I'm a creative freelancer, based in Cornwall in the SW UK. 
My working life has been very varied over the years, but with visual arts, media, writing and performing always running through, underneath and alongside everything else.

Background & education

I grew up in rural and coastal North Devon. After O Levels, I initially studied for A Levels (English, Art, Biology, General Studies) at Bideford Comprehensive, and then undertook a General Art & Design BTEC Foundation Course at North Devon College. There, I also performed with the Apprentices drama group, and around the same time tried my first contemporary dance classes, run by Beaford Arts. Both of these experiences influenced my ideas and changed my plans for degree level training!

After completing the first year of a combined Dance & Art Degree in Crewe (after initially heading there to do a Crafts BA, but changing on arrival), I then relocated to Dartington College of Arts and trained in this incredible setting in Theatre with a Dance specialism, ultimately graduating with a 1st Class BA (Hons) Degree in 1991.

A meandering working journey!

On graduating, I worked for a while as a performer in Devon, Bristol and Scotland, and also took my own show 'Landmarks' to the International TheatreSchool Festival In De Nes, Amsterdam, before deciding to move to Bristol. After various part time roles - including a stint as a Barista and theatre dresser at Arnolfini, helping coordinate an arts exhibition/auction entitled INHETMA, while also making my own visual art and writing - I was offered free ICT training with Brunel College, and was subsequently apprenticed and then employed by several media & broadcast companies, working in early-days multimedia design, asset production & development, and as a TV runner and researcher.

I moved to Cornwall in 1996 while working as a multimedia freelancer on interative CD-ROM titles and early-days website production (pre-Broadband: our phone bills were ridiculous!) and then, to make life simpler, I applied for a post with the newly-relaunched Dance Agency Cornwall in late 1998 - initially working as the Six Pack Project Coordinator, then continuing as their Projects and Marketing Manager. While with DAC, I also gained a Diploma in Management for Creative Industries.

When DAC re-organised and became The Works: Dance & Theatre Cornwall in 2003, I again opted for freelancing for for a year, working on comms and projects with a range of companies including Dance South West and the newly formed Creative Partnerships, before being offered a full time Communications Manager role with KEAP & Creative Partnerships Cornwall & Plymouth - for whom I edited and published The Big Picture Magazine for two years, and managed all their comms and PR. 
Whilst with Creative Partnerships, I also participated in Cohort II of the 'Creating Cultural Leadership' Programme with Exeter University & Dartington.

When Creative Partnerships then became The Real Ideas Organisation in 2007, I grabbed the chance to return once again to freelancing, in order to focus on developing all sorts of creative projects and work, as described in the rest of this website!

Professional stuff - the list!

A potted history of my professional job roles after graduating...
  • Part time/temporary work: (incl. at Arnolfini), Bristol 1992-1993
  • Production Assistant: Vision Interactive, Bristol 1993-1995
  • Freelance Multimedia designer/developer: Bristol/Cornwall 1995-1998
  • Six Pack Project Co-ordinator: Dance Agency Cornwall, 1998-1999
  • Project Co-ordinator/Projects & Marketing Manager, Dance Agency Cornwall, 1999-2003
  • Freelance comms, marketing & multimedia PR: Cornwall 2003-2004
  • Communications Manager: KEAP & Creative Partnerships Cornwall & Plymouth, 2004-2007
  • 2007 on: freelance arts comms, media, publishing, coordination, tour booking, alongside developing my own work as an artist/performer
  • 2015 on: development of arts producing, bringing all strands of work together

Further training

Eclectic post-graduate training includes: 
  • CLAIT II & III/ NVQ Business Skills: Brunel College, Bristol 1994
  • ILM/NEBS Diploma in Management for Creative Industries: Truro College/Creative Skills 2002-3
  •  Cohort II Creating Cultural Leadership Programme: Dartington/University of Exeter, 2006-7
  •  2 MA Level modules in Film Production Skills: Truro & Penwith College 2009-10
  • Eat Shoot & Leave: acting for Camera: Travis/Johntz, 2007 
  • The Actor's Voice: Equity training, 2009
  • Arvon Foundation 1-week course: Fiction & Passion, 1992
  • Short courses also include: performance skills, producer training, media interview techniques, business presentation skills, time management, safeguarding: 2003-2019
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