Laura Brewis
Laura is the founder and project director of We Make Culture CIC, a social-enterprise based in Sunderland which uses music-making for social change. She has worked with many regional cultural organisations, such as Sunderland Culture, New Writing North and Cultural Spring as a producer and consultant, with an emphasis on participation, young people and artist development. She believes that talent is everywhere but opportunity is not, and wants to change that.
Laura has two primary-aged children. With two parents who work in the sector, William and Mary are used to rehearsal rooms, workshops and recording studios.
Helen Pailing
Helen Pailing is an artist-maker who seeks to redefine the possibilities of materials for sculpture and to ‘recraft waste’ materials into sculptures, assemblages and site-specific interventions. Re-using materials destined for landfill is her way to bring awareness to seemingly non-precious or redundant ‘waste’ material and to celebrate the value within all matter. Graduating from BA (hons) Embroidery (MMU) in 2004, Helen continued to develop her interest in the material culture of craft studying MA Designer Maker (UAL) which she completed in 2012. Helen was the 2013-14 artist in residence with Visual Arts in Rural Communities (VARC) and has lived in the North East ever since. In 2018 following on from her experience in community-based project management, she became Project Director of the Charity. In 2019 Helen completed an AHRC funded, practice-based PhD from UoS (based at National Glass Centre) entitled ‘Recrafting Waste Using a Stitch-Based Methodology: A Collaboration Between Makers and Matter’.
Helen had her first child just before the pandemic and her second child in 2021. She made a body of work inspired by this stage in her life (thanks to the NGC Glass Prize).