Meet the Team

	Chrys Salt MBE, Artistic Director Chrys is a poet with roots deeply planted in the theatre. She has written five full poetry collections and four pamphlet collections, been translated into several languages and  performed UK wide, in the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Finland, India and Australia. She has been a recipient of Bursaries and Awards ( various), was awarded an MBE for services to The Arts in Dumfries and Galloway in 2014. She is listed in Who’s Who.
	Karen Campbell Award winning writer Karen Campbell has seven novels to her credit,  and brings  a wealth of useful contacts and  information about other writers, gleaned from her own experience of performing at Literature Festivals nationwide.  Karen holds an MLitt in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow, and teaches and mentors Creative Writing students in the region and beyond.
	Chik Duncan  Chik is a writer, a spoken word performer and a Philosophy graduate with post graduate qualifications in IT and in Writing For Children. Drawing on forty years lived experience of mental illness (OCD), having lived as a volunteer co-worker for two years at Lothlorien (a therapeutic community in Dumfries & Galloway) and currently being involved as a Media Volunteer with SeeMe Scotland, Chik brings a wealth of experience of mental health issues to TBCT’s table.
	Hilary Hawker Hilary has had twelve careers so far, and still doesn’t know what to be when she grows up. After various teaching and lecturing roles, Including training for tourism and the NHS, she had several years working in Quality Assurance and set up and ran the Dumfries and Galloway Quality Forum with local businesses and government bodies.
	Peter Marcus  Peter is a practising barrister and mediator in civil law, specialising in housing. He is TBCA’s adviser on contracts, equality legislation, risk assessment, public and local government law and any other legal issues that might arise in relation to the TBCA’s activities.
	Richard Macfarlane  Richard trained as a management accountant and spent 15 years in industry before getting involved in social enterprises and community-based economic development. He has used his accounting and business experience as voluntary business manager for a touring theatre company (1988-2003) and as business manager of The Bakehouse - a small arts producer in Southern Scotland - since 2005.
	Alan McClure  Alan has been a Primary School teacher for ten years, and a writer for considerably longer than that. His critically acclaimed debut children's novel, 'Callum and the Mountain', was released in August 2019. He is also a poet and a songwriter, bringing connections not only to local schools but to the thriving Galloway music scene.
	Jane Overton  Jane has worked for many years in the public sector with particular focus on social inclusion and development issues. For the last twenty years she has also been busy in the voluntary sector in various roles including as a volunteer and as a Board member. Organisations she has been involved with are active in financial inclusion, gender-based issues, outdoor activities and the arts, and she has particular experience in consultation/involvement and project development. In her spare time she writes and performs poetry and spoken word. Jane therefore brings to TBCA wide-ranging experience of organisational development and management.
	Jane Richardson Jane joined the Board of TBCT, her remit being to provide a link to writing groups across the Stewartry.  As a member of Crichton Writers she is familiar with many groups who have benefited, as Crichton Writers have, from the support offered by the Bakehouse. New writers are encouraged to contribute their work, attend workshops led by established writers, and to share a platform with those writers at Bakehouse events.  This area is renowned for its creativity, but the generosity of opportunity offered to new writers by TBCT is unique and much valued.
	Peter Roberts Peter spent most of his working life as a town planner and public sector policy specialist, with brief forays into a workers' co-operative and community arts. He led Moniaive's successful bid to Creative Scotland for a Creative Place Award in 2015, and co-ordinated all the creative and administrative work that followed. During the Creative Place programme he started writing in Moniaive's new poetry workshop, and that inevitably brought him to the Bakehouse
	Ken Smyth  Ken has been a graphic designer and artist for the last 35 years working in both the public and private sectors.  Aside from design work he is the chairman of The Mill on the Fleet Centre in Gatehouse which works closely with The Bakehouse to stage the annual Big Lit Festival.  He is also Secretary of the Gatehouse Development Initiative and through this has worked on a number of EU funded projects with European partners developing strategies for the heritage sector.  He is chair of the Dumfries and Galloway Museums and Heritage Network.
	Annie Wright Annie is a poet with two full collections and a pamphlet to her credit. As a former literacy consultant and school adviser with extensive experience of performing, editing poetry chapbooks and leading writing workshops for children and adults Annie brings a wealth of experience of the education sector to TBCA’s table.