CHOL - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Artist
• Community Theatre and Arts Lead

Carly is an artist and theatre director with a passion for discovering hidden stories and working collaboratively with communities to tell them. With an MA in Acting from Guildford School of Acting, she combined her love for theatre with education when she qualified as a teacher in 2012. Carly's believes that approaching the curriculum through creativity and innovation helps to ignite and enrich children and young people's learning experiences.

Job Titles:

• Youth and Social Arts Lead

With a background in movement and dance, Jess began her professional training at Liverpool John Moores and graduated with a BA(Hons) Dance Practices in 2015. Since then, Jess has accumulated a wealth of experience in the creative industry working in a variety of different settings from community arts organisations to educational organisations with lots in between. With a background in site-specific work and multidiscipline performance, Jess has cultivated her skills in drama and theatre facilitation to incorporate aspects of different art forms to create and facilitate work. Jess's journey with Chol began in 2008 whilst on a year 10 work experience placement from high school. Since then, she has worked as a freelance artist for Chol until September 2018 when she joined the core team. Jess continues to facilitate as an artist on Chol's Imaginary Communities programme as well as delivering workshops and assisting in a range of other projects with Chol.

Job Titles:

• Artist
• Schools and Education Lead

Lauren Ash is an actor and artist facilitator with over 15 years experience working in the creative sector. Since graduating from a degree in Performing Arts (BA Hons) at Cumbria Institute of the Arts, she has developed professional skills as a drama and theatre practitioner, within a variety of organisations including, but not limited to, theatre companies, arts organisations and educational organisations. She is passionate about delivering workshops that help to enrich the lives of the participants in many ways, including confidence building, engaging, producing creativity and educating Lauren began working for Chol in 2015, as a freelance artist during her MA in Theatre and Performance at the University of Manchester. She has been part of the core team since April 2018 and has continued her work in drama and education as a lead artist on Chol's Imaginary Communities programme in addition to leading and developing a range of other projects with Chol.

Job Titles:

• Associate
• Freelance Creative Producer

Lauren Townsend is a freelance creative producer based in South Yorkshire. Her experience spans theatre, short film, live events, community arts and digital experiences and she is keenly interested in projects that promote cross-collaboration between mediums and artforms. Lauren has worked for organisations such as: Sheffield Theatres, Leeds Playhouse, Leeds 2023, ThickSkin, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Right Up Our Street, and The Children's Art School. Alongside this she has been a guest speaker at London Festival of Architecture, Arts University Bournemouth, Stage One, and South Yorkshire Cultural and Creative Industries. Her most recent production, Children of the Night - a bold coming of age story set against the backdrop of Donvcaster's 90's nightlife - recently completed a sell-out run at Cast, Doncaster and was shortlisted for both The 2023 Women's Prize For Playwriting and New Diroama's 2024 Untapped Award.

Job Titles:

• Artist
• Strive Inclusivity Lead

Mandeep Samra is an artist who works with sound and experimental digital art forms. She has also worked extensively as a developer and producer of arts and heritage projects locally, nationally and internationally for over 23 years. Her work has focused on the creative and cultural sector issues relating to diversity and engagement and on developing innovative arts and heritage projects that explore cultural identity. Mandeep worked for Chol as a freelance artist before becoming part of the team in December 2020. Mandeep thinks the engagement of young people from seldom heard communities in arts activity has always been particularly challenging as they often feel estranged from British history and their contribution has often gone unrecognised and unpublished in the mainstream. She believes it is important to engage young people from diverse backgrounds with their ancestral discovery so they feel some sense of fairness and equality within British society to appease their frustration with inequality and institutional racism otherwise their ideas can be entrenched in being marginalised/discriminated against and inferior to their white British counterparts.

Job Titles:

• Design and Illustration Lead

Ruth is a multi-disciplinary artist, based in West Yorkshire, who is inspired by the joy of day-to-day life. This could take the shape of any form of visual art, from installations in public spaces to drawing or printing books. Over the last 15 years, Ruth has discovered working in collaboration makes the most interesting work - with people who do, and those who don't, consider themselves to be artists. Since becoming part of the Chol team, Ruth has honed her skills in children's illustration, bringing young people's ideas to life during countless workshops and in several publications. The clarity of vision and strong direction of young people makes for content that is at the center of her vibrant and wildly imaginative illustrations. Ruth moved to Yorkshire in 2004 to study Fine Art for Design at Batley School of Art and Design and has gone on to participate in the inaugural Northern Faculty of Socially Engaged Art. She has worked for Amelia's Magazine, Barnardo's, Woven Festival, Artychoke, Playful Anywhere and the Children's Art School to name a few.

Job Titles:

• Evaluation and Learning Lead
• in 2012 As Lead Artist

Vicky joined Chol in 2012 as Lead Artist on Imaginary Communities and now works as the Evaluation and Learning Lead. Vicky studied a Masters in Applied Theatre at Royal Central School of Speech & Drama in 2007 building on her background in Youth Work and developing her expertise in community theatre and drama education. Vicky is passionate about using research and evaluation to develop, interrogate and drive good practice in the arts education sector and completed her PhD research in 2020. Vicky now specialises in reflective practice and evaluation in the arts and education sector, with a particular focus on effective forms of continued professional development and learning for artists and teachers through creative collaborations. Her unique position as a practitioner, researcher, and leader of an arts organisation offers nuanced insights into the challenges and possibilities for professional learning in these spaces.