Skippers

Marcia Mackey

Marcia takes care of the day to day running of the project, including fund-raising and office administration. Her background is in social care and she’s keen to promote social inclusion within the project. She’s also an amateur bass player and part of our in-house Bargestra!

Christian Topman

Christian is the Musical Director of The Arts Barge Project. He  works as a bass teacher privately and teaches music in York schools. He also works as a member of various bands and as a freelance session musician across a spectrum of styles and genres. He enjoys developing and delivering community music workshops and performances for children and adults of different ages and abilities.

Hannah West

Hannah is an Artistic Director of The Arts Barge Project. She is an Art Therapist and a landscape painter. She is currently working in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Hull and as a freelance Art Therapist in Primary and Secondary Schools in The East Riding. She is particularly interested in how arts help people, communities and societies.

Steve Blakeman

Steve has lived on boats for Fifteen years (13 of those on the Ouse), which allows him some insight into the issues facing a floating arts centre. He has been closely involved with setting up small local community groups, and has run several small scale environmental social projects around the waterways and in remote communities in Britain and Europe. He has set up, and successfully runs, a seasonal floating cafe in York.

Jane Veysey

Jane (centre) is an Artistic Director of  The Arts Barge Project. She has developed the And How! Theatre Company with young people working experimentally with ideas around physical theatre. And How! has now become The Arts Barge ‘on board’ theatre company! Jane has worked in theatres as stage manager and in schools as Head of Drama in Secondary Education and most recently in a Pupil Referral Unit as Head of English.