These artists, curators and cultural leaders are experts in British folk culture, community heritage, protest, queerness and working class art.
This team ensure the project reflects a wide range of voices and experiences.
Hettie Judah
writer and curator
Hettie is a regular contributor to The Guardian, Frieze and The Times Literary Supplement, and writes a monthly column for Apollo magazine. Her writing on art can also be found in Art Quarterly, Art Monthly, ArtReview and other publications with ‘art’ in the title.
Hettie is curator of the Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood which opened at the Arnolfini in Bristol on 9 March 2024, and is currently on show at DCA in Dundee. The standalone book Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood is published by Thames & Hudson.
Following publication of her 2020 study on the impact of motherhood on artists’ careers, in 2021 she worked with a group of artists to draw up the manifesto How Not To Exclude Artist Parents, now available in 16 languages.
In 2022, together with Jo Harrison, Hettie co-founded the Art Working Parents Alliance – a supportive network and campaigning group for curators, academics, gallerists, technicians, educators and others working in the arts.
Recent books include How Not To Exclude Artist Mothers (and other parents) (Lund Humphries, 2022) and Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones (John Murray, London, 2022/ Penguin, NY, 2023). Her next book How to Enter the Art World After will be published in 2026. She is currently working on a major book on art and women’s desire.
Professor Mel Jordan
artist and academic
Mel is Director of the Centre for Postdigital Cultures at Coventry University, where she leads the ArtSpaceCity research theme, exploring the relationships between artistic practice, spatial politics, and urban transformation. She is also a trustee of the Coventry Biennial.
Until 2020, she was Head of Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art, a programme she wrote and established—also the first new Fine Art programme at the RCA in twenty years. Her research focuses on art, politics, and public engagement, a commitment reflected in her founding editorship of Art & the Public Sphere (Intellect Ltd., ISSN 2042-793X). She is co-developer, with Professor Andy Hewitt, of spacex-rise (spacex-rise.org), a European Union-funded MSCA RISE project involving 29 partner organisations. The project explores how spatial practices shape public opinion and contribute to inclusive urban living.
From 2004 to 2018, she worked with Dave Beech and Andy Hewitt as part of the Freee Art Collective. In 2018, she co-founded the Partisan Social Club with Andy Hewitt.
Mel integrates various art historical elements in her practice, including text, stitched banners, print, performance, workshops, sculptural props, video, photography, and montage.
Dr Hannah Phillips
theatre director, writer, producer and academic
Hannah is the Artistic Director of Mobilise Arts, a socially engaged arts company which uses the arts as a tool for social change, wellbeing and to platform marginalised artists, participants and audiences.
Her latest project is The Queer Motherhood Project. Hannah is the (interim) co-creative director of Scala arts centre in Worcester, opening in autumn 2026. She was the Senior Producer of Birmingham Shout festival, a festival of LGBTQIA+ arts and culture.
She is the Director of Generation Q Collective, Midland Arts Centre’s (MAC) a collective of LGBTQIA+ emerging artists. Hannah recently received Arts Council DYCP funding to embed wellbeing into her performance practice and delivers creative wellbeing workshops.
She was the former Director of Transformation at Worcester Arts Workshop and Director / CEO of Artrix Arts Centre. She was the Director of Young People’s Theatre at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
Hannah is a Visiting Lecturer at The University of Warwick, The University of Worcester, Birmingham City University and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She was the former Deputy Director of the School of Acting at The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, a Senior Lecturer and Programme Lead in Creative Writing and Applied Theatre at Birmingham Newman University and she is a Senior Fellow for the Higher Education Association.
She is currently a theatre reviewer for ReviewsGate. Hannah is a trustee for West Midlands Circus Centre.
Lally MacBeth
artist, writer, curator
Based in Cornwall, Lally’s work takes in history, folklore, performance, ritual and artifice – and the links between high and low culture.
She is the founder of The Folk Archive and co-founder of Stone Club. S
he has written for Caught by the River, House and Garden, and Hellebore, appeared on BBC Radio 3, and programmed events for the Tate, the British Museum, and the ICA amongst others.
The Lost Folk, her first book, is published by Faber.
Dr Amalia Sabiescu
is a senior lecturer in Media and Creative Industries at Loughborough University London. A media and communications scholar with an interdisciplinary research agenda, Dr. Sabiescu employs ecological frameworks to study the nexus between social, cultural and digital change.
Her research investigates this dynamic in museums and the heritage sector, examining processes of digital transformation and the evolving social and educational roles of museums. And in community-based research, with a special interest in the connection between aspirations and social change for young people in transition.
Dr. Sabiescu currently serves on the board of The Roma Project and has been conducting research with Roma communities for over 15 years. Her work intersects with this field, exploring how digital media functions as tools for voice, representation, and cultural expression.
Beth Hughes
curator, researcher
Based between London and Manchester, Beth is currently Curator and Creative Producer for Lubaina Himid Projects and writes extensively on contemporary art and working-class culture.
Beth is undertaking a PhD exploring how class is represented and understood within publicly funded art collections in the UK. She also leads the Working Class British Art Network which investigates working-class representation in contemporary British art.
Alongside her doctoral research, she works on a range of freelance projects collaborating with organisations including the British Library and MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art) among others. Previously, Beth was Visual Arts Curator at Salisbury Cathedral where she led a number of exhibitions including To Be Free: Art and Liberty and Our Earth. Prior to that, she was Curator at the Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre responsible for the care and research of the non-sculptural holdings, managing the national loans programme and supporting organisations across the UK to access works from the Collection.
Her curatorial practice is grounded in a belief in the value and power of public art collections with a strong commitment to collaboration and widening access. She has curated numerous exhibitions including Found Cities, Lost Objects with Lubaina Himid and Criminal Ornamentation with Yinka Shonibare CBE RA.
Holly Grange
curator, researcher, writer
With 20 years’ experience in public art institutions, Holly’s specialisms include contemporary and modern art; collections research and access; ‘Outsider Art’/marginalised artists practices, community co-curation and curatorial activism.
I am driven by equity, diversity, and inclusion in cultural practice. I strongly believe in the significant civic role arts organisations can play to affect positive social change, serving as platforms for public dialogue, fostering community engagement, and promoting critical thinking.
Holly was Exhibitions Curator at Leeds Art Gallery for 5 years. Before that, Holly was Curator of the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection at The Whitworth, where she managed a major collections fund project to research, document, digitise this collection and integrate of the MKOAC into the wider collection to challenge the ghettoisation and marginalisation of Outsider Art.
Jez Collins
cultural consultant, researcher, founder of the Birmingham Music Archive
The BMA provides cultural and creative consultancy to a variety of sectors working in music, development and place-making and tourism.
A social and cultural entrepreneur, Collins has extensive experience in the creative industries and cultural sector and higher education. Collins is regarded as an expert in his field of popular music history, heritage and culture and is often invited to speak at events worldwide.
Andrew Robinson
Photographer, artist, educator
Andrew’s art practice investigates expressions of identity through a visual anthropology of people, place, and trace applying creative strategies that integrate still and moving imagery with text, audio, and found materials.
Research interests include: the visual representation of vernacular English custom and tradition; the folklore, myth and legend associated with photographs and photographers; and photography in print and archive. Recent work has explored subjects as diverse as The Crimean War; Lover’s Leap Legends; English Calendar Customs; A.I Generated Imagery, and the Calvine UFO. Andrew currently holds a 0.6 post as Senior Lecturer in Photography at Sheffield Hallam University, teaching on BA (Hons) Photography.
Alongside Dr David Clark and Dr Diane Rodgers, Andrew is co-founder of The Centre for Contemporary Legend, a research group at Sheffield Hallam, since joined by Sophie Parks-Neild. The CCL have hosted a number of international research conferences and public events, published books, chapters and contributed to other conferences and research projects in an attempt to both extend and raise the profile of the academic study of folklore, custom and contemporary legend. The CCL has recently been successful in obtaining an Arts and Humanities Research Council Grant to undertake a major project, a National Folklore Survey for England.
Donna Briscoe-Greene
CEO of East Midlands Caribbean Carnival Arts Network
Winner of the 2019 Black Achievers Award for Culture, Media and the Arts, and the East Midlands Women’s Award for Art, Media & Music, Donna returned to the stage in 4 Walls as Ms Ivy at the age of 53—43 years after first stepping into the spotlight at Derby Theatre.
Once unable to secure work behind the scenes, Donna is now Chair of theatre company 1623 and has since risen to lead as CEO of the East Midlands Caribbean Carnival Arts Network (EMCCAN). Donna serves as the Creative Director and Landlady of The Maypole Cafe Bar and Theatre, founded and helmed EMBAA CIC (East Midlands Black Arts Associated), an organisation dedicated to nurturing and decolonising Derby’s performing arts scene through the storm of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Now a seasoned lead vocalist, Donna has shared stages with artists such as Aswad and Omar, and performed for Amnesty International, International Women’s Day, Windrush Celebrations, Carnival – and was chosen to sing for the Jamaican High Commissioner on his visit to Derby.
Donna has a life shaped by rhythm and resistance; and her voice once forged in silence has finally returned to song.
Mukhtar Dar
visual artist, filmmaker, creative producer, festival organiser, and artistic director
Mukhtar’s career showcases artistic excellence, project management expertise, and financial acumen. Mukhtar has cultivated strong relationships with artists, arts organisations, funders, and stakeholders, demonstrating adeptness in community engagement.
As an activist and cultural leader, Mukhtar employs his creative skills in the service of social justice. He co-founded the Sheffield Asian Youth Movement, Pakistani Workers Association, Black Peoples Alliance, and the South Asian Alliance. Mukhtar’s archive documents Asian and African Caribbean communities’ struggles against racism. With a BA (Hons) in Fine Arts and Media Studies, he specialises in painting, printmaking, photography, installations, and filmmaking. Mukhtar continues to create innovative multidisciplinary projects recognised for high production values and challenging themes.
Dr Isobel Talks
researcher, lecturer and consultant
Isobel earned her DPhil in 2022 from the Department of Education at Oxford, with a dissertation critically examining development and education in Bangladesh. Isobel co-created and co-teaches the course ‘Environmental Education’ in the Department of Geography.
Isobel is a Co-Investigator on the ‘Skills for Sustainable Farming Futures’ Fell Funded project. She is part of the organising team for the upcoming 2025 Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit with the United Nations. Isobel also helps to facilitate the Agroecology Research Collaboration which is hosted by the Landworkers’ Alliance.
Jade Foster
curator, artist, art historian
Jade is based in Nottingham and from Sandwell in the West Midlands. Since July 2024 they have been Curator at Disability Arts Shropshire. They hold the positions of Trustee / Board Member of Nottingham Contemporary (since 2020) and Public Programme Curator at Primary in Nottingham. At Primary, they lead the development of exhibitions and digital commissions, focusing on brokering international collaborations.
In addition to their work at Primary, they have worked on a freelance basis Hospital Rooms as a Visiting Curator, commissioning artworks for Sandwell CAMHS, an outpatient service for children and young people with complex mental health needs.
An avid public speaker for over 6 years, they have co-curated a-n Assembly Black Country and facilitated a group discussion alongside artist Helen Cammock; they were a panellist recently for ‘Time Will Tell: Future museum and contested objects’ at Tate Britain; for example.
Jade has always thoroughly enjoyed sharing knowledge as widely as possible and has written for Art Monthly, LUX, and ArtReview. Jade has an art studio at BACKLIT (Nottingham) and is a member of AWITA, the British Art Network and the Black Curators Collective.