What did you enjoy most about your time at Sidcot?

The friendships foremost. It was incredible to be part of a network of friends living and working together from all walks of life. We were given allot of freedom and trust and spent a lot of time exploring the Mendips, which is now my home.

What were your favourite classes?

I enjoyed Art, DT and Music and was amazed at how I could mix it up, I ended up taking a motorcycle apart in the DT department and by the end of the term had rebuilt it into a sculpture in the art department!

Which lessons were you less keen on?

Maths. I was having so much fun doing the creative stuff, I just couldn’t focus on maths!

What / who inspired you to follow a career in creative set design?

I was inspired by so many adults at Sidcot including my art teacher Mr Wallis. They really did meet me on a level (The non hierarchal Quaker way) and that really resonated with me. Everyone I met in my time at Sidcot inspired me to follow my own path and do what I believed in, Something my other schooling didn't manage to get across!

How did your time at Sidcot prepare you for your career?

It taught me specifically how to communicate my ideas, through whatever means was appropriate (Lots of paper coloured pens and glue was my preference, being very dyslexic). It also taught me to accept and bond with people from all walks of life, and gave me confidence to talk to adults as equals.

What would be your advice to current Sidcotians looking to follow a career in creative set design?

Essentially a ‘set’ is an environment and you want to be clear who you’re making it for and why. Is this for people on the sofa watching a TV shows? At a music festival with their friends? Or is it an intimate artistic experience for an individual to respond to in an art gallery? It’s all an art form and understanding how you want your audience to feel is at the heart of it. It's sort of a hybrid of the best bits of art and architecture and really exiting if your passionate about taking people on an emotional journey.

What has your career path been?

School, A short lived welding job in a factory, a year of sustainable design at university at 22, lots and lots of traveling and then festival and event work from the bottom up, including:  Recycling (Litter picking), Running an arts café, Making an archway entrance sculpture, then an avenue of sculptures, then a small stage, then a bigger one, then adding performance elements and flame effects, then touring the world, then getting stuck behind a computer doing too much management and now working on much smaller hands on experiences that I am passionate about!

What achievements are you most proud of, either in your career or personally?

We did a show in Perth with an aboriginal tribe, who resurrected an ancient ceremony with us that had been keeping underground since the British colonised them in the 19th century. You can see more about it if you youtube Arcadia and the Whadjuk Noongar come together – it was a profound experience.