We are a Bristol-based charity working with creative, local and social enterprise communities in and around the South West. We produce public artwork programmes, deliver creative collaborative activities and secure permanent spaces in the city to build sustainable futures.
We believe in the civic role of artists and that through collaboration we can support communities to build mutually supportive resilience.
Flagship projects
Public Art Agency
Writing and delivering programmes of creativity for new developments. We work with developers, local authorities and local communities to create bespoke and locally lead public art programmes, this can take the form of permanent artworks, engagement events, live experiences, and the long term curation and management of creative spaces.
St Anne’s House
St Anne’s House is a creative and community hub in St Annes, Bristol occupying 25,000 sqft of ex office floorspace. Working with local communities since 2019, we co-designed a future use model, took this to Bristol City Council, secured a community asset transfer and have been operating the building since 2021. Find out more on our standalone site: www.stanneshouse.org
Our key areas of work
Public Art We work with developers, local authorities and communities to write and deliver public art programmes in new developments across a range of land uses.
Creative Infrastructure We build social and economic resilience into developments, by using public art conditions to secure and manage long term space for community and creative uses.
Cultural Strategies
We develop cultural and creative strategies for local authorities and landowners, who wish to explore the social and economic value that culture can bring to their area or development.
Artist Development We build inclusive & accessible opportunities for regional artists to develop their practices.
Community Led We work with local resident groups through creative processes to support local voices in the development of the community and community projects.
Community Publishing We work with communities of location or interest to develop publishing opportunities and platforming the results.
Collaborative Research
We act as research partners across sectors, to explore new ideas around community, creative space, the environment and education. St Anne’s House and its community of tenants and visitors provide a vital test bed for this research.
Our values
Creative
We believe in the power of creative expression in everyone.
Hospitable
We believe in bringing people together in a safe & welcoming environment.
Entrepreneurial
We believe in new ways of doing things & connecting value.
Collaborative
We believe in the magic & added value of collaboration.
Local
We are locally rooted & accountable.
Civic
We are for all people in our community & city.
Sustainable
We are environmentally & financially sustainable & conscious.
Georgia joined Bricks as the Engagement and Programme Producer. She collaborates with the local community of St Anne’s to explore the possibilities of a creative community hub at St Annes House.
For the past three years Georgia worked at Arts charity In Between Time, bringing together local and international artists and Bristol communities. Georgia is a Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries Fellow and holds an Msc in Creative Arts and Mental Health where she explored the relationship between performance and care. She is interested in how socially engaged art can be a space to explore what care can look like and create space for play, risk-taking and the unexpected.
Jack is a creative producer and CEO with a passion for supporting cross sector creative and community collaborations and developing the ecology for visual arts practice in Bristol.
In 2018 Jack founded Bricks and has a dual role as executive lead and an active producer developing projects. Notable Bricks projects include building Bricks Public Art & Creative Infrastructure Consultancy and developing St Annes House as a creative community hub through codesign with the hyper local community of St Annes and the regional creative community of the West of England.
2010-18 Jack founded and ran nomadic art galleryAntlers working with artists through pop up exhibitions, partnership commissions and publishing. Antlers worked with predominantly early career artists supporting them to explore some form of stretch forward in their practice.
Graduating in 2007 with a BA Photography prior to 2010 Jack worked as an artist studio assistant and was a practising artist involved in artist led projects in Stroud.
Jack joined Bricks in autumn 2023, having spent the last decade co-devising and facilitating socially-engaged art projects with young people in a variety of community settings.
He is interested in working with groups to explore ideas around play and experiment, how history is told and how it might be told differently and what it might mean if we had space to live our lives more collectively. At Bricks, Jack is responsible for developing and expanding the programme for young people in St Anne’s. This includes setting up a weekly open access creative session and a holiday programme as part of the Holiday Hub Bristol scheme, with many other plans for the road ahead.The programme will always be led in dialogue with, and cultivated by, the interests and voices of the young people involved. Over the past few years, Jack has developed and curated an engagement programme at Spike Island Gallery between Hartcliffe and Leigh Woods and co-devised a performance with young people in South Bristol at Ashton Court, which looked at the untold stories left behind by the ‘official’ histories of the mansion.This led to the publication in Summer 2023 of Haunting Ashton Court: A Creative Handbook for Collective History-Making. Alongside his work with young people, Jack is a writer who creates hybrid work that explores hauntings of landscape and archive.He is also co-host and producer of local arts podcast Tender Buttons, in partnership with Storysmith Books in Bedminster.
Katie joined Bricks in January 2024 on placement with MA/MFA Curating at The University of West England.
With a background in art and design, she is interested in the role of art in placemaking and community, and hopes to engage with the programme at Bricks to further develop her curatorial practice.
Kerrie joined Bricks in January 2021 as Public Art Producer.
Kerrie leads Bricks’ Public Art Consultancy practice, which is fast becoming a nationally recognised leader in developing and delivering high quality Public Art Projects in collaboration with local communities, local artists, local authorities and developers.
For the last decade Kerrie worked as a Senior Producer, Programmer and Project Manager, in Theatre, Live Events, National and International Touring Music Productions, International Festivals and Television.
Prior to this Kerrie worked for a decade as a Town Planner, project managing multi-disciplinary teams in delivering large scale, mixed use redevelopments across the UK, in urban and rural locations.
Kerrie is a Chartered Town Planner (MRTPI) and has worked with communities delivering projects and undertaking strategic and local consultations as part of the Planning System, Sports Development, Health and the Arts.
Ruby joined Bricks in 2019, with a career of 5 years in communications, she worked for creative agencies and developed her freelance practice alongside honing her photography and design skills.
At Bricks, Ruby documents and shares our journey. Connecting with audiences, Ruby works across Bricks Public Art, Creative Infrastructure, Community Publishing, and Artist Development. Connecting with organisations, media, and the community, Ruby’s the first port of call for communication collaborations and reciprocal sharing for projects.
Since joining Ruby has worked across Bricks full programme, working with artists, community members, and partners. Within Bricks, Ruby is the lead for BRIZ, a community newsletter for the Brislington area, helping produce and distribute across the local area.
Ruby moved to Bristol from Nottingham in 2014 for a Fine Art Degree at UWE where she specialised in performance and film, and became active in Bristol’s arts scene. She’s been involved in different member-led galleries and publications, contributing her skills in photography, writing, and production.
Living in St Anne’s, Ruby is engaged in the community, and loves learning more about where she lives through community members and the goings-on in the area through the work at St Anne’s House.
Sarah moved into the role of Building and Tenants Producer in January 2024 after being a front of house team member and having her own studio space at St Anne’s House since 2021. Sarah is now the one to come to for any enquiry related to the rental of a studio, desk or office space and is the first point of call for current tenants or any building maintenance needs.
Sarah moved from Nottingham to Bristol in 2009 to study Drawing and Applied Arts at UWE and has since pursued both art and music and worked for various art institutions in Bristol including the Watershed and the Royal West of England Academy. In 2022 she completed a Masters degree in Photography, in which she developed her practice and became more involved in the Bristol photography scene. She continues to pursue her art practice using photography as her main medium, having exhibited in various locations as well as assisting in the curation of multiple shows.
In her role as BTP, she hopes to work with tenants to build on the already vibrant, active scene within St Anne’s House, showcasing this dynamic community and making the space feel open and accessible to all.
Susan joined Bricks in April 2024 as Head of Operations. Susan has experience in the public, private and charity sectors and was Facilities & Resources Manager at OTR Bristol for over 5 years. For the past year she has been working for Bath & North East Somerset Council in their specialist commissioning team.
Susan has a background in the hospitality industry. Initially training as a chef, she progressed to Director of Operations for a prominent contract catering company. As a mature student she gained a degree in psychology and has held a number of voluntary roles in her local community.
Ele is a Civil and Environmental engineer with a passion for all things innovative. Specialising in Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), Ele runs ‘elevate’, a specialist consultancy involved in sustainable construction, MMC and construction skills. She has worked on projects ranging in scale from her own self-build eco-home, to the development of Bristol’s Southmead Hospital, and looks to increase sustainability in our built environment at every opportunity.
Ele’s ambition is to create mixed tenure developments, where sustainable and accelerated construction is a key driver to delivering more affordable homes and community infrastructure. Ele aims to work with organisations who help to enhance the life chances of local people by not only providing a beautiful place to live, but also providing education, work experience and employment opportunities, placing Social Value at the heart.
She also loves travelling to new places, outdoor pursuits and attending music festivals.
James is a Finance Manager and has been working in the charity sector since 2007. He is currently working as a Finance Director (maternity cover) for a charity that supports children in the music industry.
In the past, James has worked for charities that support adults with learning disabilities and young people with cancer, he has also worked for local organisations such as Aardman Animations and Watershed.
In his role at Watershed (also a registered charity) he put together the management accounts, reported on specially funded projects and worked on the year end accounts. His role there was a part of the local cultural economy and is one of the reasons he’s joined Bricks, so he can help support upcoming artists and to keep Bricks sustainable.
Although James has previously been involved in board meetings, being a treasurer is new to him but it’s something he’s wanted to do for a while.
He lives in St Annes and is pleased to supporting a charity close to home.
Jo Lathwood makes sculptures and large scale installations which regularly respond to a particular site, event, material or process.
Her portfolio varies greatly in form, scale, context and method of production, encompassing: temporary and permanent public art, exhibitions curated for galleries and heritage sites (often as the outcome of an artist residency) and studio-based work. She has worked with Fabrica (Brighton), Trust New Art (the National Trust’s contemporary arts program), Arts Council England, Art, Cities & Landscapes in Amiens, France and Kunst and Zwalm in Belgium.
In 2012 she co-founded Ore and Ingot, a travelling Bronze foundry and was co- director until 2018. She is a Council member for Bristol University’s Earth Art Gallery and has been a visiting lecturer at Plymouth and Gloucester Universities.
Jo is Bristolian living in St Annes, she has had studios in numerous locations across the city; and loves to build staircases to mezzanines within them if they are tall enough.
Robin Hague is a fundraiser for Creative Youth Network, a charity working with thousands of young people across Bristol and South Gloucestershire, using creativity as a tool to support them to fulfil their potential. Originally a journalist, Robin has also worked in PR and marketing across international broadcast, consumer goods, retail facilities, wellbeing and the environment.
A New Zealander, Robin has seen the real benefits of widening access to arts and culture in his own country and others. He is committed to supporting efforts to engage people in initiatives that use creativity to deepen and enrich community experiences. He also believes permanent space for artists is critical for culture and communities to flourish. Robin is currently involved in his own photography project, using long walks to take pictures of extremely bland scenes, never to be viewed.
Trish Brown is Operations Director at St George’s Bristol, where she oversees partnership working, customer service operations, income generation and facilities management.
She was previously Head of Production for Serious, producing the EFG London Jazz Festival and their national touring work. She is currently a trustee of Circomedia, on the advisory board for Bristol City Centre BID, and in her spare time she plays rugby for Bath Rugby Ladies and goes cold water swimming
