Meet the team

Scott joined Seed as our inaugural Director in January 2020. He is responsible for the project as a whole, reporting to the Consortium. Hailing from Sydney, Scott originally trained as an archaeologist, prior to embarking on a 25 year career in arts management in Sydney. He relocated to South West England in 2018. His previous roles have encompassed a wide range of different artforms, with a strong focus on community arts, placemaking, public events and cultural development. Scott’s passion for the arts is best illustrated by his having stood for a seat in the Australian Senate as a candidate for the Arts Party in 2016.

Scott has a lifelong passion for music, having played guitar since the age of 10. He has played in numerous bands, orchestras and as a solo artist, with an early highlight being jamming with blues legends Son Terry and Brownie McGee at the age of 15. More recently, Scott was a founding member of Bath’s newest community orchestra, Bathtub Orchestra, shortly after his arrival in the UK. He is currently working on recording Clutter, a solo album of original songs he has lying around, some stretching back three decades.

Laura is responsible for Seed’s community engagement and project management including producing projects for Seed across Sedgemoor. Before joining the Seed team in July 2020, Laura worked as a strategic director and freelance producer for creative projects and education including RIO, Bristol Old Vic, BBC New Creatives, InspirED & Arts award.

Laura has 18 years’ experience working in socially engaged arts practice which was ignited through a passion for Drama, musical theatre and photography from a young age. Laura focuses on working with people and the communities they live in, supporting them, businesses, artist and stakeholder to transform ideas into creative projects and develop themselves to learn and grow. Laura loves to take photographs, tell stories and makes creative cakes in her spare time.

Joining in July 2023, Elliott is the newest member of the Seed team. In his role as Communications and Admin Coordinator, he is responsible for getting the message of Seed and all the great work done by our local artists and community members out to the wider public. This includes managing, monitoring, and creating content for all social channels. He has over 10 years experience of working with arts organisations, as well as working on cultural and heritage projects as a videographer, photographer and editor. Elliott firmly believes in the power that creativity and art can have in people’s lives, and is proud to be a part of Seed helping to deliver culture to local communities.

Elliott loves landscape photography, film, video games and books, particularly any classic Science Fiction. He is endlessly fascinated in how technology can meet creativity, art, and storytelling. He has also been known to play the electric guitar (perhaps with more enthusiasm than ability…so far).

Phil helped put the bid together for the Seed project and is now our Community Engagement Ambassador.  Phil was a student at Dartington Hall in 66, worked in rep theatre and as stage manager at the Drury Lane Arts Lab, co-founded Bath Arts Workshop in 69, going on to Tower Hamlets Arts in 75, continuing as a production manager/event organiser in London, New York and Bristol.  In  87 he studied documentary production at Bournemouth Film School, worked as assistant producer at BBC Children’s TV then independent producing and directing. On moving to Somerset, he returned to his first love of community-based work, co-establishing the Somerset Film enterprise and working as its Facilitator from 1995 till 2020. He chaired the UK Community Media Association from 2005-2012.

Phil was weaned by be-bop jazz and the beat poets through the 60s, embraced counter cultural arts and film with a passion and has pursued his creative dreams for fifty plus years, hitch hiking through Latin and North America along the way. He graduated this year from the OU with a BA Hons Humanities in History and Creative Writing and is studying for a Masters in Global Development. He became a dad to Annie in 85 and a grandad to Rowan in 2016. He loves books, films, music and cycling and walking with his partner Eve and friends.

Cara works with us as Critical Friend, bringing over 25 years’ experience of working with people and arts, in place, to help advise us on what we do and how. Coming from farming and village shop-running families on Exmoor, Cara is born and bred Somerset.

Cara’s passion for and dedication to people and place has led her to specialise in practices that are socially-engaged, community-led, and in embedded in place, whether that place be a team, a city park, a national museum or a rural town high street. She has worked for places such as Tate, is Chair of Brighton’s Phoenix Art Space, and has been involved I too numerous to mention community projects up and down the country and across the globe.

Her most recent project is ‘Trauma-Informed Placemaking’ (traumainformed.place) with Dr Anita McKeown, a research platform and textbook (Routledge, 2023) and Cara is Editor and Convenor of The Routledge Handbook of Placemaking (Routledge, 2021); Co-Editor of Creative Placemaking and Beyond, with Dr Anita McKeown (Routledge, 2018); and author of Arts in Place: The Arts, the Urban and Social Practice (Routledge, 2017).

Annabel works with us here at Seed to conduct external evaluations on our projects. Find out more about Annabel at annabeljacksonassociates.com