ATLAS Arts’ Board of Directors are a lively and highly engaged group, who bring a broad range of skills and experiences to support the good governance of the organisation.
Board meetings take place in May, August, November and February. Each board member can serve up to two, three-year terms.
If you’d like to see copies of our board minutes, get in touch with admin@atlasarts.org.uk
If you are interested in joining the ATLAS Board, get in touch with ainslie@atlasarts.org.uk (Ainslie Roddick)
Donald’s work explores the role culture, architecture, food and museums can play in the regeneration, place-making, economic and social development of cities and communities. He lectures and teaches widely on cultural and business policy, urban renewal, food markets, community empowerment and creative cities.
An Urbanist and Head of Regeneration and Community for Tate Galleries, he has variously combined with being Chair of M7 Global Food Markets Alliance, Chair of Borough Market and Chair of Better Bankside Business Improvement District, one of the founding British BIDs. He also undertakes a portfolio of advisory work, including for the British Council, UK Trade, CABE, the Design Council and a range of private clients.
Catherine is an archivist who grew up on Skye, allowing her to engage with community groups across Skye and Lochalsh while preserving and protecting the culture. She has a wide range of job experiences while growing up in Skye, including at the former An Tuireann Arts Centre, in a range of hospitality roles and briefly as a financial advisor. She has a strong knowledge of local culture and a deep connection to the place she grew up.
She is currently studying for her MLitt in Archives and Records Management with Dundee University and works at the Archive and Resource Centre in Portree. Catherine can be found at various music festivals and events at home and abroad. Other interests are yoga, growing vegetables, baking and reading a wide variety of literature, perhaps too much nonfiction.
Freya lives and works on the Isle of Raasay, a short journey from the small village of Plockton, Lochalsh, where she grew up. With her partner David and her mother Lyn, she has created a sustainable family business in Raasay House, enabling the community to attract major funding to transform Raasay House into a valuable community asset. Freya is passionate about sharing the beauty and uniqueness of Raasay by encouraging visitors to connect to this landscape.
Having studied for a year at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, she takes great pleasure in art and creativity influences much of what she does. Freya has enjoyed working with various community groups supporting projects which help sustain this fragile island community and bring benefits to residents and businesses alike. She is a mother of two and loves spending time with her family. In the winter she loves to travel and in the rare moments of free time in the summer, you will find her loch swimming or e-biking around the island.
Cheryl lives and works on Skye but was born and grew up in Glasgow. She works as an Agricultural Officer for Scottish Government and is also a lecturer on the Rural Skills Course with the University of the Highlands and Islands. She runs her own croft and is the Clerk for the North Talisker Sheep Stock Club, Common Grazings, and Hydro Company. She has previously worked in the third sector as a project officer and enjoys a good funding application.
A lover of the outdoors, she is often off in search of a trig point or interesting feature.
AJ is an artist based in Uist in the Outer Hebrides. Rooted in sculpture her practice considers our bodily connection to place through acts of observation and making. Her current research concentrates on how this relationship can be articulated and in what tongue.
Parallel to her practice she has worked in various arts and education roles across the UK. Currently she is Community Development Tutor at Cothrom, an organisation that focuses on a diverse portfolio of adult learning opportunities, enabling inclusion and encouraging full participation in the economic, social, and cultural life of the Western Isles. Recently accredited as an RD1st Coach through Creative Scotland’s Coaching for Creatives programme, AJ offers support to artists working across the Western Isles.
Dooked in the waters, clinging to hillsides, or tramping across bogs and beaches, you’ll find AJ (and her trusty pup Bracken) roaming around Uist, whatever the weather.
Vice Chair
Susan is an independent curator based in Cromarty on the Black Isle with a special interest in rural contexts and community development, and is co-director of dance film production company GOAT. Susan’s curatorial practice spans collaborative working, running festivals, fundraising, mentoring, overseeing commissions for public space, developing artists’ residency programmes and hosting one-off events. Ongoing research includes the changing face of feminism in Japan. Since 2018, Susan has been collaborating with artist/film-maker Emma Dove to produce films featuring recordings of women’s experiences in Scotland and Japan, with support from British Council.
Other activities including volunteering. Since the launch in early 2020, Susan has been the volunteer co-ordinator for a new community-run cinema in Cromarty. As well as working in partnership with Eden Court, Cromarty Cinema curates its own seasons. Themes range from straightening our history in the Highlands to Playing Together//Hamkke Noneun which focuses on Korean film, language + food.
Chair
Alexandra is Lecturer in Contemporary Art and Curating at the University of Glasgow, also convenes the M.Litt in Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art) – a postgraduate programme jointly delivered with The Glasgow School of Art. From June 2014 to January 2015, she was Curatorial Fellow with ATLAS Arts, so the role of Chair of ATLAS Arts is a wonderful homecoming for her.
She has a home-from-home of Cape Town, notably punctuated by her Postdoctoral Research Fellowship with the Centre for Curating the Archive, University of Cape Town, from 2015 to 2017. Having an array of degrees under her belt, spanning Law, Fine Art and Curatorial Practice she has come to the role of Chair as someone working across art genres and disciplines, spaces and locations with hospitality and conversation as key modes of working.
Alexandra is surprisingly expert at mimicking less conventional animal noises, both to entertain and communicate with our more that human friends.
