Who We Are
Sterts Arts & Environmental Centre is a creative community hub nestled on the edge of Bodmin Moor in South-East Cornwall.
History
Banner photo credit: Hanna Collins Photography
Vision
Inspire creative growth, joy and confidence with communities, where everyone can thrive in a supportive and sustainable environment
Mission
With our communities we will create a resilient arts organisation.
We will do this by
Producing, making and evolving our wider creative programme in the context of our environmental and place-based responsibilities
Learning and discovery being at the heart of what we do
Being accessible, inclusive and welcoming
Maximising our unique assets
Values
Collaboration
Discovery
Welcoming
Vitality
Courage
Sterts Charity Member
Become a Sterts Charity Member
Get involved. Help us grow. Shape what’s next.
Charity Membership is a meaningful way to stand alongside the Sterts community.
As a Charity Member, you’ll play a part in our shared story: helping guide how we grow and stay true to our vision, mission and values. We welcome both individuals and organisations to join our membership.
This opportunity is open to those who care about what Sterts stands for. We welcome involvement from a wide and diverse community. Members take on a small but important responsibility: to act in the best interests of Sterts as a charity.
Membership includes:
Regular newsletter updates to keep you connected
An invitation to attend our Annual General Meeting (AGM)
Voting rights at our AGM
Already a Friend, Supporter, or Patron? You can apply for Charity Membership alongside your existing involvement.
There is a £20 annual subscription fee to help cover administrative costs and support our ongoing work. (Gift Aid makes your support go even further)
Become a Charity Member
Volunteer at Sterts
Volunteers are the beating heart of Sterts, embodying our values and ensuring we can continue to bring creativity and joy to our communities and audiences.
Our current volunteer roles are:
Welcome Host/Usher/Ticket Scanner: Welcome and assist audiences, this will either be as a Ticket Scanner or a Stalls Usher.
Site Maintenance: Help keep our grounds and facilities beautiful and functional.
Hospitality: Provide a warm, friendly service in our bar and catering area.
Car Park Attendants: Direct audiences safely and efficiently onto site ahead of events.
Administration: Support our office team with day-to-day administration tasks.
Whatever your age, skills or experience and however much time you can spare we’d love to hear from you. To express your interest or to ask any questions, please email volunteers@stertsarts.org.
In 2020, Sterts was awarded The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (QAVS). The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service was awarded in recognition of the enormous dedication of the volunteer team at Sterts.
Sara Rhodes
CEO/Creative Director
Sara is an experienced cultural leader and creative producer, specialising in producing large-scale, inclusive arts events, site-specific work and community-led productions working across multiple art forms including theatre, live music and dance. Her practice focuses on enabling people from all walks of life to access and engage with high-quality arts and culture. This has included developing and overseeing creative programmes with D/deaf people, adults experiencing multiple disadvantages, veterans, prisoners, young people from refugee, asylum seeker and migrant backgrounds, the elderly and through an international project, the Native American Wampanoag Nation.
She is an experienced networker, creating and fostering strategic, cross-sector partnerships on a local, national and international level. Sara has experience of developing creative strategies, business planning, producing and co-producing, strategic programming and partnership working.
Sara also brings a background of fundraising to Sterts. During her twelve and a half years working at Theatre Royal Plymouth, she contributed to fundraising projects for more than £2m.
Sara takes great joy in enabling others to thrive, untapping talent and giving space and opportunity for people to achieve their potential. She looks forward to working with artists, businesses and the local community to bring future success to such a unique and special organisation.
Lucy Donald
General Manager
Lucy is an experienced producer and project manager, who’s specialised in working with young people and communities across the South West and beyond. She led Plymouth Cultural Education Partnership’s flagship project, With Flying Colours, in 2022 and 2023. Since then, she has gone on to produce a variety of projects in partnership with schools from early years to Post-16, including Tiny Tales (Theatre Royal Plymouth), Playhouse (Landmark Theatres) and Speak Up (Landmark Theatres and National Theatre).
Lucy’s passions for celebrating the natural world and theatre first collided in 2021, when she assistant produced Little Amal at COP26 (Good Chance Theatre, The Walk) working with partners like the New York Times and United Nations to tour a 3.5m puppet of a 10 year old Syrian refugee to the conference. Lucy is excited to continue to support opportunities for the arts and environment to interact, and work with the local community to expand the offer and reach of Sterts.
Mark Brownrigg
Chair of Trustees
Mark has been coming to Sterts for 12 years on and off. He enjoyed and supported the canopy theatre and is knocked out by the potential of the new theatre and community hub.
His career heading up the UK’s trade association for the shipping industry gave him extensive experience of national and international policy-making and government relations and, in particular, of bringing different interests together across the wider maritime sector.
He followed a similar path in the community activities he was involved with in Twickenham before moving to Cornwall – having set up and chaired a community centre, chaired a fair supporting local schools and charities, and actively campaigned on local issues to protect and preserve a beautiful stretch of the Thames.
As chair of the Sterts charity, Mark is looking forward to continuing to work with the excellent trustees and new management team to take Sterts into a bright new future!
Amanda Harris
Trustee
Amanda Harris worked in the Arts in Cornwall for thirty five years. She started out as administrator for the widely extraordinary Kneehigh Theatre where she first met Ewart Sturrock and regularly booked the company into Sterts. Until she retired, she was director of Kernow Education Arts Partnership (KEAP) where she created and managed The Writers’ Block in Redruth and the performance ensemble The Story Republic. Both of which are now firmly embedded in the Cornish Cultural Landscape.
Amanda is a Bard of the Gorsedh and volunteers with the Qfund, Young & Talented Cornwall and Chat Play Read, a literacy project for the under fives. She has recently created a blog (www.departingfromredruthstation.com) to share her love of travelling by train. She is a member of the Women Speak Volumes Writers Group. She hopes to bring to Sterts and the team some of her experience of running arts organisations with small budgets but big dreams.
David Cullen
Trustee and CIC Director
David is a Programme Director with over 40 years in the construction industry, working with organisations to define business priorities, address strategy, deliver programmes, and introduce governance aligned with their culture and maturity.
On the North London Heat and Power Project, one of the UK's largest construction projects, he established an award-winning approach to achieving high standards of social value, equality, diversity, and inclusion, providing opportunities for the local community through apprenticeships; on-site skills training; a schools outreach programme in STEM and environmental subjects; and targeting under-represented groups in the construction industry, especially women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds.
David is passionate about live performance and excited to lend his support to helping Sterts grow as a cultural hub to provide greater access to the arts for communities in South-East Cornwall. As a busy amateur musician, David regularly inflicts his questionable violin skills on audiences in Devon and Cornwall.
Dr. Jeanie Sinclair
Trustee
Dr Jeanie Sinclair (she/her) is a historian and lecturer in Critical Studies at Falmouth University. Jeanie's research focuses on the history of creative communities in Cornwall. She has previously worked on community arts projects at Tate St Ives and b-side projects, as well as working with theatre maker Tom Marshman on historical research for performance.
Jeanie is delighted to be a trustee at Sterts, and is looking forward to making a positive contribution to the board.
Sarah Pym
Company Secretary and CIC Director
Sarah’s association with Sterts goes back to 1985 when she was given an opportunity by Ewart Sturrock to begin her career in the arts. She went on to be administrator and then company director at the Barbican Theatre Plymouth, Theatre Development Officer at The Works (based at the Hall for Cornwall) and then a freelance producer and project manager. Sarah worked with Access Theatre for a number of years, establishing the company as a charity. She now collaborates with writer Simon Parker, producing shows for their company The Arc at Sterts , The Minack and The Drum at Theatre Royal Plymouth.
Sarah also works as an Action Learning Facilitator and a Creative Health Ambassador for ArtsWell in The Tamar to Moor Community Area Partnership.
Sarah says ”I owe so much to Sterts which I love passionately, and bring my experience back in a full circle now as a Trustee and CIC Director.”
Sam Spake
Director
Sam is an accomplished artist, musician, and creative entrepreneur with a passion for collaboration and community-building. Growing up in a toy factory in Southeast Cornwall, she developed a deep appreciation for the role that playfulness plays in fostering wellbeing and creativity. This “fun first” principle influences everything she undertakes, from business strategies to community programmes.
Sam has wide experience across the Creative and Cultural sector, including training at the Ruskin School, award-winning play-furniture design, working with museums on collection access, pitching on Dragons' Den and managing creative industries programmes. With a background which spans developing creative careers, events design and business, along with regular performances and creative practice, she is currently collaborating with staff to enhance support, build larger audiences and help diversify the creative offer for Sterts.
