Our Team
We are a tiny team of two, Sarah-Jane Mason and Simon Turner and we are collaborators in work, life and creativity. As there are just the two of us, we are everything rolled together - marketing, advertising, administration, maintenance, IT support, construction, library services, social media correspondence, technical workshop assistance, customer service, accounting, gardening, and of course creating (as well as probably another 583 things that we have forgotten) are all fully under our remit.
As you can imagine, we are super busy people! However, most importantly, since we have begun this huge adventure, we are also super happy people. We hope that when you visit you feel this profound sense of belonging, acceptance and happiness too and that this inspires some powerful creative pieces.
Here is a bit more about us and our creative practice...
Sarah-Jane Mason
"Life long artist with an infectious enthusiasm and love for sharing creativity with as many people as possible."
Simon Turner
"Land Artist, creator, designer, upcycler, photographer....."
Sarah-Jane Mason is a Creative Practitioner, Facilitator & Educator who specialises in using mixed media approaches to personal and participatory arts projects. She believes that creativity is the key that unlocks learning and that play and experimentation are important parts of the creative process.
Sarah-Jane’s personal practice uses mixed media approaches to encourage dialogue around uncomfortable but important topics, question societal norms and compare and contrast people’s experiences of a particular space or place. Her work often includes elements of mass media, questioning the impact these sources have on our worldviews and everyday lives. Humour and colour are also of great importance to her work, bringing warmth and openness to the more sensitive subjects of her pieces.
An important part of her arts practice is as the director of Lacuna Festivals; an artist-led, annual, international, contemporary art festival. This role enables Sarah-Jane to hold a space for artists and to facilitate an environment where artists and audience members can interact, question, share and otherwise meaningfully engage with each other.
As part of her work in creative education, Sarah-Jane plans and delivers participatory arts projects, often aimed at those for who there may be significant barriers to engagement. In addition, Sarah-Jane runs a publishing company, Next Generation Publications, that publishes visual books created by and for children and young people. Past books are held in the British library collections as well as in local libraries, schools and community centres.
To find out more about Sarah-Jane and her work as a Creative Practitioner & Educator please click here.
Simon is a self-taught land artist, eco-friendly jewellery designer and photographer with an interest in reducing our impact on the planet.
Land art interventions are an important part of Simon's practice which he uses as an opportunity to draw attention to everyday landscapes. Simon practices sand raking regularly, creating large scale, transient artworks on shorelines around the world. Sand rakings only last for a few hours but photographs capture these interventions. Images of Simon's land art can be seen on his instagram page. Simon was recently interviewed by the magazine Lanzarote 37° about his ephemeral art.
Simon is also an eco-friendly designer and set up PNEÜ! to showcase his jewellery designs, created predominantly from waste rubber products including bicycle tyres and inner-tubes. He is continually developing his knowledge of working with waste products, to create new pieces of sculpture, interior decor and jewellery; experimenting and exploring with new ideas for upcycling.
In addition he is also a published photographer in a number of national British newspapers, as well as local magazines and journals. His photography includes documentary works as well as landscapes of urban and rural scenes.
A particular passion for Simon is carnival, this passion has grown since 2014 when he was invited to join Sarah-Jane in the AnonyMas troupe, the biggest in the Leeds West Indian Carnival. Since then, both Simon and Sarah-Jane have worked on costume design for two high profile troupes with their proudest moment being designing and creating an award-winning, 20ft high King costume commissioned by the founder of the carnival, Arthur France.
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