Staff

Sandra Drew, Director
Sandra has worked in the visual arts for over thirty years both in Australia and the UK. Trained as a painter, she developed galleries with her artist husband William Drew in Australia, in France and then Drew Gallery in Canterbury, which she curated and directed for eighteen years. Since 1984, through Drew Gallery Projects, Sandra also curated a wide range of site-specific publicly funded projects, which involved artists from many different countries. This included SVA, which she has nurtured and directed since its inception in 1994. Alongside her curatorial practice she has also been a consultant, a lecturer, a writer  and developed a number of innovative arts initiatives. She is now full time director of SVA

 

Lucy Medhurst, Education and Participation Manager
Lucy studied at Brighton Art College and Sussex University in art history and Italian. She then worked at the Mercury Gallery in Cork Street. Following an apprenticeship at Canterbury Cathedral she studied Wall Paintings Conservation in Rome and worked freelance for many years. After having children she became involved in education projects making murals and large scale mosaics.  Lucy spent 2 years with an Education Business Partnership before joining SVA as education and participation manager. She is a keen allotment holder and is interested in the natural environment.

 

Amanda Thesiger, Administrator
Amanda trained as a painter, including an MA at the Royal Academy Schools and a Scholarship at the British School at Rome. She has continued to paint and has exhibited her work in shows all over the UK for the last 15 years.  A part-time job at Friends of the Earth supported her artistic career for many years. It also focused Amanda’s passion for the natural environment and the means to campaign on local environmental issues. She is also a mother of two.

 

Dan Howard-Birt , Assistant Curator
Dan studied Art History and Fine Art at Goldsmiths College and the Royal College of Art. He began to curate independent group exhibitions whilst still at the RCA, and continues to do so. Before joining SVA, he worked for the Artist-led gallery GENERATORprojects in Dundee.

 

Trustees

Jeremy Theophilus
Chair of the Board of Trustees since 2003.
Jeremy has worked in the visual arts as a professional administrator, gallery director, writer, curator, consultant and stage designer since 1973. After 10 years with Arts Council England, he co-founded A Fine Line, a cultural practice focused on international residency programmes, and providing expertise and support for arts organisations. Whilst based in Suffolk, he maintains working links with the South East through ownership of a gallery with rooms  in a refurbished Georgian terrace house on Margate harbour.

 

Martin Hall
An environmental officer who, when employed by Kentish Stour Countryside Project, was instrumental in setting up the SVA project in 1994. His commitment to and understanding of the project has been exemplary over the past twelve years. He brings to the organisation his extensive knowledge of land management and experience of working with various landscapes and environmental organisations including Local authorities.

 

David Haste
A practicing artist since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1971 he has had nine one-person exhibitions and exhibited in numerous group and themed shows. He has undertaken public and private commissions in the UK and Cyprus, including the British Museum and the United Nations; his work has been published in several artists' books. He has painted 'political landscapes' from different locations within the UK, Europe and the Middle East; his other visual production includes three dimensional work, 'model narratives' for exhibition and private collectors. Over the same period he has taught in and been external examiner at various art schools, head of department at Wimbledon School of Art 1978-81 and the Head of the School of Fine art, Kent Institute of Art and Design from 1982 to 1998.  He was a fine art member of the Council for National Academic Awards, chairman of the National Association of Fine Art Education, subject specialist for the Quality Assurance Agency and an appointed adviser/consultant to University of Alberta, Edmonton and Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Canada.

His current work includes writing as well as painting. He has written on art education history and has recently concluded the book, "The Art Schools of  Kent" which will be published 2006/7 and another book "Elegy and Apocalypse"  about the Green Line of Cyprus which will be co-authored and published in  the UK and Cyprus in 2006. A retrospective exhibition of his Cyprus paintings will launch the book in Nicosia, Cyprus in 2006/07.

He has been a Trustee of SVA since 2000

 

Helen Kirwan
Helen Kirwan (Company Secretary) is a barrister at law, lecturer and artist.  She practised as a barrister for nearly twenty years ( 1980-1998).   She   has been a full time practising artist since 1995.   She graduated from the Kent Institute of Art and Design in 2000 and obtained   an M.A. in Fine Art from Middlesex University in 2002.

She also achieved an M.A. in Asthetics and Art Theory from Middlesex University's Department of European Philosophy   in 2004. She has exhibited in the UK, France and Belgium. As part of a collaborative practice known as B+K, with Mary-Lou Barratt, she has exhibited and lectured in the UK Singapore and Korea. She brings to the project her extensive legal expertise and her commitment to and understanding of the contemporary visual arts including art criticism and theory. She lives at Chilham, a village on the eastern edge of King's Wood.

 

Chris Marsh
Chris Marsh is Managing Director of Christopher Marsh and Co.Ltd (Sustainable Property Consultants) and as a Chartered Surveyor and Chartered Town Planner has been heavily involved in research and consultancy projects for many years, client’s including the ODPM, the GLA and the RICS.

Most recently, he was part of the team advising the Government (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) on the practicality of the tariff in an amended form and (separately) possible changes to the Affordable Housing regime with a view to speeding up delivery.

Chris is a Board member of the charity Ixia (formerly the Public Art Forum) and a judge for both the Arts Council’s Artplus scheme and the Rouse Kent Public Art award.  He lives near Ashford.