Our Team
Nicky is our Creative Director
Nicky’s passion lies in designing and making beautiful things that celebrate the wonder in the people and places around us. She studied Architecture at university, and her early career involved designing small-scale sustainable buildings where people wanted to spend time. Alongside this, Nicky worked with researchers to design and deliver creative workshops, engaging children and young people in their built environment through drawing, den-building, and having a whole lot of fun!
Prior to Growing Me, Nicky created artwork with all ages, transforming discarded sweet wrappers and junk into intricate collages of places and people. Finding beauty in messy-ness is key to Nicky’s way of life, and she loves spending time ripping and scrunching and scribbling – then assembling all the mess into some kind of order!
Becoming a mum through adoption has been full of messy-ness and beauty… And Growing Me was born out of a desire to nurture that, in a way that celebrates the wonderfully complicated relationships we have with ourselves, each other and the world around us.
Ellie is our Therapeutic Director
Ellie has been interested in how art can tell stories since she was a child watching the travelling theatres in the village where she grew up. After a stint making art for theatre and film, Ellie trained in Art Psychotherapy, and her eyes were opened to the healing potential of art, and how it can be an incredible tool for awareness, communication and change.
Ellie now has over 15 years experience of helping people understand themselves, and their relationship to their unique stories. Her work as a therapist led her to support adopted and fostered children and their families with creative and integrative therapy. She believes there is beauty and love in every single story, and loves to find ways for a child to make that story their own.
In addition to being an HCPC registered Art Psychotherapist, Ellie has trained in Theraplay, Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), Dyadic Art Therapy, and trauma processing therapy, EMDR. She is also trained in Play Therapy, Sandtray, and Clayfield Therapies as well as Somatic Internal Family Systems. Ellie runs a busy therapy practice in Sheffield and is proud to be Therapeutic Director of Growing Me CIC.
In her spare time Ellie loves to spend time in nature, drawing, drinking tea, running and swimming… She also loves dancing!
Bev is our Finance Director
From being a child, Bev has always been interested in the arts and in supporting causes that make a difference to people’s lives. She studied music to postgraduate level before beginning a career in Arts Administration at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London. She has spent the last 20 years helping not-for-profit organisations grow, using her professional skills as a Finance and HR Director. She has worked in leadership roles in strategy bodies, children’s charities, arts sector support organisations, creative agencies, and in business advice.
Bev particularly loves working with artists, creatives and start up companies. She co-founded professional artists’ studios and a gallery, Haarlem Artspace CIC and whilst there, she met Nicky and was introduced to Growing Me. Bev loved the potential Growing Me has to help some of the most vulnerable children in society, and offered to help.
In her spare time, Bev loves sewing, foraging for mushrooms, walks with her dog, Nettle, and spending time with her family and friends. She still loves music, especially live performances, and loves going to festivals to see it.
Animators
5 fantastic graduate animators worked tirelessly to create our fun and engaging 2D animations for Growing Me’s Think Theatre! Check out and share their work – we know they have bright futures ahead, and are very proud of what they have achieved.
Volunteering with Growing Me
Volunteers have helped us with funding applications, social media, sewing and making and we are very grateful for all they do! We are always interested in hearing from people that would like to help us. We are a lovely friendly team and have opportunities coming up to help with production, packaging and posting our beautiful toolkits.