Trustees

Myfanwy has a career in public finance, in local and regional government, and was Managing Director of Corporate Services at the House of Commons. She is a qualified accountant and brings significant experience of financial strategy, people leadership and engagement, business planning, performance and risk management, and project delivery. Myfanwy is also a non-executive Director at Ocean Housing in St Austell and  a Trustee of The Photographers’ Gallery in London, where she chairs the Finance and General Purposes Committee. She is passionate about art, and is studying art history in her spare time, with the emphasis on modernism.

Myfanwy joined the Board in Dec 2018.

Miranda has been Chair of our Board of Trustees since April 2017. Her career has spanned roles in both the private sector, working for the world’s largest marketing communications company, Omnicom, and the public sector, specifically Culture, in Cornwall. Currently she is Head of Development for an international advertising network called PHD.

She is a strong advocate of the importance of the visual arts in Cornwall, given its long history in the county, and its record of positive impact on the community both economically and socially. For her, the fact that Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is one of just two visual arts NPOs in Cornwall means that it has a lot of responsibility not only for its own fortune but that of the sector in Cornwall. She believes it is crucial for the huge numbers of visual artists resident in Cornwall, as well as local audiences to have access to the international standard work shown at both our venues.

Hannah has a deep interest in visual arts and the power creativity has in building community and connection. She is particularly interested in celebrating LGBTQ+ art and history, and shifting the industry toward a more diverse, inclusive and caring space.

Graduating in 2019 with a BA (hons) in Fashion, she has continued her practice through creating clothing and accessories from vintage and second-hand materials; often working in collaboration with other creatives.  Currently based in Portsmouth, Hannah has been a volunteer at Aspex Gallery supporting them with events, front of house and archiving, as well as working as a PONToon Project Assistant to curate a digital exhibition.

Most recently, Hannah has been working as a Research and Development Assistant for Artswork, Southampton Cultural Education Partnership and Southampton Music Hub, with a focus on the inclusion of youth voice.

Hannah joined the board in Nov 2021.

Joe is an arts programme producer with a profound interest for cultural projects that target inclusivity, art history, and sustainability. He currently works as Public Programmes & Partnerships Officer for the National Trust. Based in Sussex, he aspires to promote an intersectional approach to all arts projects and seeks to champion regional and international artists and creatives.

Previously, Joe has worked for cultural venues including Sotheby’s London, Eden Project, Intercom Trust, the Penzance School of Art, and Tate St Ives. He also holds a Distinction in MLitt Museum & Gallery Studies from the University of St Andrews, where he studied exhibition curation theory and collections management.

Joe joined the Board in Nov 2021.

Ginny is an art historian, writer and academic, with expertise in modern and contemporary British Art and has worked with art and artists for more than 35 years. She was formerly a curator at Tate Britain (1991-2001), curating the Turner Prize from 1993 to 1998, before moving to Cornwall with a young family in 2001. She then held a number of roles at Falmouth University, notably as Head of Art, and Director of Falmouth School of Art (2010-18). Ginny values education as a form of empowerment believing that access to art education and art practice promotes social mobility, future employability skills for young people, and enables fulfilled lives. She is delighted to bring her curatorial knowledge and management skills to the Board to support the important role of the gallery in delivering great art experiences for audiences in Cornwall.

Rachel is a producer and educator. She runs arts programmes with and for children, young people and their communities, spanning development, delivery, through to evaluation. The focus of her work to date has been working with rural communities in Mid Wales. Through her work with Peak Cymru, she has worked with partners including Canal & River Trust, Art Night, Transport for Wales and The Brecon Beacons National Park. Projects explore themes of rural futures, racial justice, sustainable tourism, bi/multi-lingualism, culture, and identity.

In 2019, she was chosen as a lead invigilator for Wales in Venice/Cymru yn Fenis for Sean Edwards’ solo show at the Venice Biennale, and she was an area group representative for Engage. More recently, she has been freelancing and supporting organisations through fundraising, digital programming, and strategic work with young people. Rachel is currently based in London.

As a trained painter, she has seen first-hand the transformational impact of the arts on children and young people – a vessel for wellbeing, thinking, questioning, reimagining, dreaming, making change, and realising potential. She looks forward to supporting this work with Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, and is delighted to be joining a board for the first time.

Rachel joined the board in Nov 2021.

Gina Buenfeld-Murley is Exhibitions Curator at Camden Art Centre, London, where she has co-curated The Botanical Mind: Art, Mysticism and The Cosmic Tree (2020-21); A Tale of Mother’s Bones: Grace Pailthorpe, Reuben Mednikoff and the Birth of Psychorealism (2019); and solo exhibitions with Athanasios Argianas (2020); Wong Ping (2019); Yuko Mohri (2018); Joachim Koester (2017); João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva (2015); Bonnie Camplin (2016) and Rose English (2016).

Independent curatorial projects include Gäa: Holistic Science and Wisdom Tradition, at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, and Origin Story, at The Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Turku, Finland (both 2019). During a sabbatical in 2017 she was curatorial resident at Helsinki International Curatorial Programme, Finland and between 2014-2015, Gina was curator in residence with Art InitiativeTokyo where she curated At the still point of the turning world at Shibaura House Tokyo, presenting work by Manon de Boer, Joachim Koester, Simon Martin, Ursula Mayer, and Jeremy Millar.

She holds an MA in Art History (20th Century) from Goldsmiths College (2004) and was previously Director of Alison Jacques Gallery.

Gina joined the board in Nov 2021.

Otti is a digital marketer, social media trainer and coach based in Cornwall, where she/they were born and grew up. Otti has worked mostly in the professional services sector but has also volunteered for various arts and literature festivals in Cornwall, including Penzance.

Creating safe spaces for LGBTQIA+ communities and minority groups is of keen interest to Otti, which is one of the reasons she/they decided to join our Board. Otti’s qualifications include a BA in Film and an MA in Professional Writing.

On the side of work and freelancing, a novel is in progress.

Otti joined the board in Nov 2021.

Bethia is a marketing consultant based in Cornwall, helping brands to deliver meaningful communication concepts and reach their audiences. She has more than ten years’ international experience working for a variety of clients, from book publishing houses and charities, to digital agencies and creative businesses, and holds an MA in Communication Design from Falmouth University.

On a personal note, Bethia studied at Penwith College in Penzance and is passionate about the gallery’s work in engaging local young people with the visual arts.

Bethia joined the Board in Dec 2018.

Neil is our Vice-Chair and Secretary. He is deeply interested in the visual arts, particularly within West Cornwall where he also chairs the Tate St Ives Members Committee and sits on the Tate St Ives Advisory Council. He is also Chair of the Trustees at St Ives School of Painting.

He strongly believes that art is the best language to explore and articulate our place in the world, more so now than ever, and hopes that his involvement with Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange can help others find the language to tell their own stories.

His career spanned nearly thirty years in retail management and a dozen years developing and managing Business Improvement Districts in Reading and Truro. Neil lives in St Ives with his family and is an active explorer of the landscapes, coast paths and the ocean. He writes, collects things, makes stuff and believes in magic.

Neil joined the Board in early 2017.

Dida is based in London where she is Head of External Relations at the Contemporary Art Society, a charitable contemporary art fund supporting acquisitions for museums across the UK.

She has extensive art world experience in the UK and the US, including Dulwich Picture Gallery, the International Center of Photography, New York, and New York Academy of Art.  During lockdown 2020-1 she produced a film for Rugby Portobello Trust: Future Generation Voices which has already been included in several Shorts Film Festivals. She also served on a Committee for Cove Park Artist Residency, Argyll and Bute in 2021.

Dida has a MA in Arts Management from Columbia University in New York, and a degree in Italian from Trinity College, Connecticut. She was born in Scotland.

Dida is committed to engaging audiences throughout the  UK for contemporary  art and photography.  She volunteers by creating socially engaged art programming for diverse audiences of young people and is thrilled to be able to offer Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange strategic advice and leadership as a member of the Board of Trustees. She particularly likes the unique landscapes, beach walks and surfing of West Cornwall.

Nigel has been passionate about West Penwith and its art for more than 30 years and the work of Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange in particular. He worked in the information technology industry, building a networking business from inception to becoming a national company before disposal to form part of a multinational business. With business interests in the area as well as continuing interest in digital communications, Nigel has a local and national perspective. He believes the work of the gallery connects disparate local communities and reflects the attitude and challenges of different groups, projecting them to a national audience.

Nigel is interested in music, discovering the local landscape, and is a surfer.

Nigel joined the board in Nov 2021.