Speaker & Supporter Directory
String of Hearts is a community arts organisation which connects older adults through music, to reduce isolation and improve wellbeing in later life. Based in Trafford, Greater Manchester, String of Hearts particularly supports people who are isolated and living with long-term health conditions, who might experience barriers to accessing creative activities. Our core programme includes music-making groups and a music phone calls service supporting people who are housebound, referred through social prescribing, as well as partnerships with housing associations, day care centres and mental health settings. Since String of Hearts’ inception in 2019, we have supported over 1200 people and have been featured by ITV News, BBC Radio and The Independent for our work in music and social prescribing.
Association of Independent Museums. Philip Dolling Formerly Head of BBC Events (2012 – 2019) Philip was responsible for the strategic direction and overall management of the BBC’s live broadcast operations, covering major national occasions. Philip has experience of chairing and contributing effectively to committees at the highest level and has worked closely with DCMS, Cabinet Office, MOD, and the Royal Communications Team. More recently, his role as a Trustee with the National Museum of the Royal Navy has given him a first-hand understanding of the challenges of running a major operation during Covid-19 and how to deal with the issues arising from the tough economic climate. Philip also brings a thorough training in many areas of the law, marketing, rights, negotiation and digital security.
Music for Life. Founded by Linda Rose in 1993 and led by Wigmore Hall since 2009, Music for Life encompasses a wide range of creative music-making projects in care settings, community settings, online, and at Wigmore Hall.
Our vision is a world in which the human rights of all people living with dementia are respected and upheld, where they are treated with dignity and fully included in society. We play our part by creating music activity for and with people living with dementia, which is fully inclusive of people whatever their stage or type of dementia.
We aim to enhance the wellbeing of all those involved by enabling creative agency, a sense of purpose, and meaningful connections with others. We also want to support carers and musicians in their journeys to better understand the experiences of people living with dementia, and to help them to improve their confidence in supporting them.
Sean O’Brien’s eleventh collection of poems, Embark, was published by Picador in 2022. His work has received numerous awards, including the T.S. Eliot, Forward and E.M Forster prizes. His plays have been performed by the National Theatre and the RSC/Live Theatre. His translations include Dante’s Inferno and the Collected Poems of the Kazakh national poet, Abai Kunanbayuli. O’Brien is also a critic, novelist and short story writer. Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he lives on Tyneside.
Mark Robinson. Mark founded Thinking Practice in 2010, to write, facilitate, coach and advise across the cultural sector. Future Arts Centre published Tactics for the Tightrope: Creative Resilience For Creative Communities in 2021. He was part of the evaluation team for Celebrating Age, with Imogen Blood and Lorna Easterbrook.
Mark was previously Executive Director, North East at Arts Council England. He ran festivals, poetry publishers, arts organisations and worked in adult education after an early career in restaurants. Mark is a widely anthologised poet whose Selected Poems, How I Learned to Sing was published by Smokestack Books.
Anna Goulding is an Assistant Professor in Health and Social Care at Northumbria University, UK. Her research looks at how older people use culture in their everyday lives. She is interested in the relationship between culture that is produced, for example, books, films and performances and how readers and audiences respond; how the narratives that are produced shape how older people feel about themselves. She has worked for fifteen years in social and cultural gerontology, examining arts and dementia, investigating and critiquing co-production and looking at how cultural participation not only reflects, but creates inequality in later life.
Equal Arts’ Care Home Choir. The Care Home Choir brings together, in perfect harmony, professional musicians and over 70 residents, many living with dementia, family members and care staff from care homes across Tyne and Wear.
And we don’t just stay in care homes. Over the last 5 years, even with a global pandemic thrown into the mix, the Choir have performed at all sorts of locations: from singing to the shoppers at Newcastle’s Grainger Market to rehearsing at the Sage Gateshead/The Glasshouse with the Chorus for the Royal Northern Sinfonia.
Composing new music and opening our hearts and lungs together leaves people feeling uplifted and brighter, and that feeling stays long past the session for everyone. In this session we will explore how the Choir creates sensory connections with people using a range of techniques which respond to their needs, abilities, and above all, their own personal passions.
The Value of Friends of Groups. We know that for older people, living on their own, access to regular creative and social groups cannot just improve their wellbeing but can play a vital role in improving the quality of their lives and that of their local community. But, with financial pressures on cultural partners, the question is how can we make these groups sustainable?
From Tuesday Techne at the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle, to the Carers Cultural Adventures at Shipley Art Gallery, Equal Arts supports the development of sustainable, constituted and self-led groups which take ownership of their creative direction and employ artists to help them follow their passions.
But how do these work? Who are they for? And what are the benefits for members, partners and the wider community? Members from self-led creative groups from across Newcastle and Gateshead will explain.
Andy Barry is a theatre director and producer based in Manchester. He trained on the Birkbeck MFA in Theatre Directing and currently leads the Royal Exchange Elders and is Associate Director of Goblin.
In 2018 and 2019, Andy travelled to Japan and Korea with the British Council to present on his work in the Creative Ageing sector as well as lead workshops with older people. In 2021, Andy was listed in The Stage 100, a list celebrating individuals who have gone above and beyond in helping the theatre industry survive the Covid 19 crisis. Andy has written and contributed to opinion pieces about arts and ageing for The Guardian and The Stage.
The Royal Exchange Elders Company. The Elders at the Royal Exchange is a celebration of ageing and creativity. It is a wide-ranging programme for older people to feel connected, be creative and challenge the stereotypes of ageing. Each year we recruit a new Company of people aged 60+ who begin a creative journey with us. On completing the year, they become graduates of the Company and continue to take part in various ways. Some become Elders Leaders and volunteer to support and shape the programme development as well as contribute to the life of our Theatre and the wider city region by leading their own artistic projects and supporting their peers to take part.
Leon Clowes – Addiction Recovery Arts Network. Leon Clowes is an older disabled white working-class queer transdisciplinary artist navigating lived grief and loss in self-compassionate ways. Since 2020, Leon’s transdisciplinary artworks have featured in/been commissioned by SPILL and Deptford X arts festivals, Frieze Art Fair, Cafe Oto, WORM Rotterdam, Queer Art Projects, Disability Arts Online, Margate Pride, Queer Contemporaries, Datscha Radio Berlin and Britten Pears Arts. Leon is a scholarship-supported PhD student at London College of Music conducting research into self-compassionate autoethnographic trauma-inspired performance practice. Together with supervisor Dr Cathy Sloan, and working curatorially with international groups
Jill Rezzano is Head of Education at The New Vic Theatre in Newcastle under Lyme. Jill has worked in Theatre education and Community Engagement for 24 years, as a Youth Theatre Director, Outreach Manager and Workshop leader, in Northern Ireland, Hampshire, Cheshire and Staffordshire.
Jill is Director of the Ages and Stages Theatre Company, producing work by elders and as an intergenerational collective with the New Vic Youth Theatre. She is a founder and Director of the Live Age Festival in North Staffordshire, which was launched to celebrate creativity throughout life and in particular, later life. Jill has received an Honorary Degree (D.Litt.) from Keele University for her work in the field of creativity in later life and has co-authored numerous academic papers and articles including: 2018 ‘Ages and Stages’: creative participatory research with older people’, (Bernard, M., Rezzano, J. & the Ages and Stages company.
Working with medical students, Jill is also a supervisor for the Theatre and Medicine and Dementia and Creativity Medical Humanities modules at Keele University Medical School.
Tim Joss is a social entrepreneur. He is Chief Executive & Founder of Aesop – http://www.ae-sop.org and @AesopHealth. Aesop’s vision is ‘A future when arts solutions for society’s problems are valued and available for all who need them’. It runs Dance to Health, the national falls prevention dance programme – aiming to be the first arts programme which becomes a national health service – and the Prescribe Arts platform which links social prescribers with high quality arts programmes.
Aesop has also developed the first evaluation framework for arts and health, the first annual survey of health sector attitudes to the arts, university-accredited arts-and-health training for busy health and arts professionals and major national arts conferences and showcases for health decision-makers.
hoot creative arts is an arts and mental health charity based in the town centre of Huddersfield, England and working across Kirklees (& England with our criminal justice settings work). We offer a diverse range of creative activities that support mental health and emotional wellbeing. We have been running for 22 years.
hoot recognises that care and maintenance of our mental health is a normal and vital part of our lives and working creatively with the experienced, skilled and compassionate team at hoot can help you establish a creative self- care approach that can be fun and promote social interaction.
The work we will be discussing at conference concerns this development of Digital Creative Care Plans for care home residents so that pharmacological, domiciliary and creative care needs are considered together within holistic care planning.
Esther Collins is Head of Learning at Towner Eastbourne. She joined in 2020 from Cubitt where she managed a Celebrating Age programme delivering workshops, multi-year artist residencies in community settings, large-scale outdoor public events, public commissions and symposiums. She has also worked on various community engagement projects including for Ebbsfleet Development Corporation, Cement Fields, HS2, Stour Valley Arts as well as at the National Portrait Gallery and Turner Contemporary.
Marie Vickers is Artistic Director of London Bubble and is passionate about two things: stories and people. She has had 15 years’ experience of making theatre with children, young people and adults since graduating from East 15 Acting School’s Acting & Community Theatre course. She specializes in making theatre with people about the things that matter to them and has done so in Southwark since 2008.
London Bubble Theatre. Through theatre, London Bubble engages with people whose stories, experiences and opinions are most likely to go unheard or be underrepresented.
Social equity is at the heart of everything we do. Many of our members have experienced disempowerment, exclusion and inequity. The theatre we make recognises that we live in an unjust world, but, despite different experiences, everyone has a story to tell. For ten years, London Bubble has supported older adults to express themselves and feel part of our creative community. This programme is a unique offer in our home borough of Southwark, encompassing; Tea Break Theatre: the only participatory theatre project delivered in sheltered housing; The Rotherhithe Shed: a space for practical projects, upcycling and repair; A performance group that creates topical, entertaining shows to tour sheltered housing; and access to events and trips as part of Bubble’s wider intergenerational community.
Susan Langford, Director/founder of Magic Me. Susan first joined a community arts project with older people in 1986 and founded Magic Me in 1989. She has grown the charity from a small local arts project to become a leading provider of pioneering intergenerational arts practice, with a special expertise in arts with older people living in care homes, including people living with a dementia. Susan has provided training and consultancy, across the UK and in Ireland, Spain, Poland, Brazil and South Korea. Some favourite Magic Me projects include: an intergenerational carnival through Hackney streets; the creation of a 10 metre artwork installed on local 205 buses during the London 2012 Olympics; and Cocktails in Care Homes which threw over 600 evening parties for residents and volunteers.
Audrey Aidoo-Davies, Project Manager at Magic Me. Since joining the sector in 2015, Audrey has worked in a range of arts and heritage organisations with a focus on helping build the bridge with local communities through creative projects that involve facilitation and project management. Audrey joined Magic Me this Summer and is developing new intergenerational projects that continue to nurture new and existing local connections.
Chloe Latchford, Project Coordinator at Magic Me. Chloe joined Magic Me in January 2023, as a Community Arts Trainee before becoming a Project Coordinator in August 2023. Chloe has a background in Fine Art, specialising in Drawing and Printmaking. Prior to this role, she was an art workshop facilitator for several organisations. Chloe grew up in Bethnal green, the home of Magic Me. She has strong connections with the local area and giving back to the community is something she feels passionately about. Chloe was a core member of Magic Me’s recent project ‘Searching for Community’. She is excited about revisiting and creating new bonds with participants and artists in upcoming intergenerational projects.
The Performance Ensemble (TPE) is an older person-led arts and social change organisation committed to tackling ageism and improving the lives of older people in Leeds and beyond. We create high-quality cross artform performances for anybody and positive health outcomes for older people through an ensemble methodology and a set of rich cross-sector, place-based partnerships. With the support of an Arts Council England ‘s National Portfolio Organisation 3-year grant and Leeds City Council funding we has created a permanent and unique collective of older artists from diverse backgrounds creating art with the experience of age through building long lasting relationships with thousands of older people across each year.
Jill Cole. Board Member, NE Culture Partnership. Director, Northern Heartlands. Jill Cole is passionate about using arts, culture and creativity as a means of engaging communities and sharing underheard voices. She has been a member of the North East Culture Partnership board since 2019, with particular (shared) responsibility for the Diversity and Inclusion sub-group. She is the Director of Northern Heartlands, until 2020 one of 16 Great Place Schemes in England funded by Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund and now an independent CIO (and a new NPO) based in Barnard Castle, Co Durham. Her background is in theatre and community arts; as well as a role as Artistic Director of a thriving youth theatre for many years she has also worked as a freelance Arts Manager for many independent arts organisations both large and small. From 2016-17 she was a Relationship Manager for Arts Council England.
Anne Walton, Chair of Equal Arts “A humanist and social worker for many years I welcomed the opportunity to become involved with Equal Arts and creative age as both a participant and trustee.”
Our Experiences. Our Voice. Residents and staff from supported living schemes across the North East will share their experiences of working with Equal Arts, and how engaging in creative activity has impacted their lives for the better. Participants – Amy Bell, Elsie English and Val Hunwick from Johnny Johnson Housing and Lynne Walker, Gillian Ford & Angie Walker from Gateshead Housing Company
Creative Ageing: Development & Agency 