Helen Ward

Managing Director / Active Citizens Social Leader

Helen is strategic lead for the organisation, taking responsibility for the development of new projects, fundraising, managing key partnerships and leading on our flagship event Crook Winter Winter Light Parade, our Carnival Arts programme and international work. Helen has over 25 years working in the creative industries both as a practising lens based media artist and creative producer. She is a Churchill Fellow having travelled to Asia to research young people’s filmmaking projects and film festivals, a Clore Social Experienced Leader and a Digital City Fellow.
Helen is passionate about outdoor arts and supporting young people to have a voice using performing arts, music, film and media to develop intercultural skills and be the change makers of the future. A member of AESOP (Arts Enterprise with a social purpose), a 3 Towns Area Action Partnership Board Member, a County Durham Community Foundation EDF funding panel member and a trained Active Citizens facilitator; in her spare time Helen enjoys drumming, outdoor swimming (all year round!) and travelling.

Jack Burton

Artistic Director & Sustainability Officer

Jack is the creative lead for the organisation, taking responsibility for company strategy, fundraising, leading on our commitment to becoming carbon neutral and overseeing artistic delivery across our projects. Jack has over 15 years of experience in the creative industries as a performer, composer, and producer for a wide range of companies and creative practitioners including Theatre Sans Frontieres, World Beaters Music, and Georgian Theatre Royal Richmond, and brings a deep-rooted understanding of the creative sector and its unique value to our society, cultivated through many years of leading, participating, learning, and sharing. Jack’s lifelong association with Jack Drum Arts has embedded within him a strong passion for community collaboration. In his spare time, he can be found in his music studio in Newcastle Upon Tyne producing electronic music on his analogue synths. He has released music with independent record labels in the UK, USA, Canada and New Zealand, his greatest hit being ‘Who Gets The Cows?’

James Shepherd

Project Co-ordinator / Arts Facilitator & Green Champion

James co-ordinates our Feel Good Fridays group for adults; our annual BFI Network Film Academy for young people; as well as running our weekly Crook Games Club. James also supports the wider Jack Drum programme through the creation of marketing materials and the production of films. He has a degree in filmmaking, completed a production traineeship with Artichoke working on Lumiere 2019, is a trained Arts Award facilitator and has a passion for large-scale visual art and collaborative performance work. 

James Edwin Lane

Project Co-ordinator / Music Facilitator & Time to Change Champion

James primarily leads across our Youth Music programme inclusive of our Runaway and Get Set Samba groups as well as our Youth Music Rock Band Collective. They support young people through Arts Award and The Key Social Action initiative. They also provide technological support across the organisation and advocate for positive engagement with mental wellbeing in the workplace as a Time To Change Champion.
James is a talented music composer, and in their spare moments can be found poring over music theory books or creating new sounds in Cubase.

Brendan Swinney

Music Leader / Youth Arts Worker & Key Facilitator

Brendan supports our regular workshop sessions including Crook Games Club, Runaway Samba and our Youth Music Rock Band Collective.  He is a Level 2 trained youth worker and a trained Key facilitator supporting young people to deliver social action projects in the local community. As a proficient musician Brendan is a core member of our gigging bands Runaway Samba, Nordestinos, Baque de Ogum, and Backbeat Samba. In his spare time Brendan is a volunteer scout leader, enjoys rock climbing, playing Dungeons and Dragons and riding his motorbike.

Martina Vitale

ROAD Health Trainer / Health Advocate

A qualified health trainer, Martina works for our ROAD (Reaching Out Across Durham) programme, a partnership project led by Groundwork North East and Cumbria. In this role, Martina helps people improving their mental and physical well-being through lifestyle changes, mindfulness techniques and creative activities. She also believes in the importance of creating long-term support networks for the people she supports. Passionate about good food and healthy eating, Martina has a Masters in Nutritional Science and has had her research published as a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Eve Rose

B.O.P Fest Producer / Youth Arts Worker & Primary Voice Educator

Eve supports our regular weekly Get Set Samba junior drumming group and facilitates the Jack Drum Arts Youth Board. Eve is also a lead producer on ouraward winning free, family friendly climate action festival ‘B.O.P Fest’ and its related events. Eve is certified climate literate and IEMA Green Impact Auditor Approved. Outside of those duties, Eve is an avid drummer and young leader, performing and teaching across Jack Drum Arts’ in-house percussion bands, with whom she enjoys performing all over the country. A Primary Voices Educator, Eve is currently studying towards an undergraduate degree in Climate Science at Durham University.

Jill Chambers

Operations Co-ordinator / Lead Health Advocate

Jill supports the senior management in the administration, coordination and marketing across much of the programme at Jack Drum Arts. She is the company’s NCFE Assessor for the BFI Network Film Academy and leading on the company’s Better Health at Work Bronze Award .
Jill has worked in the cultural sector in North East England for over 20 years, as a project manager, facilitator, maker, marketer, programmer and an educator. She has performed at the Sibiu International Theatre Festival in Romania, taken four shows to Edinburgh’s Festival Fringe and created immersive Halloween performances for audiences of up to 800 people at Plessey Woods Country Park in Northumberland.

David Raynor

Youth Theatre Director

David is a playwright, director, actor and facilitator with more than 20 years’ experience working in theatre. He has facilitated and directed for Live Youth Theatre and Gateshead Youth theatre for many years and taught drama at Newcastle College for 14 years. David’s last play Trolley Boy, started out as a short play for Live Theatre’s 10 Minutes To Save The World. The full-length version for Alphabetti Theatre, played to sold out audiences and also performed for two nights at Arts Centre Washington. David was named’ Best Newcomer 2018’ for Trolley Boy by Peter Lathan in The British Theatre Guide.

Resound Theatre

Youth Theatre Directors

Resound Theatre was founded by Matt Wilks and Elliot Mann in 2022 after they met during a physical theatre project in Czechia and quickly connected over their shared experiences of growing up in the North at a time when access to alternative theatre was very limited. They are passionate about making high quality, home-grown physical theatre in the North of England with young people. Work on Resound’s debut show began in April during a two-week residency at The Plum Yard, (Czechia) under the guidance of mentor company Divadlo Continuo and is ongoing at Resound’s creative space in Sheffield, Abstra Studio. 

Sam Ward-Hardy

Baque De Ogum & Runaway Samba Creative Director

Sam is a freelance musician and facilitator currently based in Edinburgh studying Popular Music at ENU. Sam specialises in Latin American
percussion and drum kit with a particular focus on the music of Brazil.
Sam has played samba with Jack Drum Arts since he was ten years old, progressing from participant to young volunteer and is now our director of Runaway Samba, Baque de Ogum and one of the creative leads on Nordestinos- our unique carnival bloco fusing Brazilian music with brass and north east folk songs