Lydia Beilby is an artist working with 8mm and 16mm photochemical film, archival ephemera and text, driven by the radical possibilities of a small-scale, DIY collaborative practice rooted in eco-consciousness. Parallel to this, Lydia’s curatorial practice sees her leading on Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Black Box experimental strand, and she lecturers on the MSc Film, Exhibition and Curation at The University of Edinburgh. 

Born in Hawick, Irene has over thirty years’ experience in commissioning, curating, financial management, fundraising and strategic development. Following an MA in fine art and critical theory, Irene led various initiatives including the flagship Northumberland programme for Arts Council England, ‘Year of the Visual Arts’, a £1.5m public art commissioning project in Barrow-in-Furness, and spent seven years as executive director of Eden Arts in Cumbria. This was twinned with board member support for several arts and cultural sector organisations overseeing HR, finance and succession planning before joining Alchemy in 2019.

Dr. Jade de Montserrat is an artist based in North Yorkshire concerned with challenging structures of care in institutions and with the intersection of gender, race, class, and colonialism, often in the context of life in rural communities. She makes artworks (performance, drawing, painting, film, installation, sculpture, print and text) that explore the vulnerability of bodies, the importance of recording and preserving history, and the tactile and sensory qualities of language. Jade is a Tutor at Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, and an Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London. 

Tabi Mudaliar is a producer and writer. Her portfolio contains feature and art film, cultural events, radio productions, and arts projects. A Chair of Alive Community Radio, Director of DG Unlimited, and Network Coordinator for the DG Creative Wellbeing Network, Tabi is an established and well-known contributor and advocate in the creative and cultural landscape of the South of Scotland. She is a passionate advocate for true diversity and inclusion in Scotland’s creative sector, particularly for the underrepresented and the economically excluded. 

Sarah Perks is Professor of Curating in the School of Arts and Creative Industries at Teesside University / MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art), also leading the Centre for Culture and Creativity. An interdisciplinary curator and filmmaker, Sarah uses relational curatorial strategies to build engagement and empathy for nature recovery and other challenges, designing collaborative and future visioning projects that investigate equitable and non-hierarchical human and non-human partnerships. Previously Sarah was Artistic Director at HOME and Cornerhouse in Manchester, collaborating with international artists, curators and filmmakers including David Lynch, Rosa Barba, Phil Collins, and Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige. sarahperks.co.uk – formsofcirculation.com 

Ingrid Pollard is a photographer, media artist and researcher. She is a graduate of the London College of Printing and Derby University. Ingrid has developed a social practice concerned with representation, history and landscape with reference to race, difference and the materiality of lens based media. Her work is included in numerous collections including the UK Arts Council and the Victoria & Albert Museum. She lives and works in Northumbria, UK.

Ren Scateni (he/they) is Head of Programme at Encounters Film Festival and an independent writer and curator working with experimental and artists’ moving image works. Ren’s practice embraces works that explore the interstices of identity and reality; offer a political, disruptive, socially-charged commentary on our fractured times; and consider and articulate the human impact on the environment and the possibilities and teachings of collaborative survival. Ren’s writing has appeared in ArtReview and ArtReview Asia, Hyperallergic, MUBI Notebook, and Sight & Sound among others. Ren has curated programmes for national and international art centres and festivals, including the Barbican, Filmfest Dresden, and Short Waves. 

Dr Anthony Schrag is an artist and researcher at Queen Margaret University where he is Reader in Cultural Policy and Arts Management. He is the Programme Leader for the MA Arts, Festivals and Cultural Management as well as the MA Applied Arts and Social Practice. The central focus of his work examines the role of art in participatory and public contexts, with a specific focus on social conflict, agonism and ethics. He is a full member of the Centre for Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, leading the Practice Research Cluster, Finding and Using Creative Knowledge.

Mark is a specialist employability practitioner and innovator, working with hard-to-reach unemployed young people aged between 16 and 24 for the employability charity Works+.
Alongside this challenging and rewarding role, Mark is a cultural entrepreneur, working to develop Galashiels as a cultural destination. Mark is also a photographer exploring colour, pattern and abstraction from the urban and maritime environment.

Ed Webb-Ingall is a filmmaker and researcher working with archival materials and methodologies drawn from community video. He collaborates with groups to explore under-represented historical moments and their relationship to contemporary life, developing modes of self-representation specific to the subject or the experiences of the participants. He is a co-founder of the London Community Video Archive and is currently writing a book with the title BFI Screen Stories: The Story of Video Activism. Previous solo exhibitions have been at The Showroom Gallery (2015), Focal Point (2018), South London Gallery (2019), and Grand Union (2023). Group exhibitions include MK Gallery (2019), Invisible Dust (2019) and Brent Biennial (2022). Forthcoming exhibitions include Devonshire Collective (2023) and PEER (2024).