Earlyarts Team and Board

Jo Albin-Clark

Senior Lecturer in Early Years at Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancashire

Jo Albin-Clark is a trainer and consultant specialising in early years. She has taught throughout the key stages and was a deputy head teacher of a primary school. Recently she has worked as an early year’s advisory teacher and senior teacher at a Children’s Centre. Currently she is a senior lecturer in Early Years education at Edge Hill University and also provides consultancy as a pedagogue across Knowsley’s Children’s Centres. Her latest project has been developing Experiential Learning based on the Flemish theory of Ferre Laevers which looks at raising the quality of provision by focusing on children’s emotional well-being and involvement in play. Her action research is currently centred upon the creative participation of young children and their families in how practice is developed in Children’s centres. Her interests are centred on creative play for young children, and she has been involved in the national consultation on the Arts Council England’s Artsmark for Early Years, and has closely supported the northwest’s Earlyarts network, as one of its founding members. Joanne has worked on arts, cultural and early years projects with the Halle orchestra, National Museums of Liverpool and Rochdale’s M6 Children’s Theatre. As well as being a mum to three children under 10, she likes a chippy tea (with mushy peas) and a nice lie down.

 

Nathan Archer

Director of The Children's House Consultancy, Lincolnshire

Nathan has been involved in early years for the past ten years. Following a Post Graduate Diploma in Arts Management, Nathan worked for a local authority and TEC. Since then he has been involved in developing two nurseries with a regional group in partnership with an NHS trust and an FE college. Nathan was Communications Officer for National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) and initiated developments such as national publications, a website, conferences and seminars. Following this he spent a busy period in the senior management team as Business Support Officer for North East Lincolnshire EYDCP, leading on the Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative with a range of agencies. He worked with nursery schools, Early Excellence Centres and also sourced substantial SRB and ERDF funds for childcare development. More recently, Nathan has worked freelance with Sure Start Children's Centres and private and voluntary early years providers on a range of projects from business development to a creative learning conference. Nathan was a member of the DCFS Early Years Stakeholder group and is currently a member of Earlyarts Advisory Board, Montessori Schools Association Advisory Group and an early years training social enterprise. He writes for sector publications and is currently leading on a BIG Lottery funded Family Learning programme and a training contract for Lincolnshire County Council.

 

Ruth Churchill Dower

Director of Isaacs UK and Earlyarts network, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire

Ruth is the Director of Isaacs UK, a creative learning consultancy with a remit to pioneer learning networks across the cultural and educational communities. One of the main networks run by Isaacs UK is Earlyarts, a professional development network for arts, cultural and early years professionals working creatively with young children and families. Ruth recently won the Ogunte Women’s Social Leadership Awards 2009 for her work in building Earlyarts to make real change happen in young children’s lives. Ruth has worked on developing arts, cultural, early education and learning strategies in both policy and practice, with clients such as Futurelab, Arts Council England, CAPE UK, Department of Culture, Media and Sport, National Museums Liverpool, Canterbury Children’s Centre, Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, and Creative Partnerships. Ruth has published work on the impacts of arts and culture on learning processes, shared learning networks, professional development, impact assessments, research and evaluation. She is a Director and board member of Germination, a cultural production company. She is also a member of Small Size (European network for the diffusion of performing arts for children), and a fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts).

 

Natasha Holmes

Artistic Director at Tell Tale Hearts, Penistone, West Yorkshire

Natasha graduated from Kings College, University of London with a BA Hons 2:1 in English and trained with Philippe Gaulier at École de Philippe Gaulier. Natasha worked for 10 years as a performer in London working for many theatre companies & venues including; Theatre Rites, Dynamic New Animation, The Little Angel Theatre, BAC and ACT based in Paris. She co-founded Tell Tale Hearts in 1997 with Isabel Caballero and toured internationally with the company, performing comic physical theatre shows for adults. In 2003 Natasha took over the role as sole artistic director of the company and changed the focus to an exclusively children’s theatre company, intent on raising the profile of theatre for early years. Since then she has directed, ‘A Story For All Seasons’, a magical installation show which brings the cycle of the seasons to life for ages 3 – 7, 'Beneath the Waves', an aquatic adventure involving video projection and live music, ‘Arctic Antics’, a black light theatre show performed in UV lighting for 8-11 year olds, most recently ‘Space Hoppers’ – a poetic and musical adventure in outer space, and has also co-written and performed, 'The Little Match Girl' and 'Rumpelstiltskin' with Figment Theatre.

Natasha is currently researching European approaches to theatre for early years through Earlyarts’ Dandelion Programme and is developing a new show for the very young – ‘From here…to there’. Natasha is also committed to designing and delivering specialist educational programmes to enable schools to embrace a more creative curriculum. She continues to work as a freelance artist and director and has directed the hugely successful, ‘Cain and Abel’ for Twisted I and ‘War of the Buttons’ for Animotion Theatre, and occasionally works for other companies such as, 'The Faceless Company', ‘Pif-Paf’ and 'Urban Angels'.

 

Rebecca Johnson

Director of Play and Early Years at Eureka, Halifax

Rebecca is an Early Years Professional with 18 years post qualifying experience. She initially qualified as a nursery nurse, and her personal commitment to ongoing professional development lead her to gain a BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies in 1999. Rebecca has always been a strong advocate for high quality creative experiences for children and their families, having started her career in Early Years, she was exposed and committed to the value of play. As her career progressed and she spent time working in Italy and Hong Kong, Rebecca became more aware of the wider play picture and the cultural differences. She returned to the UK in 2005 and initially took up the position of Early Years Manager at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum. Now, as the Play & Learning Director, Rebecca is responsible for developing and leading on the implementation of initiatives and programmes which support learning through play, both internally and externally. This includes identifying and working with organisations and partners which contribute to their understanding of the importance of play and which support their long term objectives within informal learning settings.

Rebecca is a voluntary director of Yorkshire Play and sits on Calderdale Councils Play steering group. Rebecca was one of Earlyarts founding members and has consistently championed the growth of Earlyarts as a unique creative play resource for many of Eureka’s stakeholders and staff over the years.