Principal Consultants

Kate Watson

Kate Watson

Kate holds a BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art for Design from Huddersfield University. She has worked in the arts and cultural sector for over 18 years and is passionate about engaging artists and creative professionals in helping to make great places and innovatively engaging communities with their towns and neighbourhoods. Kate has instigated, fundraised for and managed a range of creative programmes for Beam, including temporary and permanent public art commissions for private and public-sector clients, creative community engagement programmes and training opportunities for professionals.

Recent experience includes: Lead Producer for three year Dewsbury Creative Town Arts Programme of temporary and permanent public art projects;

Producer for Stairfoot Public Art Programme in Barnsley; Lead for the development of a Public Art Plan for Huddersfield Town Centre; Producer for RIBA 2019 award winning ‘Dancing Flowers of Doe Lea’ by Tonkin Liu permanent artwork & creative programme; Creative Producer for the three year arts programme of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site Great Place Scheme; Producer of War Horse WWI memorial in Featherstone and Snap Time by Michael Disley, mining memorial in Normanton; and Producer for Fighting From Home by Luke Perry, permanent artwork in Featherstone.

Connect with Kate on Linkedin.

 

 

 

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Frances Smith

Frances Smith

Frances holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Arts Management from Anglia Ruskin University and a First Class BA (Hons) degree in Printed Textile and Surface Pattern Design from Leeds Arts University. With 18 years experience in the arts and cultural sector and working across a range of creative disciplines, including visual arts, architecture and literature; Frances has a strong interest in the role of artists, the arts and communities in collaborative place-shaping. At a strategic level she has expertise in cultural project scoping and development at a wide range of scales, alongside the practical project management skills to achieve tangible outcomes and results.

 

Recent experience includes – Producer for ‘Creatively Connected’ research and development commissions as part of Tees-Swale Naturally connected landscape heritage project; Producer for Walking Together – a permanent mining memorial at Markham Vale; Development of a Public Art Plan for Selby District and a Creativity Strategy for North East Lincolnshire; Producer for a series of socially engaged artist residencies in the South Pennines Park; Development of a Cultural Development Framework for Selby District and a Cultural Strategy for the Borough of Scarborough; Producer for a series of temporary public artworks for the two year Wentworth & Elsecar Great Place Scheme supported by Arts Council England. 

Connect with Frances on Linkedin.

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Associates

Richard King

Richard King

Associate

Richard holds a BA (Hons) Degree in Architecture and a Post Graduate Certificate in Urban Design. He has worked in the arts, regeneration and heritage sectors for over 25 years, with a particular focus on community development, arts development, public art, public realm, historic building restoration, economic regeneration and community engagement.

 

Before becoming a consultant Richard most recently established and managed the Heritage Lottery Fund supported Dearne Valley Landscape Partnership (DVLP) focusing on the heritage, environment and communities of the Dearne Valley area of South Yorkshire. In 2018 it won the Community Involvement category in the national Local Government Chronicle Awards, reflecting the approach to engaging with local communities, with a particular focus on the arts.

Richard has strong project and programme management skills and has led on all aspects of project initiation, development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. He is experienced in securing multi-million-pound funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and European Regional Development Fund, as well as a range of other funding sources such as the Future High Street Fund, Section 106 and smaller grant funding bodies. He has led on the development and implementation of a range of arts strategies and commissioned permanent and temporary art works, through a range of competitions and tenders.

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Trustees

Gordon Watson – Chair

Gordon Watson – Chair

Museums & Galleries

Gordon Watson has many years of experience of arts, museums and large-scale capital development projects.

Gordon was Chief Executive of Lakeland Arts from 2010 to 2019 where he led the development of the Trusts portfolio of museums and galleries: Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Blackwell the Arts Crafts House and the Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry. He directed the project to create Windermere Jetty Museum of Boats, Steam and Stories designed by Carmody Groarke architects. The £20 million Museum opened in March 2019. Gordon oversaw the first stages of the Abbot Hall redevelopment project, designed by MUMA.

Previously, Gordon directed the development of The Hepworth Wakefield, designed by Sir David Chipperfield. He took the award-winning gallery from the initial concept and visioning through to completion of construction in 2010. Gordon was manager of Wakefield Council’s museums, arts and heritage services from 1995 to 2004.
Gordon retired in 2019 and lives near Wakefield, where he enjoys the vibrant cultural life of the area as well as the wonderful Yorkshire countryside.

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Trudi Entwistle

Trudi Entwistle

Artist; Landscape; Higher Education

Trudi has over 25 years experience of working as an artist in the public realm and is closely linked to the education of art and design in the landscape.

Her initial training was in Landscape Architecture, and as a senior lecturer in Landscape Architecture at Leeds Beckett University, she encourages the crossing of boundaries through interdisciplinary teaching.

www.trudientwistle.com

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Sanaa Shaikh

Sanaa Shaikh

Built Environment; Placemaking

Sanaa is an Architect, educator and researcher with a passion for inclusion in the built environment. She has extensive experience in both public and private sector working with a range of developers and local councils on large scale housing, markets, regeneration and commercial projects both in the UK and abroad.

Sanaa is founding Director of Native Studio – a practice that focuses on building sustainable buildings and communities through the creation of equitable spaces. She examines, lectures and tutors at a number of universities in London and the UK and co-leads research collective DECOSM a think tank research collective that brings together spatial practitioners looking to investigate ideas around decolonisation and spatial practice.

As a certified Passivhaus designer, Sanaa brings her understanding of environmental design to all projects she is involved in. In tandem, her experience on larger scale projects incorporating place making and landscape design has allowed greater concentration of the relationship between nature, the built environment and well-being.

Sanaa has worked to encourage wider participation in the built environment from marginalised groups and has designed, led and participated in workshops with the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, Construction Youth Trust, Open City, East London schools and the Manchester Museum. Further to this she has been involved in smaller scale installations and workshops that facilitate community participation and involvement in the shaping of the built environment.

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Jessica Richmond

Jessica Richmond

Urban Design; Placemaking

Jess is an independent urban design consultant, chartered town planner and creative practitioner with extensive experience working throughout the UK. Her professional practice spans masterplanning, regeneration, design guidance, teaching and creative engagement working across all aspects of placemaking and the built environment.

Jess works alongside partners, developers, local authorities, and community groups delivering advice on regional, city-wide and town centre projects.

Through her research she has investigated the role of arts-based practice in fostering well-being and regeneration in communities in the UK and is currently a collaborator developing a Public Space Toolkit for Wales. Her practice as an urban designer and creative practitioner enables her to undertake, develop and deliver placemaking strategies and masterplans that promote art and wellbeing in the value of good design.

Jess believes the experience of place is fundamental to our physical and mental health and sense of wellbeing. ‘This opportunity will enable me to use my strategic vision, judgement, teamwork and creative skills to help nurture, collaborate and grow Beam over the next three years – an organisation I feel passionate about, connected to and inspired by’.

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Henri Pearson

Henri Pearson

Marketing, Communications & Events

Henri is a passionate entrepreneur, who specialises in the media, entertainment, advertising, marketing and live event industries.

He has worked across the media sphere for a number of boutique media companies including his own. Henri studied broadcast journalism at Coventry University and has held senior roles at notable media companies throughout his career delivering exceptional results for clients both locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

Henri is a 30 under 30 winner with the Institute of Promotional Marketing and has been a contributor to various magazines and broadcasters including the BBC, ITV and well established news outlets. Henri is passionate about taking action on climate change.

In his spare time he enjoys travelling having visited almost 100 nations, making music and performing. He is an English national Ice Hockey champion three times running and still enjoys playing semi-professional Ice Hockey for Leeds Lightning.

 

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Bongani Muchemwa

Bongani Muchemwa

Built Environment

Bongani is a senior architectural designer with significant experience at some of the UK’s most high profile architectural practices.

He has won numerous awards for design excellence and had his writing published. His work with film and animation has been widely celebrated including at Magma Film Festival in Sicily. Bongani has has exhibited work at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, and was nominated for the RIBA President’s Bronze Medal. Bongani also teaches architecture at the University of Westminster and is co-founder of design and architecture studio – McCloy + Muchemwa.

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Andrew Ball

Andrew Ball

Business Development

Andrew Ball has extensive experience as a Business Consultant working across the UK.

Growing up in Portsmouth, and with a retired Naval father, the Army provided a useful and positive distraction for 15 years, sending Andrew to places around Germany, NI and UK to find excitement. He left in 1995, having met and married a local girl, and decided to settle in South Yorkshire, he spent the first few years testing ‘civi-street’ and finding his place in it before getting into IT and extending this into Project
Management. Being a ‘people’ person, programming held little excitement for him so falling back on 15 years service he focused on the Control aspects of projects, Governance, Planning and Risks, helping Project  Managers deliver key programmes around the UK. He now works as an Interim Business Consultant, sharing his view and persuading others of a better way of doing things.
Andrew lives in Surrey for work and in Bramley with Ann his wife, a retired Police Officer and now Criminal Analyst with South Yorkshire Police and has 21 years old twins. Andrew’s son is working in the local economy and striving to find his place in the world and his daughter, works for Sweetspot (organisers of Uk based professional cycling races and events) is taking on the International world of Cycling.
Andrews gets a great deal of pleasure from voluntary involvement and working with local organisations, it provides his with an opportunity to give back and to help and fill gaps in the knowledge and experience of those running them. Working across a broad range of sectors, education, local community groups, Sea Cadets, Veterans and Arts and Cultures organisations he helps them to visualise and plan future direction.

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Karmjit Lyal

Karmjit Lyal

Built Environment

Karmjit (BA [Hons] Architecture BArch RIBA) is an Architect with over 20 years experience within the public and private sectors. Specific interests include sustainability, conservation of historic buildings, regeneration, public realm and infrastructure.

 

Karmjit completed a placement with Beam on the Leonardo Da Vinci Fund Programme in Sevilla in 2011 which has influenced his outlook and approach to design. As part of the programme he contributed to the exploration of new residential typologies encompassing the relationship of culture, climate and the built environment resulting in a people centric design ethos. Other schemes included the development of the public realm along the river Guadalquivir.

Following on from the programme he has worked on an Urban Design project of a Yorkshire coastal town influencing policy. More recently, he is involved in infrastructure projects which encompass his personal beliefs of collaboration and relationship building which he believes is the cornerstone to successful outcomes.

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