ARK TEAM
Jan Ryan
Director
One of CCS’s founders, Jan Ryan is a creative producer and festival director with more than 40 years’ experience of presenting work that is diverse, inclusive and socially engaged. She established UK Arts International in 1992, working with venues from village halls to the West End and collaborating with organisations such as the Barbican in London, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and the Market Theatre of Johannesburg. On moving to Margate in 2014, her focus has been on working with local artists. She co-founded and led the Power Of Women festival until 2020 and produced the Making Waves festival for Margate Now in 2019. Jan was recently awarded a Senior Fellowship in Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy by the University of Leeds.
Elinor Seath
Partnership and Engagement Manager
Eli has lived in Thanet for five years, having previously co-founded the award-winning Art4Space in Stockwell. With twenty two years’ experience of setting up, project managing and delivering community arts projects across London, she is now developing relationships across the local and wider community, ensuring we create a relevant space that brings people together.
Nathan Jones
ARKitech
Nathan is a digital and graphic artist with extensive experience of creating visuals for a range of arts projects regionally, nationally and internationally. He has been part of the ARK team since the beginning, creating films and projections for Cliftonville Lights and the Cliftonville Voices exhibition, as well as creating ARK's website and print.​ He has collaborated with numerous artists and companies including Birmingham Rep, The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company, Iapetus Records, Kanif the Jhatmaster, Yugen Blakrok, Soweto Kinch, Jonzi D and Akala. His work has featured on BBC interactive, at the Royal Court Theatre, London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Tate Modern, Turner Contemporary, Rome Colosseum and numerous performance venues, music festivals and clubs in Europe and South Africa.
Martha Rumney
Producer
Martha moved to Margate in 2023, having spent ten+ years working in the arts in London. Most recently, she was the Programmer and Producer at Rich Mix where she spent eight years moulding the programme and supporting a huge range of diverse artists. Martha is most proud of co-founding Elevate East, an artist development and event production company that supports queer east London nightlife performers. Alongside her work at ARK, she is currently a Producer at Sounds Queer, an organisation that straddles the void between live music and nightlife showcasing and platforming queer live music acts.
Supported by:
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Bookkeeper - Christina Michaels
Technical Manager - Jamie Pattenden
Security and maintenance - Matt Hall​
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and by a team of local volunteers who generously donate their time to help ARK run smoothly.
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ARK logo design - Claire-Beth Gibson
If you would like to join the
ARK volunteer team, please contact
ARK TRUSTEES
Stephen Miller
Chair
Stephen is Director of Delivery and Impact at Power to Change. He is passionate about supporting organisations develop innovative responses to 21st century challenges, with a particular focus on inclusive growth. He has fifteen years experience of putting insight into action, working with others to design new products and services, evaluate their impact or tell stories through data. As well as Chair of the Cliftonville Cultural Space, he is a trustee of the Charity Evaluation Working Group and sits on an advisory board for the V&A Dundee.
Joanna Alpe
Joanna is chief commercial officer at Bild Studios. With a rich background in global business development for creative technology companies, she oversees Bild’s commercial strategy and development. Having previously founded an award-winning branding agency and a live event technology start-up, Joanna has a wealth of experience working as an independent business consultant to a host of successful start-ups.
Maurice Bitton
Maurice managed the historic Bevis Marks Synagogue in the city of London for 20 years and was instrumental in successfully applying for a substantial capital grant to renovate the building. He has extensive knowledge of how to run and maintain a historic building and has also been involved with the Montefiore Synagogue in Ramsgate for a number of years.
Zoë Carassik
Zoë Carassik is CEO of Pie Factory Music, a music and youth work charity based in a busy youth centre in Ramsgate, East Kent. With a background in community music engagement and music education, Zoë's work has predominantly focused on supporting social justice causes and has taken her from immigration removal centres, women's refuges and community centres to world-class cultural institutions and strategic charitable organisations. Zoë is a passionate advocate for young people's rights, ensuring young people are front and centre of the cultural regeneration of Thanet and other areas of high deprivation.
Jason Hollingsworth
Treasurer
Jason is a Chartered Accountant who has worked in extensively in the private sector as well as with national charities including Victim Support, Police and Crime Commissioners, Local Authorities and many third sector organisations in education, mental health and culture. In 2011, he co-founded Bayguide CIC which conceived and delivered the award-winning Marcel Duchamp Centenary Festival and produces the annual Herne Bay Cartoon Festival. He currently fulfils many part-time CFO / Finance Director roles including for Stronger Kent Communities, where he also provides business strategy advice to regional charities.
Mia Pollak
Having worked in the arts for over 20 years, Mia is committed to inclusive arts engagement, platforming and supporting creativity. Mia is currently a Director of Margate Pride CIC, an arts-and-culture-led Pride, and is also a traditional signwriter, specialising in gilding and working with glass. Having volunteered for different organisations, and with extensive experience in art production for organisations including the V&A, Tate, National Trust, BFI and Royal Albert Hall, she hopes to be able to contribute to ARK and the wider community.
Aram Rawf
Aram Rawf has lived in Thanet for over 23 years, having arrived as an asylum seeker at the age of 17, spending his first six years in Cliftonville. He speaks four languages and is passionate about making improvements in Thanet, helping wherever he is most needed.
In 2010 Aram was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK following one of the longest asylum cases to ever run in the country and in 2011 he became a British citizen.
A former district and town councillor for the Labour Party, Aram currently works with Samphire in Dover – an organisation that supports refugees in East Kent. He has volunteered for many groups and organisations in Thanet and hopes his involvement with ARK will help make a difference in our community.
Olivia Schelts-Harris
Secretary
Olivia is currently Head of Consultation and Participation at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. She is a Cliftonville local with a professional background in business development and community engagement in charities and the public sector. She holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Voluntary Sector Management from Bayes Business School, and her first love is community work, having been involved in Youth Work organisations across London and Merseyside, including authoring a Social Return On Investment report for the Cabinet Office in 2011. In 2020, whilst at the Salvation Army Olivia led a successful partnership of 13 charities to win the Adult Victims of Modern Slavery Contract with the Home Office. She was previously Chair of Trustees for Awesome CIC, an adventure play Community Interest Company in Islington, London.
ARK ADVISORS
The team and board of trustees are supported by a group of advisors who support ARK with their specialist knowledge in specific areas. They are:
Brian Horton
(Finance and governance)
Brian is Director at Horton Strategic a housing, development and regeneration consultancy working independently and collaboratively to provide specialist strategic advice to clients in the public, private and third sector. Brian was born in Margate and still lives locally in Birchington. He is a passionate advocate for the impact of culture-led regeneration.
Lucy Williams
(Engagement)
Dr Lucy Williams is a freelance researcher and Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Kent. She has been involved in community work and research with refugees and asylum seekers in the UK since 1998. Her current research is with refugees, detained and facing enforced return to countries of origin. She works with the Refugee Tales project and East Kent Mind.
Alaina Crystal
(Marketing)
Alaina Crystal is a creative communications strategist, accredited Integral Development Coach, and committed feminist with over 13 years’ experience building campaigns to make the world a better place for women, girls and non-binary people. She runs her own consultancy where she partners with brands, NGOs, nonprofits and individuals to create positive social change; in addition to her work, she is also co-Chair of Trustees for Power of Women Thanet, and runs community hikes and entrepreneurship meetups for women in the Thanet region.
James Frankis
(Building and Capital project)
James Frankis is Head of Product at Convene, a premium hospitality company that designs and operates premium meeting, event, and flexible office spaces. In this role, he is responsible for the design, product standards, and customer experience across the company’s portfolio of brands. Prior to joining Convene, James was a senior strategist and European practice area leader for consulting at Gensler. He has worked with a range of clients including British Land, HSBC, Mitsubishi Estates, Blackstone, Hines, AXA, and Rockefeller Group.
Jacky Gerald
(Mentor)
Jacky has been a psychotherapist for over 25 years, working with individuals, couples, families and groups. She is passionate about what she does and believes that healthy, authentic communication is the key to unlocking many issues both personally and in the work place, and that by providing a comfortable, confidential and safe space to talk through particular concerns, both personal or professional, she can help people make the changes they desire. She will provide external mentoring, supporting the team and assisting them to work effectively together.
Francesca Ter-Berg
(Programming / Building and Capital project)
Francesca is a cellist and composer known for her unique style which blends Klezmer, Improvisation and electronic synthesis. She is one half of the acclaimed string duo, Fran and Flora and writes for film and TV. Commissions include the Turner Contemporary and Margate NOW Festival. She is a co-founder of ARK after having successfully campaigned to save the building for the benefit of the local community.
Jo Crowley
(Programming)
Jo is Executive Producer for Margate based 1927, Co-Director of the Total Theatre Network, co-leading the Total Theatre Awards at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Co-Founder and Co-Director of Another Route, a fellowship programme for England based performance artists to internationalise their creative practice. Specialising in hybrid and collaborative practice and performance, she has produced over 40 productions, co-productions, tours and projects for independent artists and companies presented in 48 countries across 6 continents. She is also an advisor and mentor to a number of emerging and independent artists, is Chair of Arcade Arts, Chair of Bryony Kimmings Limited and a Board Member for Theatre Delicatessen.
Nova Marshall
(Engagement)
Nova is a Cliftonville resident and participatory visual artist. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art at UCA Canterbury and has extensive experience of working in schools, communities and for various arts and cultural organisations in the South East.
Nova is passionate about working with children and young people as co-creators; over the last 13 years she has developed a strong participatory process-driven practice that is collaborative, adaptable and responsive. She develops and creates environments that allow participants to thrive enabling them to co-design and co-produce projects. She is constantly inspired by those that she works with and enjoys the democratic facilitation process.
David Read
(Engagement)
David has lived in Thanet for 7 years and has worked in education for the last 6. Working in primary classrooms with SEND children led to David becoming the Lead for the school academy’s mentoring project TKAT ACE, and for the last year the Regional Lead for TKAT ACE within Thanet schools.
Lara Wilks Sloan
(Fundraising and income generation)
Lara is a SEND and workplace mediator and a performer. In her previous roles she was Director of Fundraising at The Anne Frank Trust, and has worked for The Refugee Council, The Suzy Lamplugh Trust and has over 20 years experience of income generation. These days Lara performs and writes and produces comedy and drama for the stage.