Bridport Arts Centre Trustees

Christopher Pike
Chair

Chris has lived in West Dorset for about twenty years. He works in intellectual property law, craniosacral therapy and is a small holder with an interest in growing and conservation.

He is the Chair of Bridport Film Society, which brings world cinema to the BACscreen, and is also on the team, which produces Bridport’s From Page to Screen film festival, the UK’s only festival of screen adaptation.

Chris loves the vital, free-spirited and entrepreneurial culture of Bridport and aspires to see the Arts Centre return to the community heart of our vibrant arts and cultural scene.

Rowan Prescott Hedley
Vice-Chair

Geoffrey Jones
Acting Treasurer

Bridport is Geoffrey’s wife’s hometown and he have been visiting for over twenty years. They finally moved here permanently five years ago, and love living in such a vibrant and welcoming place.

He has over twenty years’ experience in charity governance, regulation, finance, and strategic development and is really looking forward to applying this experience to the development of the Arts Centre.

He applied to be a Trustee to share his skills and experience, and to help the development of the Arts Centre which is a real asset to the town and wider community. As a trustee he looks forward to using his professional skills to enhance the Arts Centre and ensure its ongoing future development.

Jennifer Lowis
Non-Executive Director

Jen lives in Bridport with her husband and three teenage children. She has worked in communications and marketing in both the public and private sectors for over 25 years.

Jen has wide ranging experience of promoting festivals, art exhibitions and other cultural and community events.

 Jen is passionate about arts and culture and keen to contribute to the future success of Bridport Arts Centre.

Harriet Morgan Smith
Non-Executive Director

Harriet grew up in Charmouth and has many happy memories of visiting BAC as a child and was actively involved in many music groups as a singer and Double Bass player. She moved back to Bridport with her partner in 2015, to be closer to her parents, but was also attracted by its quirky, creative personality.

She works in Bridport Community Hospital, as a coordinator supporting the elderly and frail. She’s now formed a life here with her partner and 6-year-old son, and embedded herself in the community, volunteering in groups such as ASCape, Bridport Refugee Campaign and BODAN.

Just over a year ago, she began running a community group called Jurassic Multicultural, a group for people from diverse cultures, heritages and faiths who live on the Jurassic Coast.

Non-Executive Director

All 3 generations of Ines’s family are keen visitors to events in the Marlow Theatre and Allsop Gallery.

Her children have also enjoyed participating in the regular BACstage drama group as well as one-off filmmaking and art workshops.  She has been part of the From Page to Screen film festival committee since 2012 and has developed creative studios at New House Farm & Pottery.

She joined the Board in November 2018 with a particular interest in supporting the Arts Centre’s participation programme, and its capacity to combine inspiring professional creativity with the community engagement that it was founded upon.

Tamsin Little
Non-Executive Director

Since graduating from the Shakespeare Institute in 2017, Tamsin has worked with arts and culture organisations across Dorset. Tamsin is currently Communications and Fundraising Manager at Shire Hall Museum, an award-winning social justice museum, where she oversees marketing, communication and fundraising strategies as well as collaborating on visitor experience and exhibitions.

Tamsin is committed to championing equality, diversity and inclusion in all the work she does. She is the organiser of Dorset Youth Pride, an inclusive event for the LGBTQ+ community held at Shire Hall Museum.

Alison Turner

Non-Executive Director

Growing up in Cornwall but now happily resident in W Dorset, Alison had already visited Bridport and its many events several times a year…for over 20 years!

A Chartered Member of her professional body, Alison runs her own Human Resources Consultancy with particular expertise in the Public & Third sectors. Already a BAC Events volunteer, she hopes to add further value as a Trustee, using her professional skills & expertise.

A voracious reader, Alison has a particular interest in creative writing and Dance, and looks forward to helping BAC achieve an ever wider and diverse local audience. She is also Pro-bono specialist Advisor to a large local Hospice organisation.

Amanda Ellington
Non-Executive Director

Amanda has recently moved to the area and has long-standing family and creative connections to Bridport.

She has over twenty five years’ experience in charity governance, strategic development and project implementation.  A very varied career means Amanda has also worked in the legal arena, counselling and teaching. More recently she worked in local government as clerk and responsible financial officer.

Amanda is particularly interested in visual arts and enjoys making a range of traditional crafts. In addition to welcoming nationally significant creatives to Bridport, she would be delighted to see the on-going promotion of up-and-coming young creatives in the work of BAC.

Jayne Bridges
Non-Executive Director

Jayne has been visiting Bridport since childhood as her parents had a caravan at Seatown.  She has always loved the cultural  artistic vibe in Bridport and currently she is in the protracted process of moving to West Bay and is very excited to join the Board of Trustees. Originally she trained to be a Drama teacher, but quickly jumped ship and for twenty years was a journalist and Theatre critic. A fanatical theatre goer and music fan, she also has an interest in ceramics ,as her father was a potter.

Over her lengthy career, she has been involved in Marketing, Communications, PR,  Wine Education and for a number of years worked as a guest lecturer on Cruise ships.

Honor Beddard
Non-Executive Director

Honor is a contemporary art curator with over two decades’ experience in exhibition-making, commissioning art works, and collections. Most recently, she was exhibitions curator at Wellcome Collection where she curated interdisciplinary thematic exhibitions on topics related to health and human experience. Over the course of her career, Honor has worked at a variety of institutions including the Freud Museum London, Victoria and Albert Museum, British Council and the British Film Institute.

She lives in Bridport with her husband and young family and has been a frequent visitor to the Arts Centre for many years. She is delighted to now be supporting their work, with a particular interest in the Allsop Gallery.

Richard Greenhalgh
Non-Executive Director

Richard has lived in Bridport and London for many years. As a businessman he has run a number of companies and in the last 20 years he has been a trustee with various charities, focussing on education, health and the arts. He is currently Chair of British Youth Opera and is passionate about musical performance.

Richard loves the vibrancy of the Bridport arts community and believes that the Arts Centre can be a jewel in the crown. It has the potential to touch the lives of many more people in Bridport and beyond, and this is an exciting challenge.