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Delma Tomlin MBE is the Founding Director of the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM), responsible for the restoration of the medieval church of St Margaret’s, Walmgate, and the creation of the NCEM in 2000. Delma is the director of the annual early music festivals in Beverley and York.

Delma is an acknowledged expert in the promotion of early music and York Mystery Plays - opening up these potentially esoteric art forms to a wide and appreciative public – alongside supporting a thriving creative learning programme designed to develop emerging professionals in the field of early music across Europe and beyond.

Delma is a board member of the European Early Music Network [REMA] and a member of Court of the University of York.

Delma was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of York in 2000 in recognition of her work in the City of York and an MBE for Services to the Arts in Yorkshire and; Humberside in the 2008 Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.

Dr Catherine Oakley is Executive Director of the York-based heritage charity The Rowntree Society. The charity works across the education sector, the voluntary sector and the cultural industries to facilitate and support projects which engage critically and creatively with the diverse histories and legacies of the Rowntree family, company and charitable trusts. Catherine completed an MA and PhD in the Department of English Literature at the University of York, where her research focused on cultural histories of work, health and the body in Britain in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Over the last decade, she has worked on innovative research-led public engagement projects with cultural partners including the National Trust, English Heritage, Thackray Medical Museum, BFI Southbank and Hyde Park Picturehouse. Catherine was born in Leeds and has lived in York for ten years. 

Twitter: @cat_oakley

Academic profile: https://independent.academia.edu/CatherineMOakley

Adam is the co-founder of BetaJester Ltd; a VR, AR, and games development company. Over the last few years, BetaJester has built a multitude of virtual training environments, 360° marketing tools, branded games, and many other VR and AR experiences. They are currently working on several unannounced AR and VR projects, and are always looking to work with excited and forward-thinking entities to bring cutting edge technology to the masses.

Sarah is Head of Locomotion, part of the Science Museum Group, which can be found in Shildon, the world’s first railway town. Before joining Locomotion in August 2018 she was Head of Engagement and Learning for Culture Durham, part of Durham University, where she led the team that was responsible for formal and informal learning, visitor experience and special exhibitions. Sarah’s role at Locomotion is to manage all aspects of the operational delivery on site and to lead the museum through a new Masterplan development which involves improving the visitor experience through a refresh of the existing interpretation, introducing a changed emphasis in programming, restoring the historic assets on site and building  a new 4000m2 facility to increase the number of rail vehicles on display. Engaging with the local and wider communities is central to the success of this next exciting stage of our development.

Charlotte Kingston is Head of Interpretation and Design at the National Railway Museum, part of the Science Museum Group. She heads up the team responsible for temporary and permanent exhibitions and their interpretation in the museum. She also hold the role of Project Director on three exhibition projects as part of Vision 2025 – our masterplan to tell stories of the past, present and future of the railways, inspiring a new generation of engineers, innovators and creators, and embedding NRM more firmly into its new and existing communities. Previously Charlotte worked as part of an internationally-renowned museum design consultancy, and as a freelance curator, working on projects as diverse as the IKEA Museum, Sweden, the Museum of Literature Ireland, and the Imperial War Museum’s Second World War Galleries.

Dr Kate Giles is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology, a specialist in historic buildings and Co-Director of the Archaeology of Buildings MA programme. She has long been interested in the public understanding of the historic environment, leading projects in York, Stratford on Avon and Pickering on medieval and early modern public buildings and churches. Many of these collaborations have led to National Lottery (Heritage Fund) projects, involving the conservation and interpretation of these buildings to wider audiences. From October 2020, she will join the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture as Co-Director. Kate is actively engaged in civic and regional partnership working, particularly through her work as Trustee of York Civic Trust and the Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust. 

Dr Mark Smith is a Lecturer in Theatre in the department of Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media at the University of York. As a regular critic for the British Theatre Guide, he has surveyed all of the large-scale community theatre work of the York Theatre Royal over the past decade, and his current research interrogates the structures, exchanges, and possibilities of such practice. Mark is also a director and dramaturg, most recently staging Meet Me at Dawn (2019) in venues around York with colleagues from the TFTI department.