Introduction
We have a small core team - a writer/editor with extensive publishing experience, a strategist/organiser and an in-house designer experienced with print and electronic media.
Additionally we have a wide range of highly skilled freelance artists, writers and designers who work with us on a case by case basis.
Although all of our team have experience of government or as educators, most also see themselves as arts practitioners. We know communication skills and clear thinking matter.
Foundry worker, teacher, lecturer, van driver, art critic, painter; also the writer or editor/joint editor of about 70 books or pamphlets on community development and regeneration. Recent relevant books include:
Brian has worked extensively in the coalfield and was for a time one of four NUM/NCB conciliation referees. Recently he was responsible for devising a creative programme to emphasise the aspirational and entrepreneurial aspects of the Regional Economic Strategy.
He has an honorary doctorate for services to the arts and community from Sheffield Hallam University, an OU degree and an MA from Leeds University. He was Deputy Chair of Yorkshire Arts in 1998.
He chaired the Smawthorne (Castleford) Urban Renewal meetings 1991-1994, the Employment Sub-committee of the Five Towns Renaissance programme (2004/5) and was a founder member of the Yorkshire Art Circus. He won the Raymond Williams Arts Council prize for community publishing (1997) with a book about a women's open prison. He has worked mostly in the Yorkshire region but has been a consultant in Birmingham, Hull and Bolton where he recently edited a Beacon Status 'tool kit' about consultation and local communities.
Ray has worked across the communities of South Yorkshire since the early 1980s for the Workers' Education Association, particularly focusing on arts issues, and arts community writing and community development. He has organised and run writers' workshops across the region and beyond in communities, schools and neighbourhood centres. In 2004 he produced and edited a CD for the ODPM's Pride of Place project and wrote the section on community governance in that book. Over the last twenty years he has been a key figure in the development of the neighbourhood agendas in Rotherham and other parts of South Yorkshire.
He is a practising writer and performer of songs and poems on radio for voluntary community organisations, and performs at arts and music festivals in this country and abroad. Ray is the Chair of the No Masters Co-operative. He is currently working on BBC 2's radio ballad series. He is a presenter at BBC Radio Sheffield.
Ray has a First Class Honours degree in Literature and a Masters degree in Telematics Learning.
Karen is a writer and editor with a doctorate in Psycholinguistics. She has travelled extensively from the Arctic Circle to Albania, and has worked in Nigeria, Northern Ireland and Israel. Before becoming a writer, she was employed in a variety of posts, including hospital administration, college teaching, and in various local government posts. Her first novel was short-listed for The Authors' Club Best First Novel Award. She has edited a number of cross-cultural books and been a consultant for a variety of communities and has written a series of innovative 'readable' reports both in her own right and in association with Pontefract Press.
She lives in Lincolnshire and has led over 200 creative writing workshops for adults around the country for the Adult Education Service, WEA, local councils and a variety of charities. Recently she was Writer in Residence on a council estate working with disadvantaged adults and children and is currently Writer in Residence working with people from rural communities.
Jacob is a website, book and book cover designer with experience of working for Yorkshire Forward, The ODPM, Liverpool HAT, Percentage for Arts (Bolton), Interculture and Leeds City Council. His South Yorkshire work includes an e-book for CLIP (Coalfields Learning Initiative Partnership) and a 9,000 words long 'book in a morning' for New Start (regeneration magazine).
Together with Ray Hearne he has developed the Pride of Place CD for the ODPM. He has a BSc (Hons) Interactive Entertainment Technology degree.
Ann is a freelance writer from Dublin who came to Yorkshire in 1988. She has a background in private industry, NHS and sport.
She has published short stories and features, and was a finalist in a national children's playwriting competition. She is a founder member of the longest established Writer's Group in Dublin, 'The Inkwell'. She has recently obtained her first degree as a mature student.
Michael has been a features writer on newspapers in South and West Yorkshire.
Today he is best known as a teacher, short story writer, dramatist and poetry publisher. Currently he is a creative writing tutor for the Workers' Educational Association. In 2002 he was tutor in Playwriting at Harrogate Theatre. He has an English degree from London University As well as being a key writer with a wealth of experience of the workings of local government and community development he is also one of our sub-editors.
Reini taught in a local comprehensive after a degree in Russian and German. After she joined Yorkshire Art Circus, she co-ordinated the production of the world's largest peg rug with well over 100 community participants, later she ran the education and publishing arm of Yorkshire Art Circus; she is currently working as constituency manager. She has co-written a number of books on community development; and co-edited an Open College of the Arts course and a guide for community publishing. She is a core Pontefract team member and is responsible for strategy.
Vic, writer and art critic, came north twelve years ago to edit the Yorkshire Arts Magazine Artscene and in that time his radical voice was much appreciated by the region's artists though not by art administrators. He has been a features writer in national newspapers and the editor of an environmental magazine. A perceptive analyst he has been responsible for the majority of the comments found in the margins of our books.
Paul Medlock is a commercial and arts photographer who has a newspaper background. He has worked for most of the Yorkshire papers and also for West Yorkshire MCC recording their regeneration and construction projects. He photographs bands, theatre companies and artists. He was the principal photographer for Artscene, the region's arts magazine. His enthusiasm recently took him to Argentina and Chile. He has had several major exhibitions; the last one, Patagonia, was at Dean Clough, Halifax (2004). He is the main photographer for Pontefract Press.
Alison Seabrooke is a professional project director, regeneration consultant and writer. She organised the building of the Regen Centre in Riccall and until recently was the Chair of this innovative community/training centre and responsible for strategy, recruitment and management. In 2002 she was seconded to the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, to co-ordinate their response to the Selby Coalfield closure. She was responsible for co-ordination of multi-agency services including flexible training delivery to 1500 mineworkers.
She has a First Class Honours Degree in Textiles and has run FE college departments. She is both a writer and a key strategist with Pontefract Press .
She has recently worked for central government in Sheffield, lives in Selby and is currently Joint Chief Executive of the London based Community Development Association.
Rosanna McGlone-Healey is a writer and journalist. She has written hundreds of articles for newspapers and magazines both in the UK and Australia where she lived for a number of years. Commissions include: The Independent, The Guardian, The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald. Rosanna is versatile and thrives on a challenge. She has led an English Department, lectured in universities, run workshops and sold ice creams at Alton Towers.
Thanks to an Arts Council grant, Rosanna has recently completed her first novel. She holds a law degree from Exeter University. She has a baby daughter and a young son.
Rose has a varied work back ground that includes the construction industry, economic development and equal opportunities. She has worked as an independent researcher for 14 years, providing training, research and development support to a range of community and voluntary groups engaged in economic and social regeneration. Her particular interest is in community involvement, partnership working, governance and participatory democracy and she combines professional expertise with first hand practical experience.
She has been involved in the evaluation of key government community regeneration initiatives and also works with Voluntary and Community sector organisations across South Yorkshire. She has recently developed and delivered the How Your City Works course aimed at supporting community activists to become more involved in partnership working and strategic decision making.
Rose was centrally involved in the development of the South Yorkshire Objective 1 programme from 1998 – 2001, fostering the participation of the Voluntary & Community Sector in the development, management and delivery of the programme.
She lives in Burngreave, Sheffield and is active in her local community; she is an elected community representative and Chair of the Burngreave New Deal for Communities Partnership Board. She sits on the Sheffield First Partnership Board (LSP) as one of the Community Empowerment Network representatives.
