Ali Richards

Qualified nurse, trained gardener, and lover of all things creative – the messier the better! Alison’s 20 year career working as a registered nurse has given her a clear understanding of the pressures that are faced daily within the NHS. She is passionate about the benefits of creative activity and time in nature to support good mental and physical health. She is keen to use her nursing experience and creativity to support others to explore creative practice in order to enhance wellbeing.

Training: BA Adult Nursing with hons; City and Guilds ILM level 3 award in leadership and management; Person centred coaching; Working for Gardeners Association’s ‘Work and retrain as a gardener scheme’ (WRAGS)

Outside of work Alison lives with her family and pets. She loves getting her hands dirty and is never happier than when she is baking, working in her garden or out walking through the countryside. She loves making things and most recently has been designing and screen-printing her own fabrics.

Louise Jordan-Dench

Louise has 15 years experience as a songwriter and performer and has also worked as a secondary school history teacher, youth worker and freelance facilitator working across Wiltshire and the South West. Louise is passionate about inclusive and socially engaged practises and is interested in engaging people of all backgrounds and experiences with the arts and heritage.

Training: Louise is a qualified teacher with an MA in Human Rights. Other: Louise is a Mental Health First Aider with a Level 3 City & Guilds qualification in Autism Awareness

When she is not working Louise enjoys visiting museums and sites of historic interest, walking and reading. She is currently attempting to dust off her GCSE French.

Penny Calvert

Penny’s extensive experience in Creative health is applied both at ArtCare, specialising in evaluation and education and also in her regional role working for the National Centre for Creative Health as the South West Creative Health Associate.

Penny’s key skills and passions are championing Creative Health work and its impact on people and communities; team work and developing creative skills in others; engaging people in shaping their environment and healthcare and developing site specific solutions, projects and products to enhance people’s experience of health settings.

Training: Masters in Senior leadership; Arts Therapy Foundation; BA Hons Three-dimensional design; Arts, disability and employment; Prince2 project management and a PGCE in the lifelong learning sector.

When Penny’s not at work she’s using photography, design and DIY to capture her favourite places and things, singing, paddleboarding or walking the dog at the beach whenever she can.

Hazel Stock

Hazel has over 15 years experience working as ArtCare Project Assistant responsible for organising the monthly Staff Arts Club programme, publicity, graphic design projects and the ArtCare website. Training: BA Drama and Education. Other: Web design using Adobe Dreamweaver & WordPress. Outside of work Hazel enjoys spending time with her family, acting and Pilates.

Lesley Self

Lesley has over 17 years experience working for ArtCare as exhibition organiser and permanent collection curator. Lesley is the ArtCare lead for dementia environments, ICU, Hospice, Quiet Rooms & Courtyards and History archive projects.

Training: ND Art & Design; BA Humanities, Art History and English Literature; MA Museums and Collections Management. Other: Video, new media & graphic design with Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Premier Pro

Lesley is also Director of Hampshire Open Studios and Trustee for Cranborne Chase Landscape Trust. When she is not at work she enjoys spending time gardening and outdoors volunteering with Dorset Wildlife Trust.

Rebecca Seymour

 

Rebecca is both the co-ordinator of the Stars Appeal Live programme and Elevate.

She is also the Creative Producer for Celebrating Age Wiltshire, a county-wide arts programme for older people living in Wiltshire. She lives in Salisbury and enjoys singing in choirs, swimming, yoga and going to the theatre.