The Team

Lizzi Walton - Artistic Director / CEO
Artistic director, Lizzi Walton formed SIT and has been a key strategic player in the development of the organisation. She has built the organisation and the annual festival over the 6 years to its present position of being a nationally recognised organisation with a reputation for excellence, ambition and innovation, representing textiles and related contemporary applied arts. Lizzi has over 25 years experience working in the arts and with arts administration and project management. She has run her own business, in retail specialising in British Contemporary Arts and Crafts and 4 years direct experience in owning & running a Gallery exhibiting Contemporary Art and Applied Crafts. She attended Winchester Art College studying painting. She has taught in secondary schools running the arts department in Stockbridge Hampshire for 4 years. A short spell working with socially excluded young people in Gloucestershire. Following teaching she moved to London where she worked with a team organising and running the extensive Arts programme for the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham for 8 years. Responsibilities involved the opening and marketing of the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith alongside planning and promotion of theatre, visual arts, music and performance events. She is a skilled and innovative coordinator with experience in marketing and press-work, with communication and organisation skills.

Frances Day - Director
Frances has worked as an IT Consultant, and also as a publisher of fiction. She has always had a passionate interest in contemporary arts, particularly textiles (as a practitioner in a small way) and photography. Frances is a co-founder of the successful Art Couture Painswick, for whom she provides web management and publicity services, and is also Chair of the local Embroiderers’ Guild. She brings a wide knowledge and experience of the arts to the organisation.

James Showers - Director

Pamela Woods - Director

Katharine Reeve, Senior Lecturer, Bath Spa University - Advisory Board
Katharine is a publisher and author of award-winning non-fiction books. She is Course Leader in Publishing at Bath Spa University, where she researches innovation in digital non-fiction and runs The Social Media Experiment: a university-industry collaboration. Her involvement with textiles is long-standing, continuing today in the form of occasional stitching projects, and an interest in vintage fabrics and contemporary textile craft. She brings a wide knowledge of print and digital visual arts publishing, project management, and digital marketing to the organisation.

Angie Wyman - Senior Lecturer University of Cumbria - Advisory Board
Angie has over twenty years experience lecturing in Higher education and managing BA and MA programmes of study in all areas of the applied arts. She has considerable experience of working with external partners and organising external projects within her academic role. These have included working with the Crafts Council, Collins Gallery - Glasgow, Linton Tweeds – Haute Couture fabrics, John Chapman Bags, Hand & Lock, Twisted Thread, ICHF Ltd and Madeira Threads.

Angie is an External Examiner at other universities so has a wide knowledge of textile practice across the sector. Since 2009, Angie has been project managing and curating a tripartite project linking textile departments, alumni and independent artists with the University of Cumbria , Novia University of Applied Sciences, Turku, Finland and the Australian National University, Canberra.

Jennifer Rose Norris - Advisory Board
Jenny works with leather and fabrics to create unique, stitched architectural sculptures. A recent graduate from Chelsea College of Art & Design in 2011, Jennifer has exhibited her instillations in Galleries across the UK. Currently she works under commission, with her sculptures and jewellery pieces being used by fashion stylists.

Sarah Jane Condie
Sarah has a dynamic and creative background with experience in textile and fashion design, social and trend forecasting alongside considerable experience in product and brand marketing. Her passion is connecting communities, whether large or small, with the creative arts. She is founder of artattheheart, a biennial Children's Arts Festival, which connects children, retailers and the community through arts based projects.
Education: MA Applied Imagination Central St Martins; B.Sc. (Hons) Textile Design Huddersfield University; Epsom College of Art.

Sue Gibbons
Sue Gibbons is Head of Art at Ribston Hall High school in Gloucester. Sue was appointed moderator for AQA GCSE Art & Design and teacher governor in 2008. She is studying for her second MA in Art Practice and Education at Birmingham City University. Sue attended Loughborough College of Art and Design, Virginia Commonwealth University USA, Gwent College HE where she studied painting and printmaking. Sue is a textile artist and has had work exhibited in exhibitions nationwide and has work in private collections. She has been artist in residence at and worked on multimedia projects with the community, one being with Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museums in 2003. SIT works closely with Ribston Hall students and has placed artist in schools. Sue is keen to develop skills and artistic practice in schools; supporting local initiatives.

Anna Glasbrook
Anna Glasbrook creates striking contemporary textile pieces for domestic, corporate and public spaces. Using the effects of layering, transparency and the travelling line, she creates textiles that vibrate with vivid colour and movement. Anna's photographs of the rural and urban landscape are the fundamental starting point of her design process which is then translated into stitch. Anna has had work exhibited nationally and internationally, she graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA First Class Honours in Textile design in 2010.

Also supporting SIT:
Michelle Hendy – Bookkeeper
Stella Jensen, Jensen Accountancy Services Ltd – Accounts
Karen Blaylock, Spear Solutions South West - Web designer, Stroud

Patron: Lulu Guinness OBE