Naomi Wilds
Producer
Naomi Wilds founded Adverse Camber in 2006 and has spearheaded its development since then. She has produced all of the company’s national tours, raising substantial funds for artistic and organisational development. In 2009, Naomi was one of four East Midlands producers to receive a bursary from Arts Council England in recognition of her work. She traveled to Australia and New Zealand/Aotearoa researching storytelling traditions, a trip which has informed Adverse Camber’s work in recent years.
Naomi studied English Literature at the University of Leeds, winning the Crabtree Prize and gaining an MA by research on narrative strategies in 1991. Following work for various arts organisations, she specialised in literature development from 1999-2005 as part of the E Mids Literature Network.
Jenny Babenko
Marketing Associate
Jenny Babenko has worked with Adverse Camber since 2013 and is now the company’s lead Marketing Associate, working closely with venues to develop relationships with new and more diverse audiences across the range of the company’s work.
Prior to joining Adverse Camber, Jenny has worked at The Lowry in Salford Quays, West Yorkshire Arts Marketing, Derbyshire Dales District Council, Derby City Council and as a freelance marketer for a range of organisations including Red Earth Theatre, Nottingham Puppet Festival, Wirksworth Festival and musician, Will Pound.
Karen Parry
Finance Associate
Karen was General Manager for Action Transport Theatre, a young people’s theatre company and Arts Council National Portfolio organisation for over 15 years and had sole responsibility for financial accounting.
Karen recently started working as a freelance business associate, supporting various arts organisations including Theatre Temoin, based in Kent and Joss Arnott Dance, based in Yorkshire.
Aly Stoneman
Engagement Producer
Aly Stoneman is a creative producer, poet, and tutor who has worked with East Midlands participatory organisations Junction Arts (Derbyshire) and Pedestrian (Leicester). She has been a lead/resident writer with Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature and the Wildlife Trusts, and a winner of the Buxton Poetry Prize. Her research and writing explore human relations with the natural world in a changing climate, and she recently graduated with a PhD from Nottingham Trent University, supported through an AHRC grant by Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership. Aly is an advocate for powerful, immersive and co-created contemporary storytelling across a diverse range of formats and traditions.
Find out more about Aly in this interview with Voice Magazine.
Nick Cutts
Board Member (Chair)
Nick Cutts is a musician based in Derbyshire, UK playing bassoon, guitar and piano. Nick began his musical career as an Orchestra Manager, working as ‘Fixer’, Librarian, Concert and Stage Manager. He left the orchestral life in 2000 to establish OPUS Music CIC (OPUS), a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to providing music-making opportunities for people of all ages across the midlands region. OPUS has a strong history of supporting music-making with children and young people, its ‘OPUS Ensemble’ programme working in partnership with many schools to develop group music-making approaches. OPUS is renowned for the high quality of its early years music-making and music in health projects.
Nick is proud to have been a member of the Adverse Camber board for several years!
Pam Butler
Board Member
I worked in publishing and magazine journalism before moving to Derbyshire and working in local government publications and PR. In my spare time I became involved in a range of community projects and my career gradually moved more towards working in community settings. I worked in Arts Development until I retired. I love writing and storytelling in all its forms: theatre, novels, poetry, good journalism.
Hannah McDowall
Board Member
Hannah McDowall started her career as a researcher of social innovation projects, and this system-level thinking is a skill Hannah brings to the Adverse Camber board.
In 2011 she went on her first storytelling training course and from there has built expertise as a performer, facilitator and trainer. Myth and story is one of the ways we can usher in the new, imagining beyond what we can see right now and most of Hannah’s work is as an applied practitioner supporting social innovators and civil society organisations. She supports others to craft real life stories to better understand and share the lives they are living, and through using traditional and real life story in social innovation projects to expand the imaginative capacity of leaders and community members seeking to vision better futures.
In 2020 Hannah published her book Performance Storytelling: How to Build Your Career and Grow the Artform which describes the market place for performance storytelling in England and supports storytellers and promoters to make good choices to grow their work.
Carol Taylor
Board Member
I retired a few years ago from a job as deputy director of the National Institute for Adult Education, and since then have taken on several volunteering roles, the most time involved of which is to chair the Wirksworth Arts Festival!
My interest is community activism and community engagement, enabling people to have some control over their lives and what happens in their communities. My skills are in leadership and management, especially in the charitable sector. I love novels, and drama, because I love stories (I very often have to read novels twice because the first time I’m so interested in the story, then I go back and read it again for all the rest of it!). Storytelling takes you to other worlds, worlds where you can get lost, where you can experience fear, love, loss, exhilaration and so much more.