Anna Francis is co-director of PIP. Collaborating with Rebecca since 2016, Anna uses her skills as an educator and researcher, along with her experience as an artist working in urban contexts in planning and delivering activity with the project and community. Anna is Associate Professor of Fine Art and Social Practice at Staffordshire University, and a director and studio artist at AirSpace Gallery.
Rebecca Davies is co-director of PIP. She works with Anna to design and create projects that are truly responsive to local needs and interests. She has over ten years of experience designing and delivering projects in community contexts across the UK. Her artistic practice crosses illustration, design and performance and she gets to fold these skills into her role as part of PIP.
Glen Stoker documents the project, he is also important support on the ground when we are delivering activity. His role also covers production for some of our programmes too. He’s also director of AirSpace Gallery, and so is able to share our work through a wider creative network. Anna and Rebecca have studios at AirSpace too!
Alice Thatcher is a ceramic artist and has worked with the project since 2016. We collaborate on ceramic projects, and Alice is mostly managing The Portland Pigeon as part of her growing role with us.
Kerri Francis is PIP’s book keeper. She ensures the organisation is on top of things in terms of budgets and funding. She is also a rad hula hooper and has hosted a few hula hooping workshops on the PIP programme!
Community Ken is our caretaker, keyholder, youth club support, technician and DJ. Ken used to run the community centre before it closed and he is a fountain of knowledge on community history and making sure events run smoothly.
Godson Egbo is an architect based in South London. Having participated in a number of Rebecca’s art and community projects around the Elephant & Castle shopping centre, he has been working on the Portland Inn Project since 2016. In 2018, Godson helped lead the Portland St Architecture School in order to gather ideas for our building – Godson has supported a truly collaborative approach to the future designs of the building, working hard to represent local requests and needs.
Jamal has worked with us running sports activities for our young members since 2016. Zahra joined the team in 2019. Together they now share the role of Youth and Families Worker for our neighbourhood. They have so much experience across communities in Stoke On Trent and are well respected by our young members and they both lived in the neighbourhood as young people themselves!
The Community Decision Making Panel is made up of residents, team members, partners and local services. We meet once every two months for a meal and discussion on decisions made for our programme. This is an important space to check in, and ensure our activities are responding to local needs and interests, as well as ensure local services are onboard and in some cases can work with us to make activity happen.