Staff and Trustees

Observers

Carmel Langstaff

Officers

Alice Edwards
Secretary

Alice Edwards joined MakeBelieve Arts as Creative Projects Coordinator in June 2009 and the role has evolved considerably in conjunction with the development of the organisation. Alice is now responsible for line managing 2 Creative Project Facilitators in addition to her other responsibilities: fundraising, planning and delivering creative workshops for young people and liaising with schools. Before joining MakeBelieve Arts, Alice spent 12 months at Chichester Festival Theatre as their Arts Partnership Practitioner. This role involved working in close partnership with a number of secondary schools with specialist status in performing arts, developing links between the schools, the theatre and the community. Previous to this she spent a number of years working as a freelance workshop facilitator in London.

Georgina Pope
Co-Chair

Georgina Pope is the Community Education Manager at the Horniman Museum & Gardens. In this capacity she oversees the delivery of a wide variety of learning programmes for families, adults and community groups. The programme reaches in excess of 45,000 a year and ranges from focussed engagement projects to popular family and adult learning programmes. Georgina was previously Education Manager at Dulwich Picture Gallery, and has worked and volunteered in museums and galleries for over nine years.

Veronica Jobbins
Co-Chair

Veronica Jobbins is Head of Professional and Community Development at Laban where she directs the Education and Community Programme and lectures in Dance Education. She originally trained as a specialist dance teacher at London College of Dance and Drama before teaching for over 7 years at Sydenham Girls School. Following a year studying for an MA at Laban she became an advisory teacher with the ILEA PE Inspectorate, working in schools across London. She then became Co-ordinator for Performing Arts at City and Islington College, Sixth Form Centre teaching a range of courses including GCSE, A Level and BTEC, before moving to Laban in 1996.

Veronica Jobbins has taken an active interest in promoting and developing dance in schools throughout her career and was instrumental in the formation of the National Dance Teachers’ Association in 1988, of which she was Chairperson until 2008. She regularly writes for dance and arts journals and presents at conferences in the UK and abroad, serving on a number of dance, arts and education panels and working groups concerned with youth dance and dance in the curriculum.

 Special interests in Dance and the arts in education include:

  •  Place and role of dance in the school curriculum
  •  Arts education policy /curriculum development
  •  Dance artists working in education
  •  Training of teachers, community workers and dance artists for work in schools/colleges
  •  Continuing professional training of teachers and community dance workers
  •  Access and progression for young people in dance

 

Staff

Emily Andersen
Membership Development Officer
Jane Hendrie
Manager

Jane Hendrie has a BA (Hons) in Arts Management and has been the Manager of Lewisham Education Arts Network (LEAN) for seven years. During this time Jane has managed arts education projects and events, published five editions of LEAN’s annual arts education journal: Created and offered training, support and advice to teachers and artists in the borough. She is committed to supporting schools and other organisations increase the range and breadth of creative opportunities offered to children and young people in Lewisham. Through LEAN she has managed five arts education projects for Deptford X, organised whole school creative professional development for teachers, ran artists training (with partners), delivered annual Artsmark training for teachers, undertaken research and monitoring and evaluation, facilitated a youth arts network and managed a range of large scale arts education projects. Jane is probably most proud of the success of ‘Speak Out’; a collaborative project that brought teachers, speech and language therapists and drama organisations together to tackle speech and language development needs in Lewisham children. Over the last seven years Jane has represented the voluntary and community sector and arts sectors at a number of partnership boards, fora and advisory groups locally and capital wide. She is currently a member of Lewisham Strategic Partnership Board, chaired by the elected Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock.

Steve Willcox
Finance and administration officer

Trustees

Ciaran O'Halloran
Trustee

Ciaran O’Halloran is a drama teacher and the Head of Arts at St Matthew Academy, Blackheath, having responsibility for the school’s drama, dance, music, art and PE provision. Previously, he was Head of Drama at St Joseph’s College, Upper Norwood, and has worked as an actor, teacher, writer, researcher and game designer in previous incarnations.

Fidelma O'Neill
Trustee
Fidelma O’Neill has delivered consultancy in strategic planning, organisational development, evaluation and consultation to arts and media organisations including Arts Council England, Creative Partnerships, Youth Music, Children's Express and Artswork. She has trained managers from over 120 local authority youth services and numerous voluntary organisations such as Princes Trust, Raleigh International and Fairbridge, as well as developing and delivering INSET on creative thinking as part of NESTA's Ignite! project. She also delivers training and consultancy on how to strategically involve young people in decision making and has 11 years experience of working as a youth arts manager and practitioner.
James Thomas
Trustee
James Thomas studied music at Goldsmith College and York University and has worked in music education since 1986. He is an experienced teacher, community musician and trainer whose work encompasses a range of sectors: primary, secondary, post-compulsory and community education. James has worked as a session musician and arranger and as musical director/composer for several theatre productions and community projects. He was director of the Lewisham Academy of Music and led his own Latin Jazz band “Fusion Blue” for 6 years. In 2003 James was appointed Head of the Lewisham Centre for Young Musicians and has taught at The Conservatoire since 1993 and leads on their partnerships and community projects. As a trainer, James has devised and led professional development courses and workshops for musicians and teachers, music services and community arts providers. He has also taught on teacher training courses and arts-based vocational training programmes.
Lindsey Ball
Trustee
Nicole Young
Trustee

Producer/Actor , Openwide Theatre Nicole Young has a degree in Performing Arts (1985) and went on to work for BBC Radio Drama and Radio 2 (1987-1993). Whilst working at the BBC, there was the opportunity to produce quite a number of theatre productions (on a profit-share basis) as well as perform in many. Also a few short amateur radio plays and films. On leaving the BBC, Nicole toured with small scale theatre before setting up Openwide Theatre in partnership with Gillian Lubrinitsky in 1995. Since the spring of ’95, Openwide Theatre has staged over 1500 performances in 30 counties and 30 London Boroughs throughout the UK (and Jersey). Whilst only three of us work full-time, Openwide has a loyal and hard working freelance and support team, from Trustees to prop makers. We hope to expand in many areas over the next few years, including more performances, more full-time staff and greater company profile.