Question 1

Rebecca Wymant

Accepted Answer

Rebecca is a curator and visual arts professional based in the East Midlands, working across the region and in London. Her practice is shaped by both academic and practical experience: she holds an MA in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester, a Curatorial Traineeship with Attenborough Arts Centre, and a First-Class BA in Fine Art with a Diploma in Professional Studies from Loughborough University.

Rebecca has worked with a range of museums and galleries, including the Natural History Museum, Attenborough Arts Centre, Historic Lincoln Trust, and Shape Arts. These roles have allowed her to contribute to major exhibitions in the UK and internationally, including Crip Arte Spazio: The DAM in Venice 2024.

Rebecca is currently a Visual Arts Assistant and Exhibitions Researcher at the Attenborough Arts Centre. Alongside this, she continues to take on freelance curating, writing, and consultancy work. Rebecca is especially passionate about disability arts and the power of visual storytelling to shift perspectives and create more inclusive cultural spaces, shaped both by her professional experience and own lived experience.

Question 2

Caitlin McHugh

Accepted Answer

Caitlin McHugh is a curator and researcher working across access, participation and collaborative practice, with a focus on centring disabled and neurodivergent-led approaches in contemporary art. I use play as a methodology for engagement, learning and co-production within my curatorial practice, advocating for engagement and participation work as essential and valuable forms of practice that challenge normative ways of being in the arts.

I am currently Assistant Curator at Yorkshire Contemporary, where I lead on projects centred on equitable participation and community co-creation. I have previously worked with MIMA and Venture Arts, and my research has been presented at multiple conferences.

With a background in SEND primary education, my practice spans participatory and sensory-led approaches that challenge traditional structures within the arts, with a focus on care, humour and collective making.

In 2024, I was part of the British Council Venice Biennale Fellowship, where I developed research exploring access and power within institutional contexts, working with neurodivergent artists to examine how cultural spaces can be navigated and challenged.

Question 3

Cecile Emeke

Accepted Answer

Cecile Emeke is a Jamaican-British filmmaker, writer, and artist from London, known for her dexterity across genre and mediums. Through broadcast television, independent film, and visual art, her creative practice explores themes of time, cosmology, and cultural production through the lens of Black British, Caribbean, and Black diasporic culture, in liminal spaces and intimate settings. Her work has been exhibited and screened globally, from the Brooklyn Museum to the National Gallery of Jamaica, and has credits that include HBO, BBC, Sky, Tate Modern and the ICA. Cecile is committed to building more equitable and expansive arts & cultural sector ecosystems. She brings to the Shape board a deep investment in access, representation, and the conditions that allow marginalised artists to make work on their own terms.

Question 4

Marian Casey

Accepted Answer

Marian Casey is an independent curator and arts professional, with a curatorial practice focused on social engagement and building experimental approaches to historic narratives and spaces. Marian has curated ten exhibitions independently and has worked with curatorial teams at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Royal Academy, and Times Square Arts, among others. Marian is also a specialist in institutional relations and event management, with nine years of experience working in VIP and institutional relations with international art fairs like The Armory Show and The Photography Show.

Question 5

Philip O’Shaughnessy

Accepted Answer

Philip is a senior technology leader with over 25 years’ experience working in highly regulated environments, particularly in financial services. His work focuses on digital strategy, governance, and helping organisations design systems that are resilient, proportionate, and support people effectively.

He has led large-scale transformation programmes and worked closely with senior leadership teams on complex decision-making, with a particular interest in how governance, culture, and technology interact. He also brings experience in AI and emerging technologies, including how organisations can adopt them responsibly, ethically, and in ways that support inclusion rather than create new barriers.

A significant part of Philip’s career has involved mentoring and developing others, and he is passionate about creating environments where people can perform at their best. He was drawn to Shape’s commitment to inclusion and its role in enabling disabled people to have a meaningful voice and presence in the arts. He is particularly interested in how organisations can remove structural barriers and create more accessible and equitable opportunities.

Outside of work, Philip enjoys travel, reading, and long country walks with his golden retriever.

Question 6

Michelle Duxbury

Accepted Answer

A selfie of a woman with brown hair wearing red lipstick.

I am a largely self-taught, working-class, disabled artist based in Leeds. As a disabled person, who has struggled to find their feet in the art world, I hope to advocate for others who find themselves in a similar position, and I feel the best way to be able to do that is to get involved and do what I can to effect change and support organisations that are leading the way in making the art world a more accessible place for us all.

I create art under the artist name alabamathirteen, my practice is focused around bodies, spaces and places, both public and private, and how we experience and occupy them both as individuals and as a society. Specifically referencing my own personal limitations navigating and negotiating the spaces and places I occupy as a disabled woman, underpinned by the notion of ‘non-conforming’ bodies as an act of defiance. I work predominantly with photography, embroidery and sound recordings.

I am also an Artist Ambassador for Outside In, a national charity that aims to provide a platform for artists who face significant barriers to the art world due to health, disability, social circumstance or isolation.

Question 7

Jon Tibbits-Smyth

Accepted Answer

Photo of a man wearing a grey suit, white shirt, and blue tie. He has short brown hair and a short brown beard. He wears dark glasses and has one hand in a pocket.

Jon Tibbits-Smyth is a qualified Charted Accountant. He has worked as an auditor predominately in the charities and social housing sectors for 14 years. He is currently an audit manager at BDO LLP.

Jon has also been involved in the delivery of training on charity auditing and accounting matters and was involved in the publication of the Charity Administration Handbook (6th ed).

Question 8

Jen Clarke

Accepted Answer

Woman with a blonde bob and a fringe smiles at the camera. She is wearing transparent square glasses and a blazer.

Jen Clarke is Legal Counsel at Red Bull Media House UK. Prior to moving in house, she sat in the music team at a London boutique media law firm after training as a solicitor in the City. Jen is a classically trained pianist, vocalist and experienced songwriter and performer. Before studying law she toured with indie bands internationally and released multiple recordings as a solo artist. In her spare time she enjoys yoga, attending visual art exhibitions, and supporting the local music scene. Her favourite London art gallery is the Tate Modern.

Question 9

Owen Kimm

Accepted Answer

A photo portrait of Owen Kimm. He wears an orange denim jacket and square glasses. He is visibly happy!

Owen is the Marketing and Communications Manager for visionary arts charity Creative Folkestone. He brings to the Shape board almost 10 years of experience from across the arts and culture sector having worked for organisations including Waltham Forest London Borough of Culture, Siobhan Davies Dance, Brunel’s ss Great Britain and more.

Owen specialises in digital communications and helping organisations to become more digitally savvy and futureproof. He has a passion for improving access and opportunities for everyone to engage and enjoy the arts.

Beyond the world of work, Owen is also a practising artist and musician, although he says that how good he is at either of those things is up for debate!

Question 10

James Hodgson

Accepted Answer

James is a Freelance Arts and Fundraising Specialist, and current Managing Director of Sydenham Arts, a combined arts charity operating in South East London. He is also a director of third sector consultancy business 111 Collectiff and a practising artist.
James' experience includes working across a range of arts venues, and as a consultant to charities in sectors including criminal justice, the arts, wellbeing, training and social justice within BAMER and marginalised groups.
He has overseen major projects including the renovation of Hoxton Hall, a unique Victorian music hall in the heart of East London, and redevelopment and delivery of a Multi Arts festival on the Sussex coast.

With a history of working in community-focussed art venues, James is passionate about the promotion of equality and access to the arts for everyone.

He is a practising conceptual artist, producing sculptural, performance and visual art. Recent exhibitions include Refraction (Raw Labs, Docklands), and The Leyden Gallery (Whitechapel).

Question 11

Robert Davies

Accepted Answer

Robert is a Consultant to the law firms Walbrook Law LLP and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP based in the City of London. He has specialised in employment law since qualifying as a solicitor in 1995. He has represented both private and public sector employers in all aspects of employment law including day-to-day advisory matters, large-scale advisory projects often with an international component, outsourcings, M&A work and defending Employment Tribunal claims, particularly high value discrimination and whistleblowing claims. His employer clients include a national retailer, an international construction and engineering business and an international mortgage servicing business; and he regularly acts for individual clients in the Financial Services, Real Estate and Healthcare sectors.

He is a member of the Legislative and Policy Committee of the Employment Lawyers Association, was co-author of the Employment and Pensions section of Butterworth's PFI Manual and contributed to the initial publication of Croner’s Discrimination Law. He has worked extensively with charities throughout his career on a pro bono advisory basis. He is also a trustee of the British Society for Immunology.

Question 12

Tony Heaton OBE

Accepted Answer

Shape Arts

I was the Chief Executive of Shape Arts from 2008-2017 before stepping down in order to pursue my own projects and consultancy work within the sector, and to become Shape's Chair.

Prior to Shape, from 1997-2007, I was the Director of Holton Lee, a 350 acre campus with short stay residential facilities for Disabled people. During this time I led on a 10 year strategic plan and the commissioning and development of the award-winning Faith House Gallery and the Stables Studios.

Initiator of the NDACA (the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive), I am also a sculptor and have had a long involvement within the disability arts movement, first exhibiting in 'Out of Ourselves' in 1990, with fellow disabled sculptor Adam Reynolds. My link to Shape goes back to 1986 when working as an artist, and then as Chair (1989-1994) of North West Shape, involved in the transition of the organisation into Full Circle Arts.

Little known fact: I used to be an independent record retailer but failed to follow the career path of Richard Branson. I did though manage to sell ace bass player (walk on the wild side) Herbie Flowers a copy of Plant Life, one of his own records!