PAUL AGER
Associate
Paul Ager is an artist blacksmith and art technician based in Plymouth. Having studied metalwork and silversmithing in Plymouth and London, Paul is based at Flameworks where he specialises in fabrication of works for artists and bespoke architectural metalwork for residential and industrial properties. This work ranges from small-scale pieces to large sculptural works.
Paul has over 20 years experience working in museums, galleries and exhibitions nationally and internationally. As a freelance carpenter/engineer for Harris Blythe (2000-2007) he worked on a range of major projects including: the interior of a submarine for the Imperial War Museum; a series of ‘Pepper’s Ghosts’ (a holographic technique) for the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester; a projected AV installation of a virtual book for the Louis Vuitton flagship store in Taiwan; Anthony Gormley’s ‘Blind Light’ installation at the Hayward Gallery (2007). Paul is currently Technical Coordinator at KARST, where he has installed a range of ambitious exhibitions including; Fig Futures (a series of 4 exhibitions in 4 weeks), Morgan Quaintance’s Hysteresis; Light Observed (organised by Damian Griffiths); and Bad Actors. Paul has also supported KARST’s community engagement projects, assisting local primary school children in curating and installing exhibitions of their work in the gallery.
ROSIE BOWERY
Associate
Rosie Bowery is an artist and illustrator based in Bristol. She recently completed a Masters in Art & Politics at Goldsmiths, University of London and has worked on projects with Plymouth Arts Centre, Nudge Community Builders, The Atlantic Project, and Take A Part. She also runs Nowhere Illustration Fair, which aims to create a space for illustrators to meet, share ideas, and sell work.
Photo credit: Gem Smith
ANDY CLUER
Associate
Andy Cluer is an artist, exhibitions coordinator at Exeter Phoenix and a freelance art handler based in the South West, UK. He holds an MA in Contemporary Art Practice from Plymouth University and a BA (Hons) in Fine Art, Critical and Curatorial Practices.
Andy has previously worked on over one hundred exhibitions nationally working freelance for The Arts Council, The Crafts Council, Hayward Gallery and Jerwood; for arts festivals The Atlantic Project, Plymouth Art Weekender and We The People Are The Work; and artists Forensic Architecture, Martin Creed and Richard Long. Through his position of exhibition coordinator at Exeter Phoenix his roles include the planning, managing and installation of exhibitions & supporting, programming and the curating of the visual arts program, focusing on emerging and regional artists.
His own practice investigates places of both real and imagined sites and the mapping of experience through perception, memory and sound. He often questions the possibility of presenting a visual awareness of these environments through audio as well as exploring the different ways listening experiences can be accessible through non-audio mediums.
TILLY CRAIG
Associate
Tilly Craig is a writer, researcher and producer based in Devon. She holds an MA in Literature and Film from the University of Exeter, and a BA in Literature from Goldsmiths, London. Tilly has extensive experience in arts writing and marketing, having developed projects including publications, films and events for cultural organisations such as The Box and KARST. Through Flock , Tilly has worked in a consultancy capacity with artists Still/Moving and LOW PROFILE to develop and shape marketing strategies.
Her own research has examined gender and the occult through contemporary media and online landscapes, and, alongside working with Flock, she is a member of Black Mirror research network. Her writing on art and film has been featured by Elephant, Suspira, Broccoli and Record Collector magazines, and in artists editions and independent zines.
Tilly is interested in exploring themes of identity, place and the occult through written and visual projects. She is co-editing a book of selected papers from Seeking the Marvellous (a symposium she co-organised in 2017), and producing the catalogue for Mohini Chandra's forthcoming exhibition, Paradise Lost (2021).
tillyalicecraig.journoportfolio.com
Instagram: @tilly.craig
RYAN CURTIS
Director
Working between art galleries, workshop environments, education institutions, site-specific projects, and working for individual artists and artist-led organisations Ryan Curtis is an experienced art technician who has worked in professional fabrication and installation environments for the past eight years. Ryan is also an artist who has exhibited throughout the UK, more information can be found at ryan-curtis.co.uk
LLYR DAVIES
Director
Llyr Davies has worked as a freelance technician for South West based arts institutions, galleries and artist-led organisations for the last six years. He has worked for Plymouth University’s Arts Institute, The Atlantic Project 2018, Plymouth Art Weekender, and Plymouth Arts Centre installing exhibitions. He is a project manager for public arts collective LOCI,
specialising in murals. Llyr has worked on 12 murals to date and the majority have been with local community groups such as St Levan, Weston Mill, Wolseley Trust, the Ernesettle Allotment project and many others. Llyr also has a background in plastering with site skills.
Llyr is an artist working from his studio in Ocean Studios. He is primarily a painter but also works with installations. He has co-organised artist-led exhibitions such as ‘Shambles’ in 2017 situated at the SlaughterHouse Royal William Yard, and ‘Compound’ for Plymouth Art Weekender 2018.
RACHEL DOBBS
Associate
Rachel Dobbs is an artist & educator based in Plymouth, with 15+ years experience in initiating, developing and delivering artist-led projects. These range from large-scale participatory projects, to small-scale live moments, gallery exhibitions and durational performances - shown nationally and internationally.
Rachel is ½ of LOW PROFILE, co-director of Jamboree (a national gathering of artists & curators), co-director of Contemporary Art Membership Plymouth (a member-led network for the creative and visual arts community in Plymouth & the South West), founder of North Star Study Group (a creative learning project for adults investigating the contexts and impacts of colonialism) and was coordinator of Visual Arts Plymouth’s Talent Development programme (2017-2018). Rachel regularly delivers community education projects for Take A Part and specialises in project development & consultancy, creative education, supporting neurodiverse artists & crowdfunding for creative and community projects.
She is also the author of the ACE Cheatsheet, and a visiting specialist on MA & BA programmes with a range of organisations including University of Plymouth, Plymouth College of Art, University of Winchester & University of Manchester.
LUCY ELMES
née ROLLINS
Director
Lucy Stella Rollins is a South West based Contemporary Art Curator and Producer. She holds an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London and a BFA in Fine Art, Contemporary Practices with Cultural Entrepreneurship from Dartington College of Arts.
Alongside curating and producing, Lucy’s experience and skill set include fundraising, reporting writing, mentoring, associate lecturing at BA and MA level and art writing. She has worked on large scale public realm exhibition projects including Iteration:Again, Tasmania, Australia (2011-2012) and was producer on The Atlantic Project, a pilot for a biennial for Plymouth in 2018. In the past she has worked for Rowing Projects, London (2013-2014); Frieze Projects, Frieze Art Fair, London (2014); Serpentine Galleries - Director’s Office (2016) and Plymouth Arts Centre (2017-2018). For Plymouth Arts Centre she programmed the PAC Home associates programme, supported 10 residencies and curated 14 gallery and cinema based exhibitions alongside Artistic Director Ben Borthwick including Larry Achiampong and David Blandy, ‘Finding Fanon Sequence’; Mike Perry ‘Land / Sea’; Ciara Phillips ‘Systems For Saying It’ (as part of We The People Are The Work); Clare Thornton, ‘Materials of Resistance’; Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz, ‘To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of their Desperation’; Evan Ifekoya, ‘She Was a Full Body Speaker’; Allan Sekula, ‘Lottery of the Sea’; Rory Pilgrim, ‘The Sacred Repositories Trilogy’ and Sam Smith, ‘The Horizontal Window’.
Curatorial projects include ‘Not Everything Can Be Tied Down/ Your Split Ends Are Showing’ at DKUK Salon, London (2016). Lucy’s current curatorial research is focused on developing a series of exhibition projects that explores Plymouth specific social/economic/political contexts.
Photo credit: Dom Moore
ASHANTI HARE
Associate
Ashanti Hare is an artist, curator and researcher based in Devon. They received a First Class BA (Hons) Fine Art from Arts University Plymouth in 2022 and was shortlisted for the Platform Graduate Award 2022.
Ashanti has curated 6 exhibitions including Cloth (+ Memory) Transformations by Sue Green, Adam by Aaron Lovelock and their own first solo show Ritual Objects in 2022. Alongside Flock, Ashanti also works as a freelance writer and art technician and has an extensive skill set including graphic and book design, digital content production and social media marketing, copy writing, art handling and installation, curation and art direction.
Their own practice examines the duality of human life and spiritual entity. By combining digital manipulation, folk craftsmanship and writing Ashanti explore the intersections of identity, spiritualism and the occult and British colonial history through sensory experiences that include tactility, scent and moving image.
www.ashantihare.com
Instagram: @ashantihare
LEAH HARRIS
Associate
Leah Harris is a visual arts producer with 7+ years experience of supporting artists to develop and deliver ambitious exhibitions. Leah’s background in prop making and set building led her to specialise in working as a gallery producer managing all logistical aspects of delivering exhibitions. From project management and budgets to bespoke exhibition design and leadership of technicians/volunteers, Leah works to support artists to realise their ideas.
Leah was Producer for The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art 2013 - 2020. During this time she delivered successful public exhibitions with artists including Rose Wylie, Katie Schwab, Matt Stokes and Simon Bayliss. As a freelance producer she worked as co-event manager for Jamboree 2018, a national gathering of artists & curators; alongside producing the public realm outcomes of Matthew Raw’s ACE funded project Tactile Change, Plymouth, 2018-19.
Leah is also a farmer, co-managing a 220 acre mixed organic farm just outside of Plymouth.
MOLLY ERIN MCCARTHY
Associate
Molly Erin McCarthy is an artist, producer, and art technician based in Plymouth. She received a First Class BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Plymouth College of Art in 2020.
Having worked on a variety of in person and online projects, Molly has a wide skill set covering practical fabrication, art handling and installation, live events, digital content production, copywriting, and social media.
She has worked locally as an art technician for 3 years, installing shows at KARST and The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art, as well as providing event support for Plymouth Art Weekender and assisting in delivering engagement workshops for KARST and Plymouth Art Weekender.
Molly is also a part of Digi-Gxl, a global network of womxn, trans, inter-sex and non-binary people working with technology. She worked with The Institute of Digital Fashion on the FANGIRL virtual catwalk for London Fashion Week (2020), as well as providing independent 3D modelling and animation services for musicians and designers.
Her artistic practice explores the multi-layered, entangled realities generated by the post-digital, focusing on materiality, ontology, and place.
SOPHIE MELLOR
Associate
Sophie Mellor is an artist and creative technologist based in Plymouth and London. She has established a collaborative practice over the last twenty years, working across disciplines but with a specific interest in art and social transaction.
Sophie works as part of Close and Remote, with Simon Poulter. She is also Co-Director of Mutiny, a company specialising in creating and producing large scale arts projects across digital, theatre and public space.
Recent work with Mutiny includes ‘Covid 19 Threads‘ (2020) a series of short films derived from twitter threads that have appeared during the Covid-19 pandemic; ‘Locus Solus‘ (2020) a live interactive performance in the online gaming platform Roblox; and ‘Future and Form‘ (2020-21) working with three writers as part of the University of East Anglia’s landmark project celebrating 50 years of their Creative Writing course.
DOM MOORE
Associate
Dom Moore is a South West based Photographer. He takes photographs of trees, dogs and sometimes humans. He works across the creative industries and has documented The Atlantic Project 2018, The Plymouth Art Weekender 2019 and has regularly worked with Plymouth Arts Centre, KARST, The Gallery at PCA, Real Ideas Organisation, Nudge Community Builders, Plymouth College of Art and Plymouth University.
RHYS MORGAN
Associate
Rhys Morgan is a Plymouth based interdisciplinary queer artist and producer. His work has been shown consistently around the Southwest as well as across the UK, and in 2017 he was selected as one of the Plymouth Platform 2018 artists. He is currently an assistant producer for Take A Part and was recently the assistant producer for the Plymouth Art Weekender (2017-2018), he has since become a Visual Arts Plymouth Activator and director. Rhys is also a Contemporary Arts Membership Plymouth (CAMP) director. He has been a studio holder at Ocean Studios since 2016 following his first exhibition in the city in the January of that year.
BEN PAYNE
Associate
Ben Payne is a musician, researcher and technician based in the south west. He holds a BA (Hons) in Sound and Music Production and a MRes in Computer Music. He is currently an associate lecturer at the University of Plymouth and is undertaking a PhD in the field of immersive audio environments. His research is concerned with the development of new interactive digital systems for immersive composition and performance. He has worked both creatively and technically across a range of areas including live sound engineering, studio production, live performance and interactive audio. In addition to this, he has contributed music to a number of short films
HANNAH POLLARD
Associate
Hannah Pollard is an artist and arts educator. She has a degree in Fine Art (Media Arts and Performance) from Cardiff Metropolitan University and was Creative Learning Coordinator at Plymouth Arts Centre from 2012 to 2018. She also worked on the production of the Looe Street Detectives exhibitions at Plymouth Arts Centre in 2013 and 2018.
BETH EMILY RICHARDS
Director
Beth Emily Richards is an artist, researcher, associate lecturer, and creative producer. She is particularly interested in supporting artist-led activity, socially-engaged projects, performance and moving image. In 2020 she completed her funded practice-led doctorate, and has over ten years experience of supporting arts research events, publications, digital projects, exhibitions and performances, bringing these to both an academic and public audience. Her own practice investigates methods of contemporary myth-making via a feminist and decolonial lens. She runs Rame Projects CIC with Lucy Stella Rollins, a contemporary arts project space in South East Cornwall.
Past artist-led and creative producing experience has given her a wide skill set including: fundraising, mentoring artists and producers, budget management and reporting, marketing, project management, community engagement, and audience development. She also regularly runs workshops for all ages and is an associate lecturer at Plymouth University. Artist-led projects include: co-directing Project Space 11, an artist-led space in Plymouth City Market (2010-2011); developing and producing Come To Ours, a three month programme of artist-led activity across Plymouth in 2011); co-running Video Social Club, a peripatetic artist-led moving image event (2015-2017); co-founding the artist-led Sister Sister collective (2015-2018); co-directing Rame Projects, a visual arts project space in South East Cornwall (2019). Producing for organisations include: fashion photography campaigns for Rachel Elliston Photography (2008-2009); the Reading Room for The Pigs Of Today Are The Hams of Tomorrow, Marina Abramovic and Plymouth Arts Centre (2010); arts research events and festivals for Plymouth University, the Arts Institute and Peninsula Arts (2010-2015);marketing and communications producing for LOW PROFILE’s Jamboree (2017-2018); creative producing for Take A Part including symposium Social Making (2015-current).
Photo credit: Simon Keitch
KATY RICHARDSON
Associate
Katy Richardson is an artist, arts professional and educator based in Plymouth. Her MA in Contemporary Art Practice was awarded by Plymouth University in 2019.
As the former Gallery Manager at Edgar Modern (Bath) and now a Director of Contemporary Art Membership Plymouth (CAMP) CIC, Katy has been involved in fundraising and bid writing for artist-led projects, project management for art fairs and exhibitions in the UK and overseas, and production of promotional materials and press releases. She carried these skills, along with overseeing several social media channels, through to Plymouth Art Weekender 2019 in her role as Marketing Coordinator, and continues to be an Activator of Visual Arts Plymouth (VAP) CIC.
Since 2017, Katy has been an associate lecturer at Plymouth University, as well as a regular visiting artist to the Media Arts programme there. She also has 8 years English Language teaching experience, which means her grasp of the language is excellent and she is proficient with working to word count, proofreading, writing copy and advising on written communications.
GEMMA SMITH
Associate
Gemma has worked in the arts in Plymouth for 10 years. Over that time her work has crossed many different disciplines and involved a range of projects as diverse as Community radio, public art, theatre, sculpture, mass dance, stone carving, tour guiding and orchestral outreach.
Always at the heart of these projects is a desire to produce work that collaborates with people, supports new audiences to experience and enjoy artwork for the first time or to grow their passion for the arts in a new direction.
Gemma has worked with Take A Part for the last 9 years; starting as programme coordinator before moving on to become creative education producer with a focus on delivering the ‘Crazy Glue’ arts group project. In addition to Take A Part, Gemma has worked for Horizon; a major two-year programme of visual arts festivals, events and exhibitions in Plymouth; during which she was responsible for producing and leading the community engagement programme. In 2013-2015 Gemma also coordinated the Plymouth element of the Philharmonia Orchestra’s strategic touring project ‘iOrchestra’.
Gemma has also worked with Plymouth Dance and The Barbican Theatre and is a freelance dance teacher, photographer and occasional performer. She feels this cross arts approach is a huge strength in her abilities as a producer.
Gemma is Plymouth born and bred; with many fingers in many pies she is an individual with a passion for the arts and a desire to support the local scene to cross-pollinate, share projects and flourish, this is something she hopes to continue for many years to come.
HANNAH ROSE
Associate
Hannah Rose is a Plymouth based artist, curator and producer. Hannah holds a MA in Fine Art from Piet Zwart Institute, Hogeschool Rotterdam (2003-2005) and a BA in Fine Art from Exeter School of Art & Design (2000-2003). Hannah is also qualified to teach 16yrs+ with a PGCE from Plymouth University (2006).
Hannah has worked as Curator at Plymouth College of Art since 2006, establishing the gallery from scratch to become a regionally and nationally recognised programme. Hannah has curated over 50 exhibitions and specialises in supporting artists to develop new work including through the ongoing biennial project The South West Showcase which she set up in 2003. Hannah was a founding member of Plymouth Visual Arts Consortium and Plymouth Visual Arts Programming Group (which she currently chairs) and has played a key role in advocating for and supporting the development of visual arts in the city. This work has seen Hannah co-deliver 5 multi-site, multi-partner projects, The Animal Gaze (2009), The British Art Show (2011), Sinopticon (2012), Walk On (2014) and We the People are the Work (2017).
Hannah is also one half of the artist duo LOW PROFILE (est 2003) with Rachel Dobbs. Over the past 16+ years LOW PROFILE have demonstrated their ongoing commitment and demonstrable track record in initiating & producing ambitious artist-led projects/initiatives (Jamboree 2018 & 2015, Plymouth Peer Residency, 2017, Come to Ours 2011, DXDX studios 2010-2015 & PL:ay 2007) alongside their established arts practice (which has recently seen them commissioned by organisations including National Trust, The Harris Museum, Preston & the Edge Arts, Bath).
Alongside these key roles Hannah has worked as a freelance producer and mentor including:
Abigail Reynolds, The Mother’s Bones (producer) 2016
Plymouth Platform Mentor for Laura Edmunds (including supporting the artist to secure ACE funding) 2017
Take A Part, A new digital map for Barne Barton (producer) 2017
Hannah skill set and experience includes: curating, project management, fundraising/bid writing (including supporting artists to develop funding bids), copy editing, evaluation and marketing.
PHIL
RUSHWORTH
Director
Phil Rushworth is a contemporary art producer based in Plymouth, UK, with a particular focus on rural audiences and contexts. She enjoys work that brings people together to share interesting ideas with time-based media, participation and conviviality.
For the past 10 years she has produced a variety of projects across Cornwall and Devon, including The Penzance Convention and several editions of the Cornwall Workshop for CAST and the community focused It’s All About the River film festival for the River Tamar Project in 2014. Her curated projects include devising the Confluence art programme for Falmouth University and the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus in 2013 and co-directing 24hr Comic Etc. in 2011.
Most recently, from 2015-2018, she worked as producer for the development of The Atlantic Project, a pilot for a new biennial style festival for the South West, curated by Tom Trevor. She has worked with a range of local and international artists, including Thompson and Craighead, Uriel Orlow, Nilbar Gures and Tommy Støckel.