Artweeks' Board
Melita Kyle
Melita studied Jewellery Design at the Plymouth College of Art & Design before moving away to attend the Oxford Summer School in Precious Metal Clay. She has since gone on to self teach new techniques and ideas, constantly pushing boundaries with this exciting media. Her involvement with Artweeks has developed from being a regular exhibitor to a committed volunteer area co-ordinator primarily focusing on the villages & towns around Abingdon-Blewbury. Listening to and working with artists and community businesses helps her to recognise how we can keep learning & improving awareness of all types of visual art particularly in rural areas and involving young people.
Lois Muddiman
Lois Muddiman was employed as Artweeks Festival Director from 1993 to 1997 and was a Board member from 1997 to 2001. She has also exhibited in Artweeks on 3 occasions. She recently studied Fine Art at Oxford Brookes University, graduating in 2008. She is a qualified primary school teacher with experience in EFL and management training. Lois is a trustee of Low Carbon West Oxford which she co- founded in 2007, a Director of West Oxford Community Renewables Ltd and Chair of West Oxford Community Association. Lois currently works for South Oxfordshire and the Vale Strategic Partnerships in community-led-planning.
Anuk Naumann
Anuk studied architecture at University College London, and worked as an architect for some years. Her career changed direction a few times; joining her husband working for Oxfam in Uganda and then for the Quakers at the United Nations in New York, during which time she studied silkscreen printing. Back in Britain she returned to her real love of painting, by taking part in a group exhibition for Artweeks. Anuk works entirely in water based paints and uses collage to give initial texture to her pieces. Her work ranges from landscape both in Britain and abroad, to still life, which she still regards as her favourite. She has been an Artweeks participating artist for 19 years and a board member since 2008.
Hannah Newton
Hannah graduated from Manchester with a degree in printed textiles and fashion. She subsequently worked on community arts projects in Manchester with the Hulme Regeneration partnership, collaborating with local artists to promote the area through different art forms. She furthered her love of community work and textiles by travelling to Asia, Mexico, Central and South America to study traditional textiles of these areas, looking at traditional skills and often working with local women and children. Since 2005 she has worked in a secondary school to the south of Oxford, where she leads ‘teaching and learning’ in the large and vibrant creative arts and design faculty. Hannah’s interests are firmly centred on education and the arts and their interface with the community.
Cath Nightingale
Cath is an arts marketing consultant who has worked with many of Oxfordshire’s leading cultural organisations. She was marketing director of Oxford Inspires (the county’s cultural development agency) until 2007, responsible for promoting two major cultural programmes, one of which, Oxfordshire 2007, celebrated 1000 years of the county. As a freelance consultant, she has worked with Oxford Playhouse, the North Wall Arts Centre, the Children’s Food Festival, Ciao!, the Story Museum, and local authorities. She has edited a number of prizewinning company newspapers and magazines and is also a graphic designer.
David Pollock
David has recently retired as Chief Executive of one of the UK’s larger Trade Associations. He continues to represent them on several European boards and committees. He has experience in Whitehall, the City and the media industry.
David has always been an enthusiastic supporter of Artweeks and is pleased, at last, to have become closely involved. He is also very glad to be able at last to spend more time on his own paintings, and on illustration and photography. Lifelong interests that have, until his retirement, had to take second place to the day job!
David lives in Charlbury with Sally Simpson.
Claire Reika Wright
Claire has been a professional artist since 1993 having originally studied fine art in the mid sixties. She has exhibited in Germany, the USA and in Australia where she lived for 28 years. Since returning to the UK in 2001 she has exhibited widely and has taken part in Oxfordshire Artweeks since 2004. Claire is also a graphic designer and worked as curator of exhibitions at The Mill Arts Centre in Banbury for six years. She is now heavily involved with making screen and time based interactive art based on traditional and digital production methods.
Nick Thorn
Nick has a background in fundraising for charities and in higher education. He is currently director of development at Corpus Christi College. As well as the annual hurly-burly of Artweeks, he involves himself in the Woodcraft Folk movement (a sort of hippy scouts). At weekends he supports Oxfordshire Girls U15 rugby (for whom his youngest daughter plays scrum-half); he idles his summer days at watching Hampshire and in quieter moments picks away at his beloved Taylor Big Baby guitar. Nick has been chair since 2009.
Susan Williamson
Now working as a heritage management consultant, Susan worked in the field of culture and heritage for Historic Scotland for 10 years before her move to Oxford. She is now advising on World Heritage and other cultural and heritage matters for the UK government and the Council of Europe and other organisations. She is also a Trustee of the Oxford Preservation Trust and supports the development of arts, culture and heritage and their value to the whole community. As a Board member she is delighted to be able to contribute to Oxfordshire’s thriving Artweeks.
Honorary Director
Mary Moser
Mary took up art seriously on retirement and became a printmaker; first working in silk screen and latterly in etching and woodcuts. She has exhibited a number of times in Artweeks and also with the Oxford Art Society, of which she is a member.
Mary became involved in Artweeks in 1992 when, with volunteer colleagues, she organised the 1993 Festival and then remained chair until 1999. Artweeks had for some time been doing residencies in schools but found it increasingly difficult to raise money for this as it was not a designated charity. So Oxfordshire Artweeks Education Charity (Kids@Art), chaired by Mary, was set up to carry out the educational work of Oxfordshire Artweeks. It raised funds and arranged artists’ residencies in schools throughout Oxfordshire also extending its work into Art4Age, with residencies in homes for the elderly before it wound down in 2009.
