Clare Fisher acts as Company Manager. She is an artist who works with textiles and photography, a curator, and a mother.

Clare Fisher is an artist-manager with more than ten years experience in the industry working in both rural and non-rural contexts.  She was an Arts Activist at Beaford Arts and a Visual Arts Officer at The Plough (Torrington) before joining Aune Head Arts as Company Manager in 2005.  Her expertise includes curating and exhibition management, leading workshops for all ages, project management and artist liaison.  She is a photographic artist who works with objects of personal significance and with stitching and textiles to introduce new narratives to image-based work, which has been shown in solo and group exhibitions across the region and elsewhere. She has an MA in Photography from Nottingham Trent University , and a Diploma in Photography from Plymouth College of Art & Design, and numerous certifications as an educator/trainer.

Richard Povall is a founding co-director, and is responsible for Development. He is a composer and digital artist, also a co-director of half/angel.

Richard Povall is a Director of Aune Head Arts.  Richard is a Dartmoor-based digital artist, composer and researcher who has been working new technologies for the past three decades. His work, which includes computer music, interactive screen based work, video and installation as well as music for dance and theatre has been shown internationally.   Recent major work includes two commissions for Cork 2005: European Capital of Culture.  He has held senior research fellowships at Dartington College of Arts and Middlesex University, and was Director of Contemporary Music at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio in the 1990s.  He holds a PhD from the University of Plymouth. He is Chair of the Board of Dance in Devon, the Dance Development Agency for Devon, and sits on the Boards of Dance South West and soundart radio 87.7fm

Cat Radford acts as Projects Manager and Researcher. Cat is also a member of Blind Ditch.

Cat Radford is a performer and workshop facilitator with the artists collective Blind Ditch Performance, who practice across the fields of devised theatre, video and visual art, sonic composition and new media.  Cat’s recent projects with Blind Ditch include performed installation Who Wants to Be A Hero Now? a theatre work of the same title, and the video and filmmaking projects Vanland and Visionswitch for young people residing in rural Teignbridge.  Cat is also a Research Assistant at Dartington Creative Enterprise, where she has been involved in projects that evaluate arts activity in the South West.  Cat holds posts with the South West Participatory Arts Network and Aune Head Arts and has recently assisted in the delivery of South West Sound 2006.  Cat graduated with a BA Hons and MA in Devised Theatre from Dartington College of Arts.

Nancy Sinclair is the other founding co-Director and is responsible for external relations and project management. Nancy is a photographer and a highly experienced cultural manager.

Nancy Sinclair has lived in England since 1994.  In her native US she lived on both coasts where she was an artist, arts manager and college lecturer –– work she has continued in Devon. Recent artistic work includes a photographic study of the Aune (Avon River, and prints in two artists’/printmakers’ books (Dartmoor Profile and River Dart, an artists’ illustrated version of Alice Oswald’s book).  Nancy was a Lecturer at Dartington College of Arts from Autumn 1998 through Summer 2000 in Arts Management, and now leads the MA in Arts Management on behalf of Aune Head Arts.  She has worked as Executive Director of a number of agencies, including artist-led ProArts, and Oakland Festival of the Arts, both in the San Francisco Bay Area, and a three-county regional arts grants programme in the New York state.  She was also instrumental in a nationally-acclaimed art in public places project with Cambridge Arts Centre.  She has served as a board member for numerous arts and environmental organisations, and currently sits on the board of ArtsMatrix, the regional arts development agency. She has a BFA from the Corcoran School of Art, Washington, D.C., and an MFA from Mills College, Oakland, California.  She has a Master of Landscape Design from the Conway School of Landscape Design, Conway, Massachusetts.

Alex Murdin, an artist and Director of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen.

I have been the Director of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen for 5 years. During this time the organisation has been through radical change resulting in a significant improvement to both the quality and quantity of education and exhibitions programmes. Over 5 years I have achieved an investment of £1.5 million in the Devon Guild, increasing revenue funding by 220% to £90,000 per annum and trading turnover by 44 % to £400,000.
Staffing rates at the Devon Guild have risen from 6 to 10 full time artistic staff.  The gallery is now is able to employ freelance curators and technicians. Staff retention rates have been addressed through investment in training and personal development.

I trained as an artist and have a continuing thread of practice exploring the dynamics of nature, and landscape as amenity and cultural construct. I therefore have an empathy with and understanding of the key issues surrounding the realisation of work for artists. My particular interests, developed through action research and critical appreciation on my MA, have also informed my curatorial interests with the main body of exhibitions I programme dwelling on geological, biological and sociological responses to environment.

Site-specific work also interests me greatly and I have continued to facilitate commissions and installations throughout my career with partners including academic institutions, local authorities and corporations. I value the strategy of engagement with collaborators from different networks, as it brings with it unique perspectives on group dynamics and opportunities for interdisciplinary creativity. Work in the public sphere can be educational process and design solution, catalyst for change and social snapshot, and has a spectrum of outcomes that can transcend some of the inherent difficulties in accessing meaning within the white cube. These interests are now being pursued through a PhD at Dartington College of Arts.

Jo Rumble, Senior Planning Officer (Communuty) at Dartmoor National Park.

My family moved to Dartmoor from Hampshire in 1979, when I was eleven.  We lived on the west side at Grenofen and I soon learnt to enjoy the freedom, space and quality environment that the Moor and its valleys had to offer.  I moved away to London and then Birmingham before moving back in 1992 when I started working for the Dartmoor National Park Authority.

Originally employed as a Development Control Officer, I now work within the Forward Planning Section undertaking much of the community development and partnership work.  The scope of job is wide and varied and has included setting up the Dartmoor Sustainable Development Fund grant scheme, the Devon Celebration of Food and board member and mentor for the Tarka Millenium Awards. Currently, I am involved with the 3 district Local Strategic Partnerships, sitting on the steering group/boards for both Teignbridge and West Devon and the Princetown Partnership. 

I work with community groups and development trusts around the moor, offering financial and other support to help secure a sustainable future for Dartmoor. During my time at DNPA I have also undertaken consultancy work including community research work up in the Peak District for University of Plymouth and was seconded to MAFF during FMD in 2001.

Outside of work, I enjoy riding, walking and following the Dart Vale and South Pool Harriers.  On occasion I do volunteer work for the Cinnamon Trust and have also been known to go to the pub! I have an inbuilt love of Dartmoor and all that goes to make it such a special place.  I firmly believe that art can help all people to see it in a different light, to understand it, to appreciate it and encourage them to want to look after it for the future, not just for the opportunities it offers as a playground but because of what it is and what it makes them feel. 

picture coming!

Mary Schwarz, cultural manager and consultant.

Mary is a freelance arts consultant with a particular interest in continuing professional development for cultural practitioners, participatory arts and evaluation.  She was previously founding Director of the Centre for Creative Enterprise & Participation at Dartington College of Arts, and has held the posts of Community Officer at the then Yorkshire Arts and Arts Development Officer at East Devon District Council.  Prior to her career in arts and cultural management, Mary was first a community worker and then a secondary school teacher, and during the 1980s and early 1990s toured nationally and recorded as an improvising viola player in a variety of groups.