Tŷ Pawb Advisory Board

The purpose of the advisory board is to support the Council’s delivery of Tŷ Pawb as a locally influenced and regionally significant arts, culture and markets destination; that promotes cultural heritage, wellbeing, skills, employment and economic prosperity within the community of Wrexham County Borough.

Aims & responsibilities

i. To make recommendations in support of the identification of priorities and development of future strategy for Tŷ Pawb.

ii. Provide specialist / technical advice to maximise the operational success of the arts space, market, business premises and car park to achieve the Tŷ Pawb business plan.

iii. To review and comment on the budget and its management during the year.

iv. To contribute to qualitative and quantitative reviews of performance and progress.

v. To monitor communication and joint working across the different operational elements of Tŷ Pawb.

vi. Assist the development of services that meet local needs and contribute to the cultural, economic and social offer of Tŷ Pawb.

vii. To provide a means of consulting and listening to a wide group of stakeholders in support of service design and funding applications.

viii. Assist in maximising the opportunities for collaboration and partnership working

ix. To assist the Management Team to actively encourage the involvement of local people in the ongoing delivery and development of Tŷ Pawb.

x. To work alongside the Council to identify and develop as required, an appropriate external governance model for the management of Tŷ Pawb.

Board Members

Antonia Jones

Antonia Jones works as head of marketing and communications at Wrexham University.

A journalist by trade, Antonia has a passion for writing and has more than 20 years experience in the communications and marketing industries. She also works as a freelance journalist and podcaster.

Antonia loves the theatre and the arts and is delighted to be a member of the Tŷ Pawb advisory board.

Anya Paintsil

Anya Paintsil is an artist from Wrexham, based between London and Wrexham.

Anya Paintsil is a Welsh and Ghanaian artist working primarily with textiles. Frequently using weaves, braids and other hair pieces (as well as her own hair), Paintsil laces debates around race and gender into the very fabric of her work. From rug hooking to embroidery, her assemblages evoke tactile tapestry on the one hand, and constitute semi-sculptural interventions on the other.

Anya has exhibited both in the UK and internationally, including at galleries such as The Whitworth, Manchester, Glynn Vivian, Swansea, The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Christies, London, Michelangelo Foundation, Venice and Santa Monica Art Museum.
Catherine Paskell is artistic director of award-winning theatre company Dirty Protest Theatre, a Welsh theatre company leading the development, promotion and production of new writing for performance. Launched in 2007, Dirty Protest Theatre has worked with more than 200 Welsh writers, staging new sell-out plays in theatres and alternative venues, from pubs and clubs, to kebab shops, hairdressers and a forest!

Dirty Protest work in collaboration with partners including the Royal Court theatre, the Almeida theatre, Traverse Edinburgh, Soho Theatre, Sherman, Theatr Clwyd, National Theatre Wales, Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, Latitude Festival, Festival No.6, Troyfest and many more. Catherine is passionate about projects that create connections, understanding and empathy between people and that create spaces and opportunities to put Wales’ most exciting artists centre stage internationally.

Hugh Jones

Hugh is a retired airline pilot who held a number of senior management positions prior to establishing his own aviation consultancy business working for a number of international carriers.

Having formerly been Leader of Chester City Council, he was involved in the re-establishing the Chester Festival in the early 70s, chairing the Festival Committee which brought a number of international artists to the City and re-established the Chester Mystery Plays.

As a magistrate he was Chair of the West Cheshire Bench. He enjoys Welsh Choral and Church Music and regularly attends concerts.

Elen Mai Nefydd

Elen Mai graduated with a B.A (Hons) and a Distinction in Master of Arts at the Department of Drama at Aberystwyth University. Before joining Wrexham University she was a professional actress and television presenter. She has been educational co-ordinator at Theatr Clwyd, running drama workshops for the main house productions and Head of Performing Arts at Coleg Meirion Dwyfor.

Elen Mai is a Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol Associate Lecturer and a Quality Assurance Agency assessor for Wales as well as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Elen Mai was the Head of the Theatre, Television and Performance degree at the university for 17 years, she is passionate about the Welsh language – a fluent Welsh speaker and was appointed as the Head of Academic Welsh Development at Wrexham University in May 2022 and is the official University Orator.

Helen Wilkinson

Helen Wilkinson is an experienced thought leader, advisor, Director & Chief Exec working with Boards, and teams in the public, voluntary and social enterprise sectors (including think tanks) in executive and non-executive roles. Helen’s expertise spans leadership, management, strategy, governance, policy, media, communications, strategy, service transformation and programme delivery with substantial experience of start-ups, change management, turnaround, transformation, brand building, strategic positioning & influencing to maximise external opportunities, manage challenges, catalyse positive change and drive excellent performance.
Helen has worked in national TV broadcasting in news and current affairs with the BBC, and as a columnist and commentator for broadcast and print media, writing for national newspapers and founded a number of online ventures, including setting up an online business community and running her own strategy consultancy in London from 1999 to 2010.

Ian Rees

Ian Rees is a Senior Leader within a Global organisation and a successful Trader within Tŷ Pawb.

Ian’s professional expertise has been developed by working in multinational organisations for over 30 years, building a career up to leadership positions within Barclays, HSBC, Unilever and Bank Of America. Ian has managed internal and external teams, developing strong stakeholder and interpersonal skills.

At the end of 2021, Ian opened a Record Store in Tŷ Pawb, which has been extremely successful, giving him a strong insight into Tŷ Pawb and Wrexham, enabling him to gain a first-hand view of the challenges and opportunities that Tŷ Pawb could exploit to maximise its future operational success.

Iolanda Banu Viegas

Iolanda Banu Viegas is Portuguese and has lived lived in Wrexham, since 2001. She is dedicated to providing assistance not only to the Portuguese language community in her now home town of Wrexham but to other language and ethnic minority communities in and around the area.
The result of this in Wrexham particularly is the acceptance of the Portuguese community into Wrexham’s communities and their positive and inspiring integration.

She is the chairperson of CLPW CIC (Comunidade de Lingua Portuguesa de Wrexham) since 2013 and she’s the 3rd sector partnership council representative for North Wales in RCC (Race Council Cymru) since 2015. Iolanda is also an elected councillor for the Portuguese Communities in the UK and Ireland and is the Chair for Black History Month North Wales, working in partnership with several organisations across the whole of Wales. Recently, Iolanda has started to work with Nacional Theatre Wales as Team Associate in Wrexham.
John Byrne is a Reader in The Uses of Art at Liverpool John Moore’s University’s School of Art and Design. Byrne is also the Director of ‘The Uses of Art Lab’ which forms part of Liverpool School of Art and Designs ART LABS Research Centre.

John Byrne (Chair)

John Byrne is also currently LJMU/LSAD Co-ordinator for “The Uses of Art- the legacy of 1848 and 1989” (2013 – 2018) EU Funded Project: GA 2013-1183. ‘The Uses of Art’ Project is a 5 yearlong project which will align research developed around the theme of ‘Useful Art’ from LJMU/LSAD alongside Grizedale Arts (Coniston UK), The University of Hildesheim (Hildesheim, Germany), The Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK) and the L’Internationale consortium of Museums and Galleries:

Sanjay Bhalla

Sanjay Bhalla is an experienced Legal Consultant as Director of TLC Ltd, Wrexham. He has worked within the Trading Standards Department at Clwyd County Council (latterly WCBC), offering support, advice and litigation support for consumers; advice to businesses and enforcement of regulations.

Sanjay has a deep enjoyment of Tŷ Pawb as a multi-cultural venue, regularly attending events and enjoying the varied foods available within the food court. His past experience with Trading Standards, has developed a passion within him to support local traders and for developing a home for local businesses to trade, thus resulting in a thriving local economy where employment and investment remain within the local community.

Simon Morris

Simon Morris is a qualified accountant with 30 plus years’ experience in a range of businesses including start-ups and larger businesses in a range of industries from heavy engineering through hi tech scientific research to retail. Simon’s experience includes writing applications for grants and funding for both commercial and charitable projects.

Simon relocated his business to Tŷ Pawb after a caring role ended and has been at Tŷ Pawb for just over 2 years, building a reputation with staff, management, other traders, the art community and the public for the service he delivers and the level of interaction he has with them.

Simon is absolutely committed to ensuring that Tŷ Pawb reaches its potential as a unique combination of art and retail resource and cements its place at the heart of the city of Wrexham.

As a person with a number of physical disabilities Simon brings a particular view and experience of how the building is used by the public.

Emily Reddy

Emily leads The North East Wales Community Cohesion Team, working collaboratively with a range of stakeholders to support diverse and underrepresented communities living in North East Wales, with a focus on creating a more equal Wales in relation to Safety, Wellbeing and Equality. The North East Wales Community Cohesion team actively work towards creating an asset based approach, through supporting communities to share their thoughts and supporting them to lead on creating the meaningful change they wish to see within their communities.

The team have recently successfully delivered a range of projects that have focused on creatively hearing the voices of diverse and underrepresented communities, including – NEW Future (Regional PSB Fund), North Wales Multicultural Hub (ARWAP Heritage Culture and Sports fund) and Safer Streets 4 Youth ASB Project Wrexham (Home Office Funding).