MEET THE TEAM
You may have got the gist by now, but Beach Creative CIC is Volunteer lead!
That includes our directors board & trustees.
Take a look below!
Carla Sheppard
Administrator
Carla, in the past, has worked in the NHS, private sector and education in London and various parts of the country, latterly working in General Practice in the Canterbury area.
As Carla's two sons grew up and followed an interest in art both obtaining Fine Art Degrees, Carla also became interested in art. Her youngest son continued his artistic endeavours and six years ago rented a studio at Beach Creative. Always wanting to support her sons Carla immersed herself into the art scene around Beach Creative and her interest and opinions on the subject of art have continued to grow.
Carla has now taken on the role of administrator and is looking forward to contributing to the day to day running of Beach Creative.
Gill Wilson
Co-Founder & Director
Gill is one of the three founding members of Beach Creative and plays an active role in community outreach. A former University for the Creative Arts (UCA) senior lecturer, Gill still works closely with UCA to deliver outreach programmes within the local community., such as the very successful Cultural Ambassador course which has supported participants to step into further or higher education for the first time.
Gill’s first degree was in graphic design and she ran a design business for over 20 years - spanning the move from analogue to digital - before she became involved in education. She taught at UCA for many years, teaching across arts disciplines and age/levels. She has a Doctorate in Education and led the Research Units for the Master of Arts in Creative Arts Education at UCA for 3 years.
As well as teaching, she was involved in the political landscape of widening participation in the arts in education with Aimhigher, and worked as a consultant for the Specialist Schools and Academies and Learning and Skills Network in the last Labour government. She was an author for Pearson Education, writing Student/Teaching Guides in arts qualifications. She has a studio at her home and works across disciplines.
Emily Rose Parris
MEDIA - website & social media
Emily manages our website & Instagram feed!
Emily graduated from Kingston University in 2014 and has since established a small business here at Beach Creative, The Darkroom at Beach Creative , where she runs one to one and group workshops in darkroom processes and analogue photography.
Emily is passionate about arts education for all and endeavours to provide workshops & courses within the community, with a particular focus on analogue and digital photography. Emily Arts Award trained at all levels and has delivered 3 Arts Award courses onsite at Beach Creative seeing 15 young people achieve an accredited qualification in the arts. Emily also works as a Creative Workshop Tutor for UCA (University for the Creative Arts) delivering a wide variety of workshop for young people in educational settings and community groups to increase arts engagement and participation. During the pandemic, Emily delivered multiple virtual Arts Award courses with UCA, seeing 150+ young people awarded with an Arts Award.
Sarah Turner
MEDIA - Mailing list & social media
Sarah manages our mailing list, Twitter & Facebook feed.
Sarah comes from a dancing background and has persued dance as a career. Recently Sarah has become a mother of two and has joined the media team to allow for flexible working and remaining within the arts community which she loves & cherishes.
Mandy Troughton
Co-Founder & Director
One of the three founding Directors of Beach Creative in 2012 and responsible for the gallery bookings, and day to day running of the Beach Creative building and our sister gallery, Bay Art Gallery.
Since gaining her fine arts degree at the Kent Institute of Art and Design (now UCA), Mandy have worked chiefly as a sculptor with a specialism in perspex and plastics.
Rob Turner
Director
Rob left St. Martins School of Art in 1984 thinking he would become an abstract painter showing in galleries in London and other major cities in Europe. That didn’t happen. Rob’s 30 year career as an artist has taken a very different unplanned route working on over 150 Community and Public Arts Projects with communities all over the UK, to create murals,
temporary installations, entrance features, sculpture trails and large scale mosaics.
Robs specialises in delivering projects that strengthen local identity and celebrate local history and heritage. He was the winning finalist in the Public Art Category of the Canterbury Cultural Awards in 2017. His interest in art as a source of powerful good in local communities brings Rob to Beach Creative, enabling wider community initiatives in Herne Bay.
Ray Cordell
Director & Treasurer
Ray was born in Herne Bay and has spent most of his life here.
Most of his working life was with Lloyds Bank, in East Kent and South London. He happily took early retirement when he was a Branch Manager and for 9 years he was then Practice Manager at a large local Doctor’s surgery. He has always been involved in the local community. For over twenty years he was a member of the Herne Bay Rotary Club and during that time he was Treasurer, Secretary, and President. He has been a Trustee of the Strode Park Foundation for ten years, and stood down last November (2021). He was Chair of the Board of Management for seven of those years. During his time there, the Foundation grew from one site with an income of just over £4 million to five sites with an income of £11 million. It was a busy, challenging and very rewarding time.
He has many interests and is a long-time member of the Ramblers Association. He has served five-year periods as both Secretary and Chair of the Canterbury group. He still leads walks with them and he also leads walks in the Canterbury Festival and the Canterbury Walking Week.
He has always been a keen gardener and has had an allotment for twenty years. It was through that he became involved with Herne Bay in Bloom and he has been Treasurer of that since its formation.
He has always enjoyed sport and still plays golf locally.
His family have had a beach hut here since 1950 and much of his childhood was spent there. Now he loves to be down there with his family and see his grandchildren also enjoying it. He has swum in the sea since an early age and continues to do so, although only when it is a bit warmer.
He has been a supporter of Beach Creative since it started and could not resist the opportunity to help in a more pro-active way. He thinks it meets a need in the community and we are very lucky to have it. He is delighted to be part of it.
Veronica Tonge
Director
After graduating from Newcastle University in 1971 with a BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art and Art History, Veronica gained a Post Graduate Diploma in Art Gallery & Museum Studies and worked in the travelling exhibitions department of the V&A.
From 1977 to 2005 she was a curator at Maidstone Museum and Bentlif Art Gallery, with responsibility for the care and interpretation of a large collection of fine and applied art objects of regional and national significance, devising and delivering new galleries and temporary exhibitions. She also created art and social history-based learning opportunities for older adults in the local community at Maidstone Museum and with Kent adult education providers.
After leaving full time employment, she worked as a volunteer with the Kent Costume Trust and the Kent Museum of Rural Life.
She has always been a practising artist, working mainly in textile and garment installations, but more recently in 3-d mixed media.
In parallel with her full-time employment I have curated for and exhibited with the Kent based art collectives VIR-Art, Maidstone Visual Artists’ Network and Making Art Work.
Since moving to Herne Bay in 2016, she has co-curated with artist groups based at Beach Creative, founding Paradox Artists’ Collective and 6-Woman Alliance. She currently stewards and assists with Beach Creative’s exhibition programme.
Ali Skinner
Director
After leaving school Ali completed a Higher Diploma in Secretarial and Administration Procedures, not exactly a career choice, but to pay rent. However, having ADHD, she soon realised this was not the job for her.
She was offered a job at The Orchard School, Canterbury which at the time was a school ‘for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties’ working as a Student Support Coordinator. Over the next five years, she enjoyed this role very much and it led to her next role as an Intensive Personal Advisor at Connexions.
In this post she supported young people not in education, training or work to overcome barriers preventing them from achieving their goals. She enjoyed this very much and worked with many young people in different settings including supporting young parents, young offenders, looked after children, with the goal of empowering them to achieve their dreams.
During this time she achieved a First in a BA Hons in Supporting Young People. Connexions developed into CXK and her role went down the teaching route. She had written many programs and workshops over the years and took on the position of Functional Skills English Tutor. She enjoyed writing lesson plans and developing the scheme of work for the program. She spent 13 years with CXK in a very varied and much-loved role.
When she saw an advert for the Cultural Ambassadors Course at Beach Creative, she was really excited about being able to do something arty: she had always been very creative, always loved making things, decorating furniture and so on, but life had not led her in that direction. She started the course and loved it, finding things she had never tried before (like linoprint) and instantly became a fan. Then the pandemic started.
During Covid she was made redundant from CXK which was terrifying. However, it did give her the opportunity to explore creative options, and after doing the Cultural Ambassadors course she felt life was pulling her in a new direction.
In 2020 she started at Shoreditch Design Rooms and achieved an AMUSF qualification in Traditional and Modern Upholstery. She then began upcycling furniture, upholstering and making soft furnishings creating her little business ‘The Cabinet of Million Dollar Ali’. When Gill Wilson from Beach Creative asked for her support in delivering the Cultural Ambassadors courses, she felt she had found her place in the world! Working with Gill developed into becoming a Director at Beach Creative and in this role she hopes her place is to encourage people to try creative things and empower them to consider art as a profession, as she wishes she had done years ago!
Daphne Bird
Director
Daphne graduated from Canterbury College of Art in 1972 with a DipAD in Graphics; she worked in advertising as Designer then Production Coordinator for over 25 years. Work included artwork, illustration, proof-reading and print-buying..
Having lived in Whitstable for many years, she was involved with the museum and the samba band, as well as other community groups. She and her late husband Jon were part of the local art scene, running their own gallery for a few years, and then Jon became the prime mover in setting up the Fish Slab Gallery.
Since moving to Herne Bay in 2014, Daphne has helped with exhibitions at the Seaside Museum and Beach Creative, as well as continuing to be part of Samba pelo Mar, and also trading in collectables at Faversham
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David Cross
Director
David studied Fine Art at St Alban’s College of Art and the West of England College of Art between 1967 and 1971, successfully avoiding any idea of a career in favour of a life of serial enthusiasms. Including: printer, furniture maker, graphic designer, illustrator, exhibition designer, shop owner, builder and decorator and finally exhibition officer for Canterbury Museums.
A founder member of the steering group for Herne Bay’s Duchamp Festival 2013, curating all the exhibitions during the award winning three-week event. Over the years, David has appeared in various group shows both in Kent and Cornwall (UK). He has work in a number of private collections.