Silence Between Waves | Richard Chappell Dance. Photography: Jim Wileman
Filament was developed with support from Torbay’s Great Place Scheme as part of its building resilience strand and enabling new models of governance work. Through 2019, the Eyeview cultural programme worked with artists and communities, developing site-specific commissions, participatory projects and community actions. Through this, we saw a need for an agile producing house that could work imaginatively with communities to produce impactful work with the independence to flex, experiment and think sideways.
We focus on producing work that builds a more resilient, diverse and progressive cultural ecology, supporting individuals, communities and place. We do this through: Developing place-based collaborations with communities; Shaping new cultural programmes; Co-creating interventions that tackle specific challenges for people and place; Producing artist-led initiatives; Supporting networks, skills and capacity-building.
At the centre of this work is an ongoing enquiry that asks how we can encourage and enable the diverse and indigenous culture of a place to continually shape its own distinct sense of identity. We believe that by democratising and integrating the working methods of artists, communities can collectively problem-solve, imagine new possibilities, and together build community wealth.
Team
Our core team of three directors evolve work in partnership with other organisations and sectors as well as artists, producers and researchers. Secured projects create employment and development opportunities for other collaborators in response to need. Through this process an asset-based, and fluid, wider collective group can emerge who generate R&D and deliver work.
Nat Palin, Co-Director
Nat supports artists, communities & organisations to work together. She is interested in enabling relationships to bridge cultural difference & open up ways of approaching social challenges. With a background in visual arts & social practice, she has worked extensively with museums & galleries, theatres and place-based cultural programmes. Connecting across education, housing, youth offending & health, her work has focused on how communities grow and take ownership for the culture around them. Recent work includes with: Eyeview Cultural Programme (Great Place Scheme), CDF Cultural Programme, UNESCO Global Geoparks, Doorstep Arts, Villages in Action, SW Palliative Care research partnership. As a critical friend, she supports artists & organisations, in particular those working in collaborative & social practice.
Sara Hurley, Associate Producer
Sara is a storyteller, writer, socially engaged artist and communication skills coach. Originally trained in theatre and dance, she works through the lens of ‘story’, for performance, workshop, film, audio & written word. With Filament, she has developed personal story projects as story gatherer & re-teller: ‘All Our Stories’ for LocalMotion and ‘Stories of care from the end of life’ for the South West Palliative Care Research Network. Working at the intersection of story & health, she works extensively as a communication skills trainer for health professionals. Sara has produced cultural projects, festivals and events for many years. She co-produced Into The Mix diversity festival in Torbay 2019, co-programming for Wavelength (Great Place Scheme Torbay) and is an associate producer & programmer for Wide Open.
Thea Platt, Executive Coach (Pathways)
coachingwiththea@gmail.com
Thea is an Executive Coach & Consultant based in Totnes. As Director of Coaching with Thea, she supports leaders and entrepreneurs in social enterprises and ethical businesses. Her coaching integrates transpersonal and mindfulness-based approaches. Her work focuses on fostering growth & purpose, helping clients define clear career goals, carve out career paths, professional development and progression. Thea recently graduated with a Post-Graduate Diploma in mindfulness-based psychotherapy (Karuna Institute). With a background in environmental & social change, she has previously managed Transition Town Totnes and has extensive experience in project management & community engagement. With Filament, Thea is providing individual and group coaching for assistantships as part our Wide Open pathways work with Paignton-based partners.
Lauren Pomfret, Assistant Producer (Engagement)
Lauren is freelance Creative Art Practitioner and Dancer based in the South West, where she has lived all her life surrounded by the sea and countryside. Lauren is passionate about keeping the arts alive for everyone, where there shouldn’t be any restrictions to attend, watch or participate in any arts events or performances. She completed her BA(Hons) in Dance Theatre at Plymouth University, with a focus on community engagement and inclusive practice. Since then, Lauren has been fortunate enough to gain experience in many artistic fields commissioned by organisations across the region; from performance work, to dance/drama teaching and managing small scale funded projects. Lauren is excited to develop her skills in project management and grow her connections as part of our growing practitioner network.
Clare Parker, Co-Director
Clare has worked as an independent producer & dance artist for over 30 years, across a wide range of sectors and contexts - guided largely by curiosity, blind faith, relishing the messy collaborative complexity involved in socially-engaged practice & cultural placemaking. Most recently she has worked as: Creative Producer, Create to Recover; Lead Producer, Eyeview Cultural Programme; Project Manager, Torbay Care Leadership Programme. Clare is a member of Royal Society of Arts, People Dancing, Equity, Arts & Health South West and Torbay What Next? chapter. In 2019 she completed a Fellowship with Dartington School for Social Entrepreneurs. In 2020 she was selected to take part in Culture Reset - a national programme born out of Covid-19, aiming to stimulate and support cultural leaders to reimagine the future of arts & culture.
Rupert Davies, Comms Lead (Wide Open)
Rupert leads marketing & communications on Wide Open (CDF programme), coordinating the Comms action-set and supporting industry pathways. A London-born Paignton-local, he connects creative programming with marketing to open up conversations with audiences & broaden the way we define ‘culture’ in all its forms. Rupert has worked in marketing & promotion for over 20 years. After 10 years promoting music artists such as Massive Attack and Daft Punk for Virgin / EMI records, he moved into events whilst marketing manager for arts festival Wilderness in Oxfordshire. Today, Rupert heads up Arts & Culture Marketing at Dartington Hall Trust in Totnes, alongside his work as songwriter-producer Maigret Jnr, DJing and event design/promotion with his new classic concert screening business, Cinegig Shindig.
Emily Appleton, Comms Assistant (Wide Open)
Based in Paignton, Emily is passionate about capturing the vibrance of Torbay, its culture & communities. Following graduate studies in Commercial Photography in Advertising, Editorial & Fashion, she set up her own award-winning business focusing on Event & Theatre photography. She is regularly commissioned by artistic companies across the south-west, and has worked with many local organisations including Doorstep Arts, Palace Theatre, Project Performers, Play Torbay, Torre Abbey, Agatha Christie Festival, Torbay Marathon and Paignton Picturehouse. Emily also now runs her own photographic studio in the centre of Paignton, accessible for local families and businesses. As part of Wide Open communications team, Emily is interested in extending her social media, branding and network skills to grow audience engagement.
Lucy Kitcher, Production Assistant (Wide Open)
Lucy graduated in Classics at University of Warwick, “combining my loves of history, literature & theatre, with art & philosophy thrown in”. She has a passion for performing arts and has been part of two Edinburgh Fringe shows, as an actor and Stage Manager. Lucy works as an usher at Theatre Royal Plymouth, as well as growing her experience in stage management. She is passionate about making arts events & production accessible to all - she believes that everyone should have a chance to engage with the arts, the shared experiences and different perspectives they can bring. Lucy has always been part of socially minded movements, starting with Powerpack, a charity for disabled young people in the South West, and continues to work on projects with older people & other community groups. As part of Wide Open she hopes to gain experience running arts & community events, the practical processes involved and get stuck in with the creativity as well!
Tom Littlewood, Co-Director
Tom is interested in how a sense of belonging and identity is nurtured within communities and how this is reflected in environmental and public realm design. Originally a landscape architect he broadened his practice to focus on linking cultural and public realm planning. He is founding director of Ginkgo Projects, a specialist public art & cultural producing consultancy. He has wide and grounded experience in leading projects that integrate art and creativity as a key element of environmental, architectural and regenerative schemes. He is part of the design team working on town centre regeneration projects for Torbay. As Creative Co-Director for Eyeview Cultural Programme, Tom has worked closely with Torbay’s communities, supporting new cultural programmes, enabling risk and nurturing creative approaches to address social need.
Andrea Gamson, Pathways Lead (Wide Open)
Andrea Gamson FRSA is a social entrepreneur, lean start-up trainer & design thinker. With an MA in Regenerative Economics (Schumacher College), she specialises in human centred social enterprise business models & Corporate Social Responsibility partnerships. She runs Regenerous, a nature inspired leadership development programme; and is testing a new youth employability model for the next generation of sustainability consultants, through Netshift CIC. Andrea has worked extensively with national & international youth entrepreneurship programmes including Livity, NCS, Princes Trust, VSO and British Council. Andrea leads our Wide Open Pathways action-set, working with Torbay partners to shape sustainable career routes with mentorships & support for young people & early-career professionals in the cultural sector.
Craig Unadkhat, Assistant Producer (Events)
Craig trained as an actor (Chichester University) and continues to write including as part of Red Biscuit, specialising in devised physical theatre. Over the past 7 years, he has worked in events production and Front of House management, including with Underbelly, for both their London festival and Edinburgh Fringe, overseeing multiple theatre venues both established & emerging. He has a strong track record in Operations Management, supporting staff, coordinating with venues, programmers, and producers. As Assistant Producer, Craig is supporting delivery of Wide Open events in Paignton, bringing his skills in Front of House, venue co-ordination & logistics. Craig is particularly interested in developing producing & programming skills to expand his career opportunities alongside growing a stronger creative industries network.