Cowley Road Work’s People
Cowley Road Works is made up of a board of volunteer trustees, an Executive Director, a number of volunteer advisers and a small but dedicated freelance staff team who work part time to cover all aspects of organising the event. If you would like to find out about joining the team please see vacancies, join or team of volunteers or email director@cowleyroadworks.org
Johannah Aynsley joined the charity as Executive Director in early 2016. She has been focussed on creating a more sustainable future for the organisation and has done this by working through new and exciting strategies with the CRW board members, nurturing a strong and talented team, builing up important and lasting stakeholder relationships and raising the profile and outreach of CRW’s cultural activities.
Johannah, has achieved much success in her role so far, not least the recognition achieved when the CRW Team won the 2017, Oxfordshire Business Award, for services to culture and tourism and a recent, large, Arts Council England grant.
Johannah, worked previously on a £4.5 million proposed public sector project, to redevelop the Guildhall in Abingdon-on-Thames as a lifestyle and entertainment hub and bring back the Guildhall in to the heart of the community. Before this, Johannah was the CEO of The Factory Youth Zone, a pioneering lifestyle hub and youth zone in Manchester serving over two thousand members and the flagship of its five regional counterparts; and preceding that, Johannah was the Academy Head and Creative Director of Liverpool Film Academy Educational Trust, developing the production house’s philanthropic media hub site, using industry standard media and creative arts as a vehicle for social inclusion.
Earlier in her career Johannah enjoyed several years at NWV+M (partnering with BBC and ITV). This role was supporting the engagement and training provision that underpins the professional media industries in the UK; whilst developing a diverse and abundant offering from UK film and TV.
Johannah has a wealth of experience in community engagement events and overseeing large scale media, creative and charity based projects, as well as fundraising, fostering profitable partnerships and growing business through the coming together of people and business.
Johannah, enjoys being at the helm of Cowley Road Works and also being part of a new tranche of young female executives working accross Oxfordshire for the betterment of the arts, culture and community.
Contact Johannah on director@cowleyroadworks.org
Get in touch with Sarah if you would like more information about Carnival for articles and broadcast. Also if you would like to get involved as an official film-maker or photographer. Sarah has her own marketing communications and PR consultancy, the Buzzworks, and joined the team to publicise the Carnival for the first time in summer 2014. She has extensive experience and works with many businesses in Oxfordshire and beyond. She also organises the annual Blenheim 7k charity run at Blenheim Palace.
marketing@cowleyroadworks.org / sarah.airey@thebuzzworks.co.uk
Heather was a founder member of the team involved in setting up Oxfringe (Oxford’s Fringe Festival), becoming Festival Director in 2011. Alongside her role at Cowley Road Carnival she is a published playwright.
Anya has been running the Carnival procession since 2011. She has a background in theatre and works, mainly on large outdoor community events, as a procession and production and stage manager.
Anya’s passion for her work is fired by being able to give communities and individuals the opportunity to come to the streets and show themselves off. Cowley Road Carnival is a wonderful example of this, she says: “it is a great to see what people, from different cultures and diverse backgrounds, can achieve when given the chance”.
To contact Anya please email her at artistic_producer@cowleyroadworks.org
To contactMiff please email her at outreach@cowleyroadworks.org
Simon Tipping brings his love for Carnival to the team. He has attended the Trinidad and Venice carnivals, participated at the Rio carnival with Paul Davies and his Embaixadores da Alegria, travelled to Bei Jing, China with Ali Pretty’s kinetika and her Imagination Our Nation project, as well as show casing the work of Festive Road at the Thames festival night time carnival.
Simon has over 30 years’ experience in managing and creating numerous activities and events for local authorities around the country as well as creating his own large scale events such as ‘Walking with Giants’ for Central Milton Keynes.
To contact Simon please email him at producer@cowleyroadworks.org
Anna has volunteered herself and worked with volunteers in a number of different settings and roles including Cheltenham Jazz, Science, Music and Literature festivals. She knows how much volunteers contribute and what they need to be well supported. She loves the ‘buzz’ and excitement of festivals and creative events and can think of nowhere more fun to volunteer. She is really looking forward to her first carnival at Cowley Road.
If you want to volunteer contact Anna on : volunteers@cowleyroadworks.org
Nicole is very excited to join the team as the stalls and traders coordinator for Cowley Road Carnival this year. She set-up and has organised the Oxford Christmas Market since 2009 and has also been involved in the Christmas Light Festival as stalls manager. She is looking forward to working with Cowley Road Works to make year’s Cowley Road Carnival one of the best yet.
To email Nicole please contact her at stalls@cowleyroadworks.org
Volunteers are vital to our team. We have all sorts of roles available to work with us throughout the year – from helping with our accounts and book-keeping to photograhy, social media and marketing to stewarding on Carnival Day itself.
If you would like to join our team of volunteers please email volunteers@cowleyroadworks.org