Robin Simpson Chief Executive, Voluntary Arts Expand Before joining Voluntary Arts in 2005, Robin was Deputy Chief Executive of Making Music – the national umbrella body for amateur music making, supporting over 2,000 amateur music groups throughout the UK, including choirs, orchestras, and music promoters. Previously, he worked as General Manager of the British Federation of Festivals, supporting the volunteer organisers of more than 300 festivals of music, dance and speech and drama across the UK. Robin has substantial experience of working with volunteers, having also worked for six years for the Royal National Institute for the Blind, managing a team of over 130 volunteer readers to record academic textbooks onto tape for visually-impaired students. He completed his MBA with the Open University Business School in 2002. Robin is a keen amateur French horn player, currently a member of the Northampton Symphony Orchestra. He is also a perennial ballroom dancing student, a frequent theatre-goer, an enthusiastic reader of contemporary fiction, an insatiable consumer of classical and world music and a keen blogger at culturalplayingfield.org and culturaldessert.blogspot.com. “For those of us who voluntarily practice some form of arts activity in our own time – and some estimates suggest that this includes almost half the adult population, playing in orchestras, singing in choirs, acting, dancing, painting, lace-making etc. – it’s often difficult to articulate exactly why we do it. But it usually becomes such a significant part of our lives we genuinely feel we couldn’t do without it.”
Lindsey Jackson Finance and HR Manager, Voluntary Arts Expand Lindsey has worked at Voluntary Arts since 2009 and prior to that has worked as a Welfare Benefits advisor. She has also completed her AAT qualification while working for Voluntary Arts. Lindsey enjoys reading and knitting and is determined to start her first quilt now that her AAT work has finished. “What I enjoy most about working for Voluntary Arts is the opportunity to work with so many talented individuals both in-house and the organisations we work alongside with, it really is inspiring to see so many diverse and different art forms”
Damien McGlynn Communications & Partnerships Director, Voluntary Arts Expand Damien joined Voluntary Arts in 2015 after several years working in the cultural sector in the UK and Ireland. Damien is Project Manager for the Get Creative Festival and works on a number of European partnership projects as well as managing communications across the organisation and managing the staff team in England. Damien was born in Dublin and studied Fine Art at the National College of Art & Design while also completing an exchange in the Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania. His creative passion has, since the age of 8, been photography. Eventually upgrading from a 110mm contraption with flashcubes, he spent several years working as a freelance photographer primarily in documentary photography and photojournalism and also worked in visual arts organisations in Dublin, Edinburgh and London.
Claire Sharples Development Officer (North West), Voluntary Arts England Expand A Manchester-made boomerang, Claire has lived and worked in London, Slovakia and China and travelled and volunteered with social, educational and creative projects throughout Europe, China and India. Claire practiced and studied creative arts and design crafts, alongside art, design and film history and theory as an undergraduate in Kingston-upon-Thames; but always had an interest in the wider social contexts and holistic impacts of cultural and creative practices, completing a masters degree in Communication for Development at Malmo University in 2017, during which she focused particularly on the role of creative cultural exchange and participation in an inclusive public sphere. Prior to joining Voluntary Arts England, Claire has worked in communications, coordination and research and evaluation roles across the public and cultural sector. Work in social documentary and participatory media, as well as creative arts in gallery and community contexts, has emphasised widening participation and encouraging the opportunities of creative and cultural practices to be experienced - and defined - by all, in all their diverse forms and expressive mediums. Most recently Claire has worked with Curious Minds to coordinate the national pilot of the Cultural Citizens Programme in the North West, which supported 200 KS3 students across Liverpool and Blackpool to attend and review cultural venues and experiences across the region and beyond. She continues to support their research for programmes with participation and access themes, as well as providing external evaluation consultation for projects such as Cast's Paul Hamlyn Foundation-supported Social Seats project, which seeks to provide more opportunities to attend performances and other events to the diverse audiences across Doncaster, who are not currently accessing their offer. She volunteers and participates with a number of local community projects supporting social inclusion and community wellbeing, including community led cultural spaces, gardens and language and befriending programmes.
Becky Hoghton Development Officer (South West), Voluntary Arts England Expand Becky joined Voluntary Arts in early 2019 and is the new Development Officer for the South West. Before moving to Bristol in 2016, she spent 15 years in London working for various arts organisations and charities. She’s a specialist in commissioning public art and managing community festivals and outdoor events. As a freelance Creative Producer, she managed two big community arts festivals - the Whitecross Street Party and Cally Fest – in the borough of Islington for four years. Her favourite project was an intergenerational hula-hoop troupe that was set up and performed at Whitecross Street. The youngest member was 3 and the oldest 86.When she’s not working for Voluntary Arts she’s developing her ceramics practise and has just taken on a space in a Bristol open pottery studio. She also runs an on going interactive poetry project, Hey You Haiku.
Kevin Grist Development Officer (South East), Voluntary Arts England Expand Kevin is an experienced community music practitioner and arts manager. He has an interest in music technology as a tool for live performance and composition. Growing up in Brighton, Kevin developed a youth arts programme at the award-winning Crew Club Youth Centre (2008), opening the doors to projects such as Glyndebourne Opera’s Knight Crew with Gareth Malone. He joined Arts Council England (2012) as a Relationship Manager for Music. He oversaw a portfolio of Music education hubs and The Stables Theatre in Milton Keynes, whilst supporting Project Grants applicants seeking funding for recordings, festivals and tours. In 2013, he also worked with urban arts charity AudioActive, managing the Hip Hop Foundation, The Lab featuring Rag’n’Bone Man and producing FUSE, a jazz-tech performance event at Brighton Dome featuring Tomorrow’s Warriors. He joined Musical Futures in 2015 as Head of Fundraising, developing a partnership with BBC Radio 1 to support the Learning Revolution Conference, and secured significant funding from the EU. Alongside Voluntary Arts, Kevin is Co-Director and founder of SparkedEcho CIC (2016), who produce new and experimental music activity with marginalised groups in Kent and Sussex. Projects include Sea Folk Sing older people’s performances on moving trains, and Opera House Next Door escape room puzzle, performed in living rooms. He is also a Trustee for Sound Sense, the UK’s professional body for community musicians. Kevin has a degree in Music Production, a PGCE teaching qualification, studied at the National Arts Fundraising School and is an Arts Award Advisor.
Natanya Mark Development Officer (London), Voluntary Arts England Expand Natanya joined Voluntary Arts in 2019. She is a creative practitioner interested in collective and intuitive making. Natanya’s approach is hands on, and is concerned with how we can feel more in touch with our everyday environments. Tactile workshops make up a large part of her artistic practice, often involving collective weaving processes to fabricate community closeness. Natanya enjoys re-purposing throwaway materials; polystyrene chip boxes have been transformed into looms, and disused ethernet cables have become weaving materials to re-connect participants with their environment. In 2016, Natanya initiated the first series of creative workshops to be hosted at the Royal National Institute of Blind People. She continues to develop an Arts Programme at RNIB on a voluntary basis, organising exhibitions and collaborating with filmmakers and graphic designers to showcase participants’ works. Following the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower Fire, Natanya worked with three artists in collaboration with Justice4Grenfell to initiate a series of United Voices Making Days hosted in the Latimer Road community. The United Voices team have since founded Studio Newbie, running collaborative making-focused events which centre around amplifying community voices. Natanya gained a First Class English Literature BA from the University of Cambridge in 2015 and completed an MA in Visual Communication at the Royal College of Art in 2018.
Nicola Winstanley Development Officer (West Midlands), Voluntary Arts England Expand Nicola has worked in the West Midlands as a participatory artist and producer since 2009. She has headed up large participatory public art projects and advised on strategic arts programmes, as well as leading on creative consultation and evaluation for arts and heritage organisations, such as the Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places Programme and the UK Historic Buildings Preservation Trust. She is also a keen volunteer, acting as Secretary and general volunteer for the Friends of Spode Rose Garden - a voluntary group that maintains and programmes creative public events in a community garden in her home town of Stoke. As Voluntary Arts Development Officer for the West Midlands, Nicola is passionate about supporting the everyday creativity that happens in her region and is keen to promote the contribution that creativity makes to the lives of individuals, communities and societies. Nicola will be working to get people involved in national festivals of creativity such as Get Creative and Age of Creativity, to showcase and celebrate the incredible creative work that is already happening across the West Midlands, and to encourage more people to try something new, meet new people and learn new creative skills.
Laraine Winning Up For Arts Development Director Expand Laraine has worked in the media for 30 years specialising in social action broadcasting and developing media services with commercial radio/television and BBC local radio. She was the National Broadcast Manager for CSV (where she worked for 18 years) responsible for the award winning Action Desk output of 40 BBC local radio stations in England. After leaving CSV, she was the Project Director for the Media Trust on the prestigious government led Volunteering for All programme working with the Cabinet Office / Office of Third Sector developing national media volunteering initiatives, that engaged with priority groups in disadvantaged communities and a number of national charities. She joined Voluntary Arts in 2009 taking up the role of Project Director, developing an arts engagement service with BBC local radio entitled Up for Arts. Up for Arts projects are now based within BBC Radio Merseyside, Lancashire and Cumbria and strong links have been made to other services and departments within the BBC. There is hope that this network may expand and develop over the next few years. Additionally, she has managed a pan-European project entitled SPAR / Culture Guides.
Helen Jones ‘Up for Arts’ Merseyside Broadcaster, Voluntary Arts England Expand Whilst studying towards a first class Performance degree from the University of Bedfordshire, Helen took to the stage, performed for TV for Children’s television but best of all got the chance to interview the great comedy legend Ronnie Barker. She specialised in Radio Performance, and since graduating as mature student in 2000, has been based at BBC Radio Merseyside in Liverpool. Helen has been Helpline & Broadcast Manager for Voluntary Arts England since 2010. She currently oversees the radio project Up for Arts which is a Voluntary Arts England and BBC Radio Merseyside partnership supported by the Liverpool Primary Care Trust the whole collaboration showcases voluntary arts and crafts groups. Helen is also an established broadcaster and often can be heard on the BBC Radio Merseyside airwaves. “I believe you can come to life on a stage and that performance can really take you to places beyond your wildest dreams. My Up for Arts role allows individuals to promote their work and give them a voice on local radio … the folk I have met have truly been inspirational and passionate about the arts.”
Jennie Dennett ‘Up for Arts’ Cumbria Broadcaster, Voluntary Arts England Expand Jennie has been with Voluntary Arts since December 2013, championing voluntary arts in Cumbria through a partnership with BBC Radio Cumbria where she also works as a reporter. “I think of myself as a bit of an arts evangelist,” says Jennie. “When people come together to do creative things it makes for happier people and places. It’s my job to find those characters whose passion for their pastime, be it dance or dry-stone walling, shines through and inspires others to get involved.” Jennie graduated from the University of Oxford with a Geography degree in 1997 and pursued a career in journalism, starting out in a London agency distributing freelance footage from far-flung war zones before settling in Cumbria and working on local newspapers and radio. She lives in Ulverston, Cumbria’s self-styled festival capital where barely a week passes without one. Evenings are spent organising Ulverston’s Candlelit Walk, sorting sessions to make the hundreds of candles, spooky shadow-screens and pottery spike-lights that fill a local woodland for Halloween. Jennie’s also works on the town’s biggest event, the Ulverston Lantern Festival, recruiting volunteers and making lead lanterns that always turn-out bigger than anticipated, most recently a giant seagull and a 12ft fairy. She also makes textile art and is learning to hoop dance. “It makes me happy to create as many opportunities as possible to bring different people together to do crazy things. It brings a feel-good factor to a place.”
John Offord 'Up For Arts' London Broadcaster, Voluntary Arts England Expand John Offord joined Voluntary Arts in early 2017 as an 'Up for Arts' Broadcaster based at BBC Radio York and then rejoined as 'Up For Arts' Broadcaster at BBC Radio London in 2018. John is a freelance producer and has worked on a variety of arts engagement campaigns for the BBC and has produced York in Harmony, a community choir/outreach project. Until 2016, he was a BBC Outreach Manager working with departments across the BBC and has been a fixed point of contact for major pan-BBC initiatives, eg. Children in Need, Sports Personality of the Year, Learning projects like Make It Digital, and region-specific broadcast moments like The Great Yorkshire Show. He was responsible for co-ordinating editorial across all three platforms and social media, working from within the 12 English regions. As a Producer in BBC Learning he was responsible for the production of some live events such as BBC2’s Stargazing Live, The Big Bang Science fair, Radio 1’s Hackney weekend, BBC’s WW1 Centenary commemorations, & the pan-BBC season, ‘Summer of Wildlife’.
Jemma Neville Director, Voluntary Arts Scotland Expand Jemma leads the Voluntary Arts Scotland team. She was previously Communications and Outreach Coordinator at the Scottish Human Rights Commission and has worked in a range of roles connecting human rights and culture including teaching at the European Inter-University Centre and co-editing an online journal, Rights!. A Creative Scotland bursary to undertake a Cultural Leadership training programme in South Africa made real the mutually reinforcing relationship between creative expression and a human rights based approach. She has written and presented for different press and media outlets such as BBC Radio Scotland and Scottish Television and was shortlisted for The Guardian International Development Journalism Award. Jemma is a Board member of the Citadel Youth Centre in Leith. @jemma_tweets
Kelly Donaldson Communications Manager, Voluntary Arts Scotland Expand Kelly has a BA (Hons) in Drama and Media, and has been responsible for Voluntary Arts Scotland’s information output and communications since 2005. She also works as a freelance journalist and has been The Scotsman’s chief dance critic for 18 years, is Dance and Kids Editor of The List Magazine, and writes for a variety of other newspapers, magazines and festivals. Kelly is a member of the Love Music Community Choir in Edinburgh, and enjoys creative writing.
Gareth Coles Director, Voluntary Arts Wales Expand Gareth joined Voluntary Arts in 2015 and leads the team in Wales. Prior to this, he worked in public services policy for the Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA), promoting participation in public services and representing voluntary sector interests to Welsh Government. Previously he worked for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) as a Development Officer in the Collaborative Working Team, and as a Grants Officer for the Community Fund / Big Lottery Fund. Gareth has a degree in Fine Art and an MA in Medieval Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Gareth is a Welsh speaker and lives in South Wales with his wife and son. He is a keen artist, with a particular interest in drawing, and a woefully poor guitarist and pianist.
Rhiannon Beth Imiolczyk Get Creative Producer, BBC Radio Wales Expand Rhiannon joined Voluntary Arts Wales in 2019, as Get Creative Producer based within BBC Radio Wales. She won Young Voice of Musical Theatre at age 13, and is a trained professional singer and actress with a catalogue of professional performing credits in theatre, TV and Film. She trained in Musical Theatre and Professional Performance Practice at the Centre of Voice in Bristol. Rhiannon was an award-winning principal of six Stagecoach Theatre Arts Schools; two of which she created and managed herself in South Wales for eight years. She managed the Stagecoach National Children’s Choir of Wales for five years and led them to achieve many accolades and professional performances. She has taught singing and directed for over 14 years at various theatres, schools, colleges and produced many national West End and international productions including Disney World Florida, donating significant amounts to charities at every production she’s produced. Rhiannon lives in South Wales with her husband son and daughter, and spends her spare time making Music with her young family and friends. She wants to help inspire every generation to gain confidence and happiness through the creative arts!