Symposium | Creating Community: Exploring Values Led Engagement

Beloved has a decade of experience developing creative/artistic community projects for heritage museums and visual arts galleries including John Hansard Gallery, Southampton and Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth. Beloved leads and develops successful public/engagement programmes for diverse audiences, schools, universities, colleges, families, young people and many more. Beloved’s central practices include curation, co-curation, engagement programming and developing pathways for people and artists to gain access and/or employment in the creative industries.

Flora Duley is studying an MA at the RCA, London researching the social potential of Sculpture in the expanded field. Previous projects include Learning and Project coordination with Peckham Platform, Artist Lead, Southwark Park Galleries Seniors Art School, Artist Lead and Consultation ACAVA Flourish Program, Artist Lead Aspex Gallery, Young Curators and most recent projects include a collaboration between ACAVA Flourish and NHM new Urban Garden Project for their opening in the Spring 2024.

Lucy Elmes is Special Programmes Producer for Take A Part CIO, based in Plymouth. Take A Part supports communities to lead change and build capacity locally through arts, heritage and conservation projects. Lucy’s work for Take A Part includes programming the biennial Symposium ‘Social Making’ on Social Practice, and delivering work that enables communities to use creativity to set their own agendas and take action where they live, including PRIMEdesign. Lucy holds an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London, and is a Co-Director of Rame Projects and Flock South West.

Hannah Gaunt is Engage’s Creative Producer and leads a UK-wide programme of training and professional development opportunities for the visual arts engagement workforce, with a particular focus on Engage’s role as an Investment Principle Support Organisation for Arts Council England. Outside of Engage, Hannah is a Network Coordinator for Greater Manchester Arts. In her spare time Hannah is a Non-Executive Director of Everyday (Wigan), a member of the Artworks Alliance Oversight Group, and also volunteers as a Coach and Mentor.

Tom Hall is an artist with a long track record of exhibiting in England, Europe and America including shows at Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute, Utica, NY, USA and the 57th Venice Biennale, Italy. Since graduating from the Royal College of Art he has been heavily involved in arts education. More recently he has worked as a freelance curator and outreach artist. Tom currently works as a Gallery Programmer and Mentor at spudWORKS in Sway, New Forest, the MA Fine Art at AUB and delivers inspiring workshops in collaboration with many arts organisations including Aspex Gallery and John Hansard Gallery.

Asten Holmes-Elliott is an artist, curator and educator with over ten years’ experience working within the arts sector. Asten’s work examines ideas of identity, otherness and belonging, focussing on accessibility and approachability whilst amplifying visibility and community cohesion. Asten currently runs the Learning and Engagement Programme at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery who refocussed as a community museum, with emphasis on pro-active and symbiotic relationships with local communities, awarding them NPO status. Asten is the co-founder of SQIFF and has worked with organisations such as Tate, GOMA, Wellcome Trust, BBC Scotland, British Council and John Hansard Gallery.

Flora Kay is the Head of Learning & Engagement at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts. There she leads on the strategic and creative vision for the public programme, family, schools and student engagement. With a in background in arts making, Flora is passionate about working with artists to embed creative led practice in gallery engagement. Her research interests include how we can disrupt and take ownership of space to improve access and engagement with the arts. Recent projects include the Gender Gap, artist in schools programmes and the development of the Barber’s flagship programme, Barber Health.

Kate is a curator and creative producer who has worked in the cultural sector for over 25 years. She is Programming and Community Engagement Manager for Southampton Forward and previously was Curator of Solent Showcase Gallery, at Solent University from 2011 – 2023, focussing on community engagement, co-creation and participation. She is passionate about the value of creativity and the right to be included, represented and heard.

Simon Martin is a curator, writer, and Director of Pallant House Gallery. He is a Trustee of the Artist Collecting Society and serves on the Courtauld Association Committee. He has curated and commissioned numerous exhibitions at the Gallery, and written and contributed to a wide range publications on modern and contemporary British art.

Simon has been involved with the Community Programme since its inception. He has witnessed the benefits that the initiative has brought to individual participants, to the wider community and to the Gallery. Now, as Director, he is looking forward to sharing his experiences and reflections.

Mary Paterson is a writer and arts manager who works primarily with socially engaged art, disability arts and community practice. She was external evaluator for Pallant House Gallery’s ‘Pallant Partners‘ project, and has devised and managed evaluation projects for a range of organisations across the UK. She has recently joined Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals as Head of Arts.

Unwilling to let background, education, or connections dictate people’s involvement in the sector, Dhikshana champions inclusivity, to ensure that the arts reflect the rich diversity of our society, making it accessible to all. Dhikshana is currently a Creative & Cultural Consultant, previously working in learning and engagement across the Science Museum, London Transport Museum, Brent 2020 – London Borough of Culture, Somerset House and the National Saturday Club. She is dedicated to fostering collaboration and innovation, leading teams in the development and delivery of diverse and engaging programming and promoting representation and equity in the workplace.

Dr. Trish Scott is a lecturer at King’s College London in the Department for Culture, Media and Creative Industries. Her current practice is concerned with the distribution of power within institutions, with a focus on how participatory curatorial frameworks can challenge and dismantle traditional organisational hierarchies and systems of value and create space for multiple voices. Trish is an engagement specialist and over the last decade has worked with many different communities to develop projects, programmes and exhibitions with organisations including Tate, Turner Contemporary, Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, Ideas Test and the Koestler Trust.

Jane Sillis is the Director of Engage, which she helped establish. Before joining Engage in 2005 she was a consultant specialising in audience engagement working across the UK and internationally. Clients included Tate, the National Gallery, the British Council, Clore Duffield Foundation, DCMS & DFE and Look Ahead Housing and Care for whom Jane ran an arts programme with homeless people. Jane was Head of Education at Whitechapel Gallery and has also worked at Ikon Gallery, the Museum of London, Science Museum, the British Council and in a local authority. Jane was a trustee of Iniva and Chisenhale Gallery.

Since graduating from Manchester School of Art, Becky has worked within the landscape of inclusive arts for over a decade. Collaborating creatively with Blue Room artists at the Bluecoat since 2010, she now supports a team of artist facilitators, assistants and volunteers to deliver a high quality, year round programme of inclusive arts. As Blue Room Creative Manager she is particularly focussed on supporting learning disabled and neurodivergent artists with advocacy in the wider arts sector.

Dr. Alexandra Woodall is Head of Public Engagement, Curatorial and Collections for York Museums Trust. She has managed museum and gallery learning, interpretation and exhibition programmes for over 20 years. She also has an academic background, most recently as Programme Director for Creative and Cultural Industries Management at the University of Sheffield. Particularly interested in workplace wellbeing, she is a Mentor and Professional Reviewer for the Museums Association’s AMA and instigated their research on bullying in the sector, ‘Sticks and Stones’. She is a co-founder of GLAM Cares, a support network for community engagement practitioners.

Laura Yates is an arts participation specialist. She is currently Head of Participation at Bluecoat Gallery in Liverpool where she has been working with the team to develop their long-term innovative approaches to arts engagement for the past 9 years. Laura’s previous work includes deep-level engagement producing for the recently NPO awarded At the Library and the seminal digital arts programme tenantspin.