The Women’s Voices project is run by Changing relations C.I.C an arts education company that provokes thinking on gender & relationships, using the arts & creative methods as the basis of our training & educational resources.
Lisa Davis – Managing Director
Lisa is responsible for the strategic direction of the company, developing project ideas and forging partnerships that support the delivery of our projects and overseeing the day-to-day running of company activity. Lisa is currently the lead contact for our Men’s Voices Project.
Lisa spent 8 years working in a range of educational settings, locally and internationally, teaching young people and adults and coordinating and delivering training for teachers. Having worked with Literature, Drama, Media, Cultural Studies, Thinking Skills, Literacy and English as a Foreign Language, she left teaching to pursue her passion for gender equality, driving Durham’s One Billion Rising campaigns in 2013 and 2014, drawing together a range of individuals, organisations, academics, artists and art forms in a 3 month festival to stand up against violence against women and girls.
Contact: lisa@changingrelations.co.uk
Pollyanna Turner – Operational Director
Polly is responsible for building relations with schools, colleges and academies to support them with our range of SRE-focussed Products and Services. She was the Project Coordinator for The Women’s Voices Project during 2015 & 2016 and is still the lead contact for our play Make do and mend and has been the lead in developing our partner project, Men’s Voices. A visual artist herself, Polly also facilitates arts and education workshops and is the principal designer for Changing Relations’ marketing.
Polly is a Freelance Community Arts Educator. After completing a BA in Fine Art at Kingston University and a PGCE from Cambridge University, she then spent 5 years teaching Art in a secondary school, while continuing to create and exhibit her own work before returning to the North East in 2014 to pursue arts within a community setting for both young people and adults. While managing The Women’s Voices Project, Polly worked alongside the participants who shared their stories to facilitate creative workshops and bring their words to life with an immersive and interactive stage and set for our final theatre performances Playing House and Make do and Mend, utilising traditional women’s craft skills such as knitting.
Contact: polly@changingrelations.co.uk
Aly’s North – Creative Director
Alys North has recently joined the Changing Relations team in her role as Creative Director. As a company, we are always conscious of the tension between producing work that is driven by a social purpose and producing work that has high aesthetic value. We believe that audiences are more likely to pay attention when a piece of work captivates them aesthetically and promotes thinking around an issue rather than being overly didactic. It is also important to us that our team is made up of performing – as well as visual – artists to ensure that we explore the right medium for the given project. We are delighted that Alys has joined us to bring this balance and perspective. Aly’s is the lead in our new branch of the Women’s voices project – Shame & Honour – find out more here
Alys is a Newcastle based dance & theatre artist, working on various choreography, performance & participation projects throughout the UK, with companies & choreographers such as Manasamitra, Merav Israel, State of Grace, Jabadao, Fertile Ground, Fun in the Oven, Lizzie J Klotz & Amy Manancourt. Working collaboratively across the arts, Alys is passionate about creating work & facilitating experiences that promote communication, curiosity and fun. Most recently Alys has been working on her own research project, ‘The Making of Brian’, an interactive dance & arts experience that re-thinks community. Alys began her training as a Contemporary Dancer at Northern School of Contemporary Dance, then went on to complete her BA Hons in Choreography at Dartington College of Arts & MA in performance Dance at the University of Chichester.
Contact: alys@changingrelations.co.uk
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