Author: Guy Armitage

Cat Gibbard is a Programme Curator at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange in West Penwith, Cornwall, where she develops and delivers exhibitions and projects that explore the role of art in shaping and enriching everyday life.

For Social Fabric [24/25], she brought together works by contemporary women artists from international, national, and regional contexts, whose practices reimagine traditional textile skills through fresh perspectives, including Lenka Clayton, Aya Haidar, Jamilla Prowse, Celia Pym, and Elizabeth Loveday.

Cat has devised exhibitions in partnership with organisations such as the Arts Council Collection and the National Portrait Gallery, exploring how the decision-making around the collection and display of artworks can be made more democratic.

Her work is underpinned by extensive experience in nurturing artistic ambition. Through projects such as The Palace of Culture and Drawing a Presence, she places artistic experimentation at the centre of the gallery’s programme while providing a platform for emerging talent.

She is currently a member of Visual Arts South West’s Curator Bank, supporting artist development and strengthening regional networks.

Judith Carlton is Director at Southwark Park Galleries, a non-profit contemporary art gallery, ACE NPO and educational charity est. in 1984 which spans two venues in the heart of Southwark Park, in South East London.

Former Deputy Director, Matt’s Gallery, London and Gallery Manager at Cubitt Gallery & Studios, London, and has held positions at the Serpentine Galleries, London; The Hatton Gallery, Newcastle; and various Artist/Studio Assistance Roles.

Judith is a Trustee of Workplace Foundation, Newcastle, and a visiting lecturer in Fine Art and Professional Art Practice across the UK and Ireland.

Beatriz Lobo Britto (b. 1994, Brazil) is a curator, museologist, and researcher. She is committed to non-hierarchical thinking and non-linear approaches to organising ideas, with research focused on anticolonial methodologies, education, and social and environmental justice. Since 2011, she has advocated for Indigenous rights through community-led projects in South America, foregrounding critical pedagogy and land justice.

Since 2022, she works as Curator at the Institute of International Visual Arts (iniva). She was a Guest Curator at the 15th Havana Biennial ‘Shared Horizons’ in 2024-25. Previously holding curatorial positions at The NewBridge Project (Newcastle, UK), Gallery of Modern Art (Glasgow, UK), Museu do Índio (Museum of Indigenous Peoples, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and has contributed to programmes at São Paulo Architecture Biennial, BALTIC and Hauser & Wirth.

Beatriz holds an MA in Curatorial Practice with a focus in Contemporary Art from Glasgow School of Art, and a BA (Hons) in Museum Studies from the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro. She has lectured internationally, including at Goldsmiths (London, UK), University of Oxford (UK), Artes Mundi (Cardiff, Wales), Fotogalleriet (Oslo, NO), Instituto Superior de Arte (Havana, Cuba). She was a recipient of the Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries in 2020, and paired with the Brooklyn Museum for AAMC’s Engagement Program for International Curators in 2023.

Sabita Kumari-Dass is the founding director of Protégé & Great West Gallery – an experiment in learning innovation facilitating marginalised young people to work alongside artists – emerging and established – to tailor their own cultural education and skills development, turning exclusion and disadvantage into opportunity and empowerment. 

From this, Great West Gallery has grown as a different kind of gallery invested in leveraging the success of award-winning artists from prestigious art schools across the UK to platform unheard voices, discover hidden stories, reframe and challenge limiting narratives. Driven by social purpose and community collaboration the gallery is nestled in an old warehouse in Brentford’s waterside regeneration.

Anne de Charmant is the Artistic Director and Curator for Meadow Arts, an inspirational contemporary visual arts charity delivering ambitious and accessible projects in unexpected, often rural places.

Coming from a varied European background, Anne’s early career was as an arts writer and journalist. She moved to London in 1990, an arts correspondent for various European media and press.

Having settled near Ludlow in the beautiful rural landscape of the Welsh Border, Anne became particularly interested by the cultural and emotional ties the British have with their landscape and the countryside. This, along with the idea of decentralising where great contemporary art could happen, informed her thinking around presenting contemporary art in a dynamic way outside of big urban centres.

She began to develop the concept for a new type of contemporary visual arts organisation. One that would have no venue of its own, but would work with partners across the wider region such as regional museums, heritage organisations, and other inspiring venues where one wouldn’t expect to encounter contemporary art.

After Anne’s early stewardship, and thanks to a wonderful team, Meadow Arts has grown to become the well-regarded organisation it is today, known for innovation and responsiveness as well as the quality and diversity of its programmes.

Now acting as artistic director, Anne curates most Meadow Arts exhibitions and projects. Her favourite part of the job is to bring artists to a site or community and watch the creative cogs start to turn.

Benjamin Sebastian (b. 1980, AUS/GB) is a transdisciplinary artist-curator based between London (UK) and Gimuy/Cairns (AUS). Their practice is shaped through an embodied, intersectional approach informed by their lived experience as a British settler-Australian, neurodivergent/disabled, and nonbinary/queer person.

Sebastian approaches curating and art-making as interconnected forms of practice-based research, treating both as sites for knowledge production, cultural intervention, and social transformation. Their curatorial work operates not simply as exhibition-making, but as a critical extension of their studio practice: framing discourse, amplifying underrepresented voices (including their own), and building alternative infrastructures of care, visibility, and resistance. Their curatorial projects centre artists whose work challenges dominant cultural narratives, with a particular focus on neurodivergent, queer, global majority, and womxn practitioners.

Artistically, Sebastian works within the material histories of performance, installation, textiles, collage, new media, and ritual practice, employing processes of speculative world-building and reworlding as methods for reimagining embodiment, memory, and cultural futurity. Situated within contemporary British and Australian art, alongside international performance art, their research-led practice is underpinned by a commitment to intersectionality as both a critical framework and a lived reality.

Sebastian has exhibited and performed extensively across international contexts, with presentations at institutions and festivals including the Institute of Contemporary Arts (UK), Venice International Performance Art Week (IT), Grace Exhibition Space (USA), Turner Contemporary (UK), Hayward Gallery (UK), Herbert Read Gallery (UK), Spider Festival (SI), Meno Parkas Galerija (LT), Freud Museum (UK), Body and Freedom Festival (CH), FUTURERITUAL (UK), and CT20 (UK).

Their work is held in public and private collections and has been supported through grants and awards from Arts Council England, the British Council, Creative Folkestone, and the Roger De Haan Charitable Trust. Previously, Sebastian co-founded and directed the artist-led initiatives ]performance s p a c e [ (2011–2026) and VSSL Studio (2020–2026), both of which became significant platforms for experimental performance and queer artistic practices in the UK.

They hold a BA (Hons) Fine Art (First Class) from the University of Lincoln and an MA Curating Art and Public Programmes (Distinction) from London South Bank University in partnership with Whitechapel Gallery. Their work bridges embodied praxis and critical inquiry, positioning visual art as a sovereign site for emancipatory knowledge production and curating as a method for shaping new cultural imaginaries.

Zoya Bhatti is a socially engaged practitioner and producer based in Nelson, Lancashire, where she leads on Engagement and Participation at In-Situ. Her work spans young people’s programmes, community-led projects with artists, and finding ways to make access to art and culture more equitable in the town she calls home.

She is also co-founder of Hillo Hub, a centre for women in Lancashire that promotes health and wellbeing through nature, outdoor activity, faith and mindfulness. Drawing on a decade of experience across the public, private and third sectors — and a youth and community development background — Zoya is committed to making a positive difference to the lives of those she works with, and to the strength of collective voices in challenging systemic issues.

In her practice, Zoya works with art and artists in collaborative and participatory ways, where people, conversations, relationships and new experiences become the medium. She believes that everyone has the ability to be creative — they just need to find their tools.

Natalie Melton is Executive Director of the Crafts Council, where she leads the organisation’s strategic direction, partnerships and advocacy to strengthen the UK craft sector. She is guiding the organisation towards a clearer, more connected national role, supporting makers at every stage of their careers while widening public access to craft and its impact across society.

She oversees a wide portfolio of activity that connects audiences, makers and industry. The Crafts Council reaches a digital audience of more than 500,000 each year and supports a growing membership of over 2,500 across CC, CC+ and Young Craft Citizens. Thousands more benefit from opportunities, listings and digital resources. Natalie has also played a central role in shaping platforms such as Collect Art Fair, which attracts more than 12,000 visitors over five days and brings together international galleries, collectors and artists, creating significant opportunities for visibility, sales and global exchange.

Natalie contributes to the wider creative industries landscape through a number of national and civic roles. She is a member of the Creative Industries Council and the Creative Industries Trade and Investment Board, a trustee of People United, and a member of the Lady Mayor of London’s Craft Taskforce. She also supports talent development through advisory and judging roles, including the Rabih Hage Craft Bursary and the House & Gardens Craft Prize.

Before joining the Crafts Council, Natalie co-founded The New Craftsmen, where she developed collaborations that brought contemporary craft into dialogue with global brands and audiences. Projects included Burberry Makers House, which combined live making, storytelling and retail to create an immersive public experience.

In her occasional spare time, Natalie can be found on a dance floor, obsessively making playlists, cooking for friends and family and cheering on her adoptive football club, Grimsby Town.

Photo credit Alun Callender