Who’s Who In cre8.ed?
Practitioners
Chairperson
Karen Underwood is the chairperson and former director of cre8.ed. She originally worked as a primary school teacher before moving across to the arts where she staged concerts and tours and acted as a manager.
Karen was the Creative Director of JC2000, the Millennium Arts Festival for Schools involving over 18,300 schools. Karen drew together the team of artists that delivered INSET Workshops to over 2,500 teachers, and produced the Primary and Secondary Teacher resource books and CD. She staged the shows and art exhibitions for the 9 Regional Festivals at major venues throughout the country, as well as a show at The Millennium Dome in Greenwich, London, and the Grand Finale at The Royal Albert Hall in July 2000.
In response to teacher demand for creative learning programmes in Primary, Secondary and Special Education Karen then launched cre8.ed.
In addition, she currently works as a Papermaker Sculptor, Consultant and Producer.
Karen is an adviser to the board of The European Academy for Arts and Culture, and delivers workshops at the annual Christian Artists Seminar of which she is a board member.
Arts Directors
Thea Soltau trained at Mountview Theatre School in London. She then went to St Martin’s College, Lancaster, and gained a first class honours degree in Drama and Applied Social Science.
She now works as a freelance arts practitioner for her own company, Dunamis Dance and Physical Theatre. This includes teaching contemporary dance and choreography techniques for Burnley Youth Theatre. The most recent choreography being ‘Vibe’, a devised piece of dance and physical theatre exploring self-image and sexual identity. It was then taken to the Lowry Theatre, Manchester, as a flagship piece for the youth theatre.
She is an experienced workshop facilitator in dance and drama, most recently designing a creative literacy package fro KS1 for Mid Pennine Arts Association and also providing packages for dance, drama and values education for KS2 for Creative Partnerships East Lancs.
In addition to this she has been employed for several years teaching street dance and Bollywood for Hyndburn Borough Council and Hyndburn Youth Association – focussing on mentoring ethnic minority groups.
Heather Ellis has a BA(Hons) in Visual Art from Aberystwyth, and a PGCE in Art and Design from Middlesex University. She worked as a Community Artist prior to joining the teaching profession in 1984. She taught for 13 years in secondary schools including 8 years as Head of Art at a North London comprehensive school. Heather was the Visual Art Advisor for JC2000 and currently works as a freelance Art and Education Consultant.
She is also a Director of Seeds, a Christian creative resource service. Heather is married with 3 children and lives in North London.
Rosie Smith trained as a teacher and has a PGCE and a BHDAD in Fine Art. She taught for ten years in both secondary and primary schools. For five years she was Artist in Residence for Berkshire and now does In Service Training and Consultancy on a national level. She was the National Exhibition Co-ordinator for JC2000.
As an artist in her own right, Rosie holds private exhibitions of her own work.
Neil Ruckman is the drama consultant for cre8.ed for whom he has managed a number of projects including using artists-in-residence to explore faith issues for RE Today; developing understanding of Citizenship through the arts; and directing Arts Festivals for Schools in cathedrals.
Neil is a Moderator and Adviser for GCSE English for AQA He has taught English, Drama, English as an Additional Language and Media Studies for over nineteen years in secondary schools and further education and has worked as a teacher-trainer and open learning centre manager. He has written for a number of educational publications and is an experienced storyteller, director, producer and forum theatre practitioner. Neil is currently performing as a storyteller with Fontanella, reviving traditional English folk stories in shows which weave early music through the tales. He also works with the National Literacy Trust and Barnet FC, training football players to tell stories in libraries and schools to boost literacy amongst children.
James Underwood is a graduate from the Royal College of Music. He works as a freelance violinist with a wealth of performance experience which includes performing concerts in Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, Cyprus, Jersey, regularly in England, and broadcasts for Classic FM and BBC Radio 4. He is a founding member of The Iskra String Quartet which regularly performs concerts and recording sessions and has released its own album ‘Sanctuary.’ As a session musician he has worked with Ronan Keating, Sinead O’Conner, Bjork, Sufyan Stevens and Jóhann Jóhannsson. He is also an active violin teacher, with pupils ranging from beginner to advanced.
cre8.ed Artiste Team
A team of over 20 professional artists, building on the JC2000 Arts Team.
Board of Trustees
Brigitte Baylis
Brig is an Educational Leader at Rushall Farm in Berkshire, providing curriculum-based education in the countryside. She has a keen interest in personal and spiritual development through individual creativity.
Lotte Earle A’Hern
Lotte is Managing Director of her own design company, TLC Print Management. She has two young sons and is involved in youth work in the Hambleden Valley.
Paul Persson
Paul is formerly of the Bank of England and chairman of the trustees for The Jubilee Centre and The Relationships Foundation in Cambridge. He and his wife ran an Arts Resource Centre near Henley-on-Thames for around eight years. He is currently on the Council for All Nations Christian College, Ware.
Company Secretary
M.G. Wortley FCA MIMIS.
Mike is a Qualified Chartered Accountant practicing with a mixed clientele – limited companies, partnerships, charities, sole traders and personal taxation. He hold several directorships and also acts as company secretary.
He has been involved for a number of years with the Handicapped Children’s Pilgrimage Trust (now HCPT The Pilgrimage Trust) supporting and advising their finance function, was a Trustee in 1997 and the Trust’s Hon Treasurer until June 2003. He has also helps several other charities with their accounting and is the honourable auditor or independent examiner of several charities in the Hambleden Valley.
Mike is married to Laura and they have four grown up children.
Consultants
Andrew Rowe, JC2000 Chairman and former MP
Jenny Pestridge, Education Consultant, MA, Dip.Couns., Cert.Ed.
Christine Lewis, Business Consultant, MBA
Council of Reference
Reverend Steve Chalke
Trevor Cooling
Lady Crathorne
Sir Bernard Crick
Lord Dearing Kt,CB
Dame Judi Dench
Jumoké Fashola
Ram Gidoomal
Nigel Goodwin
Ann Holt
John Keast,
Harvey Thomas, CBE
Phil Wall
Barbara Wintersgill, Chief RE, HMI