AccessArt was founded in 1999 by Paula Briggs and Sheila Ceccarelli. Paula and Sheila continue to direct and manage all aspects of the organisation.
In 2015 they were joined by Andrea Butler who is instrumental in supporting the charity’s work and liaising with members.
The AccessArt team has since grown with Rachel Thompson joining in 2017 and Irina Richards in 2020.
#TeamAccessArt is agile and highly committed to fulfilling the charity’s aims of “furthering the advancement of education in the visual arts“.
Many thanks to all the artists, artist-educators, young artists and teachers who regularly contribute to AccessArt.
See all AccessArt Contributors
Paula Briggs
Co-Founder and Director AccessArt
Paula uses the AccessArt platform to inspire the best possible teaching practice, participation, and advocacy. Paula’s technical expertise and vision of the power of the web to bring people together to share fantastic practice is central to AccessArt and its success. Paula has been the principal architect and built the site since its founding in 1999 and is always looking for innovative ways to push it further keeping it current now and relevant in the future. Paula also runs workshops for children, young people, and teachers and directs AccessArt projects as well as manages and oversees the everyday running of the charity.
Sheila Ceccarelli
Co-Founder and Director AccessArt
Sheila leads on projects and places great importance on nurturing relationships with all the stakeholders who contribute to AccessArt. As well as the everyday running of the charity with Paula, Sheila facilitates InSET sessions for Primary School teachers and coordinates workshops for children and young people. Sheila has spoken on several occasions as a key-note speaker at Primary Art conferences advocating for the importance of art in primary school education.
Andrea Butler
Membership Secretary and Creative Contributor
Andrea Butler is AccessArt’s ‘membership secretary’ and her light touch is essential for nurturing the charity’s very important relationships with each and every AccessArt member. Andrea is an artist in her own right and as well as looking after members adds enormously to the creative side of AccessArt running online participatory projects, writing posts, working with artists, editing, publishing and contributing to the everyday running of all aspects of the charity.
Rachel Thompson
Brilliant Maker Coordinator
In September 2017 we were joined by free-lance artist Rachel Thompson to administer AccessArt’s Brilliant Makers and help build the AccessArt community both locally in Cambridge and online.
Irina Richards
Schools Liaison Support
Irina Richards has recently joined the AccessArt team working with Andrea Butler to support members and schools.
Steven Watts
Newt Labs
Steven at Newt Labs looks after the security, performance and maintenance of the AccessArt website.
Louise Buckingham
Bookkeeper
Louise set up Light Blue Bookkeeping to support sole traders and small businesses and has a portfolio of clients including charities, start ups and small businesses. Based in Cambridge, Louise specializes in cloud based bookkeeping and is a Fellow of the International Association of Bookkeeping with 10 years of experience.
AccessArt Trustees
Trustees
AccessArt could not function without its Trustees – From left to right -Tamsin Wimhurst, Chris Owen and Susan Coles.