Team

Harry Hoblyn, gardener at Charleston; photograph: Lewis Ronald

CONTACT

info@charleston.org.uk

Tel +44 (0)1323 811626

PATRON

The former Duchess of Cornwall

The former Duchess of Cornwall became Charleston’s first Patron in May 2013.

“As a supporter of the arts and a native of East Sussex, I discovered in Charleston a unique atmosphere of rural peace and creativity. For thirty years the Charleston Trust has worked to restore and maintain this special, fragile place, preserving the inspiring inheritance of Bloomsbury in Sussex”.

PRESIDENT

Virginia Nicholson

Virginia Nicholson is a social historian and the daughter of Quentin and Anne Olivier Bell, and the granddaughter of Vanessa Bell. Her early career was as a maker of documentaries for BBC Television. She has chronicled the family in ‘Charleston: A Bloomsbury House and Garden’. Her other books include ‘Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939’, ‘Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men after the First World War’ and ‘How Was it for You? Women, Sex, Love and Power in the 1960s’. In 2019 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

TRUSTEES

Pippa Harris, Chair of Trustees

Pippa Harris is an Oscar nominated, Bafta award-winning, film and television producer, who established Neal Street Productions in 2003 alongside Sam Mendes and Caro Newling.

The company’s work includes the hugely successful BBC/PBS series Call the Midwife which Pippa has Executive Produced for over a decade, as well as the multi-award winning First World War movie, 1917, which Pippa produced. Neal Street’s work also includes the acclaimed, Tony award-winning play The Lehman Trilogy for the National Theatre. Pippa also produced Starter for Ten, executive produced Things We Lost in the Fire, Away We Go and the Oscar-nominated Revolutionary Road, as well as the feature documentary, We Are Many. Most recently Pippa has produced Empire of Light starring Olivia Colman and Micheal Ward, written and directed by Sam Mendes. Following her tenure as Chair of the Academy for BAFTA, Pippa is now its Vice President of Television. Pippa is also Chair of Charleston, a museum and gallery which was home of the Bloomsbury group. She is an Ambassador for Women for Women International and a Patron of the neonatal charity Best Beginnings. Previously, she was the Head of Drama Commissioning for the BBC. In 2015 she was made a Dame in the Dissolution Honours.

Joylon Brewis

Jolyon Brewis joined Grimshaw Architects in 1998 and fulfilled several senior leadership roles such as Chief Executive (2011-2015) before becoming a partner. His architectural portfolio is diverse and as well as leading on the concepts for the expansion of Heathrow airport, he has also worked on the Eden Project biomes, The Laboratory at Dulwich College and the Rolls Royce Motor Cars Headquarters.

Katy Hessel

Katy Hessel is an art historian, curator, broadcaster and author of The Story of Art without Men, awarded Waterstones Book of the Year 2022, and is a Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller. She runs thegreatwomenartists, an Instagram account that has celebrated women artists on a daily basis since 2015. Hessel writes a fortnightly column, The Great Women’s Art Bulletin, for the Guardian. Katy’s podcast ‘The Great Women Artists’ was listed as British Vogue and Evening Standard’s Best Podcasts. Katy also hosts Dior Talks podcast, ‘Feminist Art’ which includes interviews with contemporary artists such as Tracey Emin and Judy Chicago. Katy has lectured at the National Gallery and Cambridge University, presented numerous arts documentaries for BBC, was selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Art & Culture in 2021, has curated exhibitions at Timothy Taylor Gallery and Victoria Miro Gallery, and this September, will bring out her first book, ‘The Story of Art without Men’.

Rohan Jerath

Rohan is a lawyer at the international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. He joined Freshfields in 2016 and has worked in the firm’s London and New York offices. Rohan advises on commercial, intellectual property, technology and data matters across the media, sports, technology and financial services sectors. He previously worked in legal and compliance at a leading fintech company where he sat on the risk committee. Rohan has close ties to the area, having read Law at the University of Sussex. Rohan is a champion for inclusion and diversity. He has mentored scholars on the Freshfields Stephen Lawrence Scholarship Scheme and trained as a Mental Health First Aider.

Harriet Otoo

Harriet Otoo is Communications Director at Paramount. She has a track record of handling corporate communications for leading brands in the broadcast, technology and media sectors, including Freeview, Arqiva, Chrysalis Radio Group, CNN International, BBC Studios and FutureLearn, the UK’s first platform for free online courses from universities around the world. She was most recently Head of Communications for the PA Media Group, the parent company of PA, the national news agency for the UK and Ireland. Harriet is committed to driving professional excellence, diversity and inclusion across the Communications sector and the wider media industry. She was a judge on the 2021 CIPR Excellence Awards and a mentor in the BME PR Pros scheme with PR Week in 2020.

Caroline Price

Caroline Price is a finance professional with extensive experience of working with arts and heritage organisations. Currently she is treasurer and trustee of the acclaimed Shobana Jeyasingh Dance and is trustee of The Dulwich Estate. She sits on the audit committee of The Courtauld, and has served as a director of its trading company. Caroline has broad and extensive business experience. She has sat on the boards of public companies, including ten years as the finance director of TBI plc, a FTSE 250 business. She is a chartered accountant and qualified with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Piers Sanders

Piers is Product Director at the digital marketing fintech, Reward. He specialises in business and digital transformation with a career spanning consultancy, banking and fintech scale-up. His previous roles include Principal Consultant at PA Consulting, Head of Digital Product at Lloyds Banking Group and serving in the Royal Engineers. He has a decade of experience in the cultural sector including consultancy at Tate and board membership at Turner Contemporary, where he chaired the finance committee.

Sarah Sergeant

Sarah Sergeant is currently Group Financial Controller of Compass Group PLC, the world’s leading foodservice company, which she joined in 2007. She has significant risk management, audit and financial control expertise gained from senior finance leadership roles in the UK and in Asia Pacific, as well as strategic and operational experience across the foodservice industry.  She qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Hannah Wallace

Hannah is Head of Student Engagement and Enhancement at the University of Sussex and is a member of Charleston’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity Advisory Group. Working predominantly in Sussex, she has worked for many local organisations including Brighton Dome and Festival, Brighton and Hove Philharmonic Society and Central Sussex College. Hannah is committed to the arts and making cultural experiences accessible to all.

Kim Walker

Kim is an experienced publisher. For Kim, progressive ideas are at the heart of developing an organisation and in 2012, she joined Zed Books, a current affairs publisher and platform for marginalised voices. As Owner and Director of Zed Books, Kim has published award winning content for global audiences. Her previous positions have been Commissioning Editor at Manchester University Press and Editor at international B2B publishing houses. As a member of Charleston’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory board, Kim is committed to expanding audiences and making the Arts accessible to everyone.