
Anderson, Kate
Kate Anderson is a creative producer and arts consultant. Director of Bloomsbury Festival and Co-Director of Ingenious Purpose, established in 2014, Kate also works with a wide range of theatre companies. Kate was joint Executive Director/CEO of the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton for twelve years where she produced and co-produced over a hundred plays, and programmed work in the theatre, studio and on tour. Kate co-established Art at the Heart, a cross-arts partnership that created inspirational projects in Southampton city centre, and worked with ZEPA partners to produce a four year programme of outdoor work. In 2008, Kate led the company to develop a successful tender to set up and run the performing arts in Southampton’s new arts complex. Earlier roles included working with Scarlet Theatre, Richmond Theatre and ENO. Kate is on the Board for Puppet Centre and National Centre for Circus Arts.
Arthur, Jane
Jane Arthur is a freelance consultant for the museums and heritage sector. She has over 30 years’ experience of working in museums with a background in standards, collections development and audience engagement. She started her career as Curator & Librarian of the Wisbech & Fenland Museum and has worked in the West Midlands since 1985. Firstly as Keeper of Decorative Art at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke on Trent, then as Assistant Director (Collections) at the West Midlands Regional Museums Council. From 1997 to 2007 she was Head of Collections and Deputy Director for Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery. She is a member of the Museum Accreditation Committee and a Mentor for the Heritage Lottery Fund. As a Trustee of the Birmingham Conservation Trust she is involved in the development of Newman Brothers Coffin Fitting Factory in Birmingham as a heritage attraction. She is currently developing her own creative practice through textile art and poetry.
Attwood, Vince
Vince is a co-director at Soft Touch Arts a participatory arts company based in the east midlands after an early career as an artist/ designer /performer in visual theatre in the North West, Holland and Belgium. Vince returned to England in the 80’s and co-founded Soft Touch as a co-operative. With Soft Touch he has been instrumental in developing the practice of participatory work particularly with disadvantaged young people both as a practitioner and strategically through national and regional working groups and networks. Vince has also developed work within youth justice and health settings often working beyond the arts to improve services for young people, for example sitting on the board of Healthwatch Leicestershire and the Leicester Childrens Trust board. Vince has also spent the past 30years being a pyrotechnician and a street musician just for the fun of it.
Baber, Donna
Donna Baber is a freelance consultant for the arts, cultural and heritage sector. She has over 16 years’ experience of working in and with arts organisations, museums, heritage sites and the voluntary sector. She started her career as Development Co-ordinator at Arnolfini in Bristol where she was responsible for raising £5m of a £12.5m capital development programme. From 2004 – 2011 she was Director of Creative Learning Agency, an arts education agency which supported artists and educators to work together to enhance and enrich the curriculum. In 2010/11 she successfully led the organisation from being a local authority hosted service to becoming an independent company limited by guarantee and registered charity. She was chair of trustees for Artists First, a group of practicing disabled artists for five years, and more recently, has been a board member for Drastic Productions, now Liz Clarke & Company; an organisation which works with those who have little access to the arts through participatory work in performance and live art. Since 2011 she has drawn on these experiences of fundraising, income generation, strategic business planning, leadership and delivering creative education programmes to a broad range of audiences and now offers a range of consultancy services as well as interim leadership and management.
Bailey, Syriah
Syriah spent much of 2014 researching creative and leadership projects for LGBTQ youth in the USA through The Winston Churchill Traveling Fellowship, running creative workshops for LGBTQ youth. In October, Syriah was invited to join the jury judging the innovative and best short at Seattle's Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. "Download My Heart;" a film produced with Reel Queer Youth in Seattle also premiered at the festival.
Prior to being awarded a traveling fellowship, Syriah helped produce "Puffball;" a circus and performance project, engaging with over 80 LGBTQ youth in the UK. The 90 minute show toured the UK, where Syriah spoke on panels and documented the journey through film, audio and photography.
Between 2012 and 2013, Syriah was the youngest person to sit on the Roundhouse Board of Trustees, making strategic decisions about the organisation who offer creative projects to young people. Syriah is currently the Project Coordinator of Queerhouse Radio; A monthly LGBTQ youth led radio show based in London.
Batstone, Chris
Chris Batstone is artistic director of Juice, a children and young people’s festival delivered by Newcastle Gateshead Initiative. Juice is a multi-arts festival that presents and champions arts and culture made and led by children and young people. Prior to that Chris worked as Combined arts relationship manager for Arts Council England in the north east, with particular expertise in festivals, outdoor arts and commissioning and programming for light festivals.
He has worked extensively across the north of England as a director and drama practitioner for companies such as darts (Doncaster community arts), mind the…gap and Lawrence Batley Theatre. Chris has also been director of a Creative Partnerships programme in the East midlands and has a passion and commitment for raising young peoples, engagement, aspiration and skills through creativity.
Chris is currently re-shaping the Juice festival programme to more strongly reflect and be shaped by young people’s culture, breaking and reshaping the boundaries between arts, science, technology and popular culture.
Baxter, Fiona
Fiona is the deputy director, arts at Farnham Maltings - an organisation that supports the artists, companies and audiences of South East England. Her role includes producing Little Bulb Theatre, Victoria Melody and caravan, a biennial three-day showcase of new English performance presented to an international audience, in partnership with Brighton Festival. She also works on house, an initiative that supports venues by improving the range, quality and scale of theatre presented across South East England. Prior to this she trained as a theatre designer before becoming the assistant producer for Mayfest, Bristol’s contemporary theatre festival.
Bedford, Suzannah
Suzannah Bedford is creative director of the Renewal Trust, a regeneration charity working with communities in Nottingham’s eastside. Beginning as administrator with Out of Joint Theatre Company, she has been general manager with Talawa Theatre Company, and with Greenwich and Lewisham Young People’s Theatre. She also worked as dance officer with Arts Council East Midlands. With expertise in literature and visual arts, Suzannah worked with Backlit Studios through a period of change that saw them win Matt Collishaw as part of Connect 10. Her work has moved towards producing arts projects and opportunities of the highest calibre with communities. Recent projects include Nott Ballet with Birmingham Royal Ballet and 60 young people performing at Theatre Royal Nottingham as part of U.Dance2014, turning a community centre The Chase into a venue for the NEAT14 festival, and producing Rankin on St Ann’s Allotments, featured in the BBC2’s Museums at Night programme.
Beecham, Richard
Richard is a freelance theatre director. He works across the country and across the repertoire including classics (Henry IV, Theatre Royal Bath, Rutherford & Son, Northern Stage), modern classics (Dancing at Lughnasa, In Praise of Love, Royal & Derngate), new writing (Strivers, Long Project at LAMDA) and international theatre (UK Premieres of new American plays at Ustinov Studio, Bath). Richard also regularly directs and teaches at drama schools including RADA, LAMDA, Central and Arts Ed. He is an Artistic Associate of the new writing company HighTide Festival Theatre, a Fellow of the Clore Leadership Programme and a Facilitator on the Clore Short Course programme.
Bennett, Jude
Jude Bennett is a freelance curator, specialising in commissioning new works. She holds a MA in Curatorial Practice and has worked in various art organisations throughout the U.K and Ireland for the past decade such as Florence Trust, aspex, Tate St Ives and Catalyst Arts. In 2012 Jude initiated Anarch, a roaming commissioning gallery that has taken up residence in Deptford and most recently Warren Street for Colony. Colony was a 16 day art festival with over 35 artists and rarely seen letters from the Estate of Gordon Matta Clark. Jude is interested in utilising underused spaces and the intersection between art and architecture and has led various public art projects. She also currently works as curator for Collective, a cultural high street regeneration project in Camden.
Bernstein, Daniel
Daniel Bernstein is a creative producer working in arts, education and event management. His primary artistic experience is with carnival and outdoor festivals. He spent 10 years performing in and developing Carnival Collective into one of the country’s leading carnival bands. He has established a number of successful Brazilian-inspired carnival events (Brighton Samba Encounter and Luton International Encounter), helped set up Carnival Network South East (the country’s first regional network) and chairs Brighton Carnival. As well as arts organisations, Daniel has worked in many different types of organisations, including commercial (International Franchising for The Body Shop) and public sector (Arts Council England). He has also worked with Emergency Exit Arts, Kinetika, Gunwharf Quays and Creative Partnerships.
Bettridge, Emma
Emma Bettridge is a Producer, Dramaturg and Festival director. She is the Producer for Bristol Old Vic Ferment and Consultant producer for Hunt & Darton. Prior to this she ran Pulse festival at the New Wolsey Theatre for three years and was part of the curatorial group for Caravan2014 (Farnham Maltings/Brighton Festival). She was an associate reader for the Soho Theatre, a consultant for East to Edinburgh (ACE East initiative) and a peer reviewer for the Wellcome Trust from 2010-2013. In 2010 she managed Gecko's international tour of The Overcoat (China & UK), produced the national tour of My Name is Sue (Northern Stage, Queer Up North, Soho theatre) and worked on the NSDF festival in Scarborough. Between 2004 and 2009 she ran the Pleasance London and Edinburgh Programmes. Her passion lies in developing and commissioning new work. With a focus on creating and enabling artists to make the best work they can. Examples of this type of process are demonstrated in Stillhouse's Ours Was the Fen Country, The Bullet and the Bass Trombone (Sleepdogs), Exposure (Jo Bannon), Sue the Second Coming (Dafydd James & Co) and Hoke's Bluff (Action Hero).
Birksted-Breen, Noah
Noah Birksted-Breen is a freelance director, translator and playwright. As a director, Noah has staged eight productions in fringe and professional venues in London including In Blood: The Bacchae by Francis Viner at the Arcola Theatre (2009) which featured classical actor Greg Hicks and capoeira Master Carlao. The recipient of a Channel 4 Theatre Directors’ Award, Noah was on attachment to Hampstead Theatre between 2006 and 2008. He has worked as an assistant director at the Royal Court and Hampstead and as a Reader at the Bush, Royal Court, Hampstead and iceandfire theatre company. In 2011, Noah co-authored his first play, On The Record, with Christine Bacon, produced by iceandfire theatre company at the Arcola. Noah is Artistic Director of Sputnik Theatre Company, which has premiered eight new Russian plays in the UK at Soho, the Battersea Arts Centre and the Old Red Lion. Noah started a PhD in 2012 on contemporary Russian playwriting at Queen Mary (UL), in partnership with Theatre Royal Plymouth.
Blazey, Ed
Ed Blazey is co-founder and co-director of Roots & Wings C.I.C., a social enterprise offering multimedia and service design solutions to artists, musicians, communities, companies and institutions across the North East and beyond. Since studying Fine Art and a Masters in Multidisciplinary Design Innovation at Northumbria University, alongside completing the Sage Gateshead’s Community Music Trainee and Apprenticeships, Ed works as a freelance artist for BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, tours across the UK and Europe as a musician and delivers participatory art and design workshops through his work as part of Roots & Wings, as well as for various North East arts organisations. His multimedia work is also a large part of his role as Creative Director at Roots & Wings, creating design for print, web, illustration, video, animation and audio. His personal practice mostly uses digital video and photography with sound and music in AV installations.
Bobrowicz, Ania
Ania Bobrowicz is Senior Lecturer in Digital Arts at University of Kent, Canterbury, and Course Director for the undergraduate Digital Media degrees. She has worked with digital media since 1990s. Her research interests are interdisciplinary including digital media, cultural heritage, art history, human-computer interaction and disability. She worked for national broadcasters (BBC), and with local art galleries (Turner Contemporary), museums (Powell-Cotton museum), and festivals (Canterbury Festival). She has conducted research into visitor engagement with museum artefacts via digital technology, use of digital technology by Islamic artists as well as exploring the creativity of people with dementia through digital sculpture. She has postgraduate degrees in Applied Linguistics (English and Russian), Multimedia Systems and Art History.
Bradley, Jack
Jack Bradley began work as a playwright in 1975 (Stepping Stones, Royal Court, Young Writers’ Festival) and continued to do so throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, with 20 productions to his name. Over time, he became more involved in play development and literary management and worked at the Soho Theatre (1989-94) before joining the Royal National Theatre, where he was Literary Manager for 12 years, advising on the repertoire for Richard Eyre, Trevor Nunn and Nicholas Hytner, spearheading their new play policy. He has run workshops from Belfast to Buenos Aires, Oslo to Soweto and lectured on creative courses throughout Britain. He is now a freelance dramaturge and has resumed work as a playwright and translator. Jack is Literary Associate to Sonia Friedman Productions, Associate of the Tricycle Theatre, and adviser to the Scottish Arts Council. Earlier this year, he was Visiting Lecturer at Newcastle University and is currently writing a book on playwriting.