All the team work part-time at Studio Upstairs. The work is supported by 13 volunteers.

Director

Douglas Gill - Co-founder of Studio Upstairs in London and founder of the Bristol studio. He is a UKCP registered psychotherapist, member of The Philadelphia Association and HPC registered art therapist, lecturer, artist and former performance artist.

Senior Studio Managers

Nick Moore – Artist, musician and poet, has been working at Studio Upstairs since 2000 as a Senior Manager. He is also the Studio’s Outreach Manager, initiating links and partnerships with organisations in the arts, education and the wider community. He curates studio exhibitions in house and in public galleries, and is a part-time community art lecturer at the City of Bristol College. He is an HPC registered art therapist with experience in the NHS.

Sarah Tamar – Artist, HPC registered art therapist and qualified social worker, Sarah has been a Senior Manager at Studio Upstairs since 2002. She is also the workshop facilitator for the writing group and is a part-time community art lecturer at the City of Bristol College.

Studio Managers

Michelle Dash – Artist and HPC registered art therapist has been working with Studio Upstairs since 2002. She also works for a local NHS Mental Healthcare Trust.

Lucy Hepworth - Artist and HPC registered art therapist, qualified social worker, has been working at the studio since 2004, having worked for 14years in the NHS with children and adults. Working in the studio has informed and challenged her work as an artist and therapist. She is the studio’s student placement co-ordinator. She is also a part-time community art lecturer at the City of Bristol College.

Caroline Pearson – Artist and HPC registered art therapist. She also works in the NHS (assessment unit) with older adults and has been a Studio Upstairs manager since 2002. She is also a part-time community art lecturer at the City of Bristol College.

Julia Bateman – Artist and HPC registered art therapist, working in the studio since 2002 initially as a volunteer, with maternity breaks.

Studio Technician

Kumuda Sattva – Artist and Buddhist monk, supports the studio in practicalities such as stretcher-making and also runs a weekly meditation group in the studio.

Administration

Administrator – Jan Jeffcoate – has worked at Studio Upstairs as administrator since starting as a volunteer in January 2004. Previously Production Director in publishing, Jan re-invented herself in 2003 when she graduated from Bath Spa University in Creative Arts and is now also an artist and textile designer.

Administrative Assistant – Sally Rhiannon Collister – has worked at Studio Upstairs as administrative assistant since starting as a volunteer in April 2006. Photographer and club promoter, Sally organises music events (often raising money for charity) across the UK.

Trustees

Hannah Becker – Currently a freelance strategy consultant, Hannah was previously Business Development Director at Tesco. Her early career was at Marakon Associates, a strategy consultancy, where she spent seven years helping management teams at companies like Diageo, Cadbury’s Schweppes and BP to make key decisions about the future of their businesses. She has also worked in the advertising industry. Hannah has a strong interest in the arts and completed an intensive foundation course at the Slade in 2003.

Sharon Toop – Head of Production at IOP Publishing, an international publisher of journals and magazines in physics and related subjects. A physicist by training, Sharon has worked in publishing for more than 30 years. She came to Studio Upstairs through an Arts and Business initiative that matches the skills and experience of managers working in business and industry with the requirements of arts-based organisations in the South West. Her previous interest in art was limited to visiting galleries and museums while on holiday!

Alan Bolden –Director of Arts and Ecology at Dartington, and MA Award Leader. Alan also teaches the BA in arts and Cultural Management.
He has worked for the last 20 years as a curator, artist and project manager. He was Director of an Interdisciplinary Arts Festival for 12 years and worked for 5 years as Head of Arts for Social Services in Luxembourg, helping to overhaul and transform the arts in social work. He has an MA in Art and Psychotherapy.

Tom Trevor - Director of Arnolfini, in Bristol since October 2005. He was previously Director of Spacex, Exeter, from 1999-2005. He studied Fine Art at the Ruskin, Oxford, and Goldsmiths College, London, and exhibited regularly as an artist in the early 1990s, as well as working as a music producer for television. As an independent curator from 1994-99, he curated context-based projects for inIVA, Camden Arts Centre, the Freud Museum and the Wellcome Trust, amongst other organisations.

Lucy Johnstone - Lucy spent 10 years in adult mental health, with a particular interest in in-patient work, before moving to an academic post at The University of the West of England. She moved back into part-time clinical practice and her current post on the Bristol Doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 2001.
She is the author of ‘Users and Abusers of Psychiatry: a critical look at psychiatric practice’ and has published in the areas of psychosis, psychotherapy, self harm, psychiatric medication, models of psychiatric intervention and reflective practice.
Lucy is and has been involved in; MIND, The International Centre for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, The International Society for Psychological treatment of Schizophrenias and The Psychotherapy Section of the BPS. She is on the editorial board of several journals and is currently external examiner for the Hertfordshire Clinical Psychology Doctorate.