People

DIRECTOR: NICOLA PAULING

As a trained actor, with over 20 years stage experience, Nicola has been working in participatory community-based theatre for the past eight years. Working with individuals, groups and communities she encourages the creative exploration and expression of our own stories (mine, yours, ours), the challenging of choices, behaviors and ideas and the sharing of what evolves from that process with others. Nicola has taken her work from the estates of London, to the villages of war-torn Uganda, to the prisons of New Zealand and has seen it positively transform people and their communities.

Nicola carries the art of storytelling into her work as a writer.  In 1996 she graduated from the New Zealand Broadcasting School, starting out as a journalist at Radio New Zealand. Five years later Nicola was producing for BBC World and Reuters in London. She left a successful career in news to concentrate efforts on her primary passion: using drama to educate and unite. She continues to employ the skills she honed in the newsroom assisting young people to create original scripts that tell their own stories.

In 2005 Nicola helped establish Voice Arts, a trust committed to the education and empowerment of at-risk youth via the arts.  She is Trustee and current Director.

CHAIR: PENNY EAMES

Penny Eames, JP, MA (Applied) has been involved in the arts and community education for thirty-five years first as a community education and then an arts administrator. She has set up arts and education programmes in prison, hospital, community organisations and for people with disabilities and refugees and disadvantaged migrants. She was the founding Executive Director of Arts Access Aotearoa and before that a senior programme manager for the Arts Council of New Zealand, now, called Creative New Zealand, and as General Secretary New Zealand Workers Educational Association. She is a specialist in prison art and the use of the arts for communication in the justice sector.

Within New Zealand her consultancy work has included organisational strategic development and reviews; social science research; and financial planning for arts and community organisations.  She has an extensive publishing record with books on the arts and social inclusion and fundraising.

Her specialist skill has been her ability to work with communities, hospitals, prisons, territorial local authorities and government departments, as they plan programmes that celebrate cultural diversity and encourage social inclusion, particularly for those on the margins.

In New Zealand, she is also a Justice of the Peace, Civil Marriage Celebrant, grandmother of 6, mother of 3 sons, and now three daughters-in-law and has been married to Hubert for 43 years.

TRUSTEE: DAN SLEVIN

Dan has worked for over 20 years in the New Zealand live entertainment, cinema, arts and events industries gaining considerable skills and experience in general management, project management, marketing, sales, fundraising, sponsorship, technology and customer service.

He is a former Chair of the Wellington Community Arts Council; founding trustee of the Fringe Arts Trust; former freelance publicist, production manager and producer of independent theatre; electronic ticketing systems expert and consultant; former General Manager of the Paramount picture theatre and ZMFM radio DJ. Dan considers himself to be an evangelist, provocateur, enabler, facilitator, supporter and yogi for the arts and artists.

He currently runs his own communications consultancy.

TRUSTEE: OLLIE GILBERT

I am a retired lawyer. I am a graduate of Victoria University and have spent my working life in Wellington. I have been in private practice with a focus on small business, property, trusts, estate planning and superannuation. I am married with 3 adult children and thus far 2 grandchildren. My interests include cycling, boating, fishing, skiing and more generally sport and the outdoors.

 

 

 

 

TRUSTEE: SARAH JANE BARNETT

Sarah is a freelance writer, tutor and book reviewer who lives in Wellington. She has worked for the last ten years in  the education and heritage sectors, including museums, art galleries and libraries. She has a background in project  management, business analysis and IT management. At the moment Sarah is doing a PhD in English at Massey  University. Her thesis combines creative writing (poetry) with critical research that looks at what strategies are used  by contemporary poets to talk about nature. You can find her work at http://theredroom.org.

Sarah strongly believes in the mission of the Voice Arts Trust, and in the power of the creative arts to bring a voice to  communities that are isolated or at risk.