Author: Guy Armitage

Kate Adams is an artist, advocate and activist. She has initiated and curated many responsive, collaborative projects with people who have complex support needs, families, caregivers, artists and galleries. Kate co-founded Project Art Works (NPO) in 2000 to explore an expanded concept of art and, in her own practice, the unknowability of nonspeaking experience.

Kate leads on the curation of programmes and productions that raise awareness about the lived experience of learning disability and/or autism and the structures and systems that both enable and disable full participation in life and culture. Shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2021, Project Art Works promotes the work of artists otherwise denied platforms for representation, and new ways of thinking about agency, ethics and praxis that challenge paradigms of inclusion in all ways.

Rebecca Swift is an artist–researcher, mentor, and Creative Director of Entelechy Arts with over 35 years’ experience developing interdisciplinary arts in grassroots and community settings. Her practice spans spoken word, dance, theatre, and visual art.

She co-created the Ambient Jam approach — an improvisational, sensory, and movement-based arts practice developed with people with complex and multiple disabilities — and later adapted it for care home environments.

Rebecca is deeply experienced in fostering inclusion and culture within complex settings, including care homes, SEND schools, hospital wards, outdoor spaces, and diverse local communities.

She has mentored numerous artists over the years, supporting their development in inclusive and community-based creative practice.

Fin Irwin is the founder of intoBodmin, a community-led organisation established in 2017 to support the social, cultural and economic life of Bodmin, Cornwall. Based at The Old Library, intoBodmin has grown into a hub for cultural activity, community connection and local enterprise. Fin has led the organisation’s development from an initial community engagement project into a team delivering a diverse programme of events, services and partnerships.

His work focuses on creative, place-based approaches to community development, bringing together residents, organisations and businesses to explore challenges and opportunities collectively. This includes developing consultation methods, creative engagement tools and new models for collaboration through initiatives such as intoChange. Alongside his work locally, Fin contributes to regional and national discussions on social and cultural infrastructure, community power and the role of grassroots organisations in shaping the future of towns.

Jazz Swali is Curator and Programme Coordinator at BACKLIT Gallery, Nottingham. They have curated exhibitions including Our Marian (2026), The Last Horror Show (2024), Punk: Rage and Revolution (2023) and in reality, these things need to be said (2021), and have co-curated exhibitions such as Tessa Boffin: Where We Touch the Archive (2026–27) and Made in the Middle (2025).

Their curatorial research focuses on queering, oppositional methodologies and archival practice. Their work spans exhibition-making, public programming, speaking and sector engagement, including contributions to Curatorial Reimaginings (BAN, 2024) and Shaping the Future (UKNA, 2025), and the artist advice series Dear Artists (CVAN, 2024), alongside invited roles on selection panels and advisory boards.

Publications include Pantry (2025), co-authored as part of The Lilac House. They were awarded an Arts Council England Develop Your Creative Practice grant (2024) and were part of the British Art Network Emerging Curators Group (2023–24).

Elaine Midgley is Director of Bedford Creative Arts, leading the team of staff, artists and freelancers behind BCA’s wide-ranging programme of community-based arts projects and activities.

An experienced arts manager, she brings deep expertise across fundraising, event management, arts development and theatre. Her career before BCA spanned youth and professional touring theatre, local authority arts development, and the management of major live events – including the Cambridge legs of the Olympic Torch Relay and the Tour de France. She also serves as Chair of the Bedford Cultural Partnership, the consortium representing Bedford’s arts and cultural organisations.

Victoria Pratt is an artist who works across disciplines. She is Co-founder and Creative Director of Invisible Flock; multi-award winning artists, based at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK. Invisible Flock’s practice fuses technology and natural materials collaborating with environments and communities to form layered understandings of place. We place artworks in nature, in galleries and museums, in digital and public spaces, in print and out at sea. We work across sectors to have a creative impact on ecology, politics, health and society.

Our work has been exhibited at Wellcome Collection, Brighton Festival, COP27 and COP28 with the World Health Organisation, Karachi Biennale, British Library, FACT Liverpool, The Sage Gateshead, Qatar Museums, Victoria & Albert Museum, Vooruit Ghent, Saint Sauveur Lille and MIMA amongst many others.

In 2021 Invisible Flock received the Wellcome Trust Hub Award to lead Land Body Ecologies (LBE). Land Body Ecologies is a global collective of artists, expert communities, researchers, Indigenous leaders, designers, conservationists, technologists and activists together exploring the deep connections between mental health and ecosystem health.

Amelia Baron is a Leeds-based curator and artist currently working as the Assistant Curator at The Art House in Wakefield (Instagram). Since joining the curatorial team in 2021, Amelia has focused on championing accessibility, neurodivergence, and mental health within the creative sector.

She is deeply committed to supporting artists who face barriers to their practice and ensuring art remains accessible to all, regardless of background or class. A graduate of Leeds Arts University (BA Fine Art, 2018), Amelia’s own artist practice uses performance and installation to explore the complexities of the mind. Her work often features delicate materials and repetitive gestures to reflect on the fragility of mental health, a practice rooted in her lived experience of using art as a primary tool for communication and recovery.

Mia is the Curator & Programme Manager at ‘a space’ arts in Southampton. She works alongside the creative programming team to develop and deliver exhibitions, events and artist development activities. A graduate of Winchester School of Art, Mia is interested in generating opportunities and providing support for emerging artists in the region as well as commissioning playful, exciting art that amplifies marginalised voices and challenges convention.

Mia is also a trustee at SPUD in the New Forest, as well as a filmmaker and visual artist. She is mostly Cornish, but grew up in Plymouth and enjoys cooking, reading and swimming in the sea.

A new commission, House of Revision / House of Repair by Uma Breakdown, opens at ‘a space’ arts’ headline venue, God’s House Tower on Friday 5 June and runs until Monday 27 July 2026.

Natalie Rudd is Director of West Yorkshire Print Workshop, a dynamic arts organisation supporting artists working in printmaking. She is leading the organisation through an ambitious next chapter.

An art historian, curator and writer specialising in modern and contemporary art, Natalie brings over 25 years of expertise in strategic leadership, public engagement, and inclusive programming. As Senior Curator of the Arts Council Collection (2003–2021), she led the UK’s largest loan collection of British sculpture, managing the centre for sculpture at Longside, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and producing many touring exhibitions and learning programmes. She has also held curatorial positions at Tate Liverpool and the University of Manchester.

With doctorate-level expertise in recent sculpture by women, Natalie develops sector-shaping projects that foreground underrepresented artists and narratives. She is a highly skilled writer and editor with an extensive portfolio of published work, and as an experienced public speaker she regularly delivers lectures and chairs conversations at galleries, museums and universities across the UK. She studied History of Art at King’s College, Cambridge, graduating with a First Class degree, and recently completed a PhD in Art History at the University of Birmingham, funded by Midlands4Cities.

Dave McLeavy is a curator, writer and cultural leader, and is currently the CEO & Artistic Director at Humber Street Gallery, Hull. Born in Hull, but spending most of his career based in Sheffield, he has held positions as Director of Bloc Projects, Sheffield, Curator at Humber Street Gallery and Founder and Editor of the online platform YAC – Young Artists in Conversation. He is also the Chair of Trustees for the arts and heritage organisation, Our Big Picture in Grimsby, and was formally the Chair of Trustees for Turf Projects, Croydon.