Meet our Trustees

Lynn Turner (chair)

Lynn has had a 30 year career in culture and tourism in Northumberland. She worked for both Tynedale and Northumberland County Councils developing and providing opportunities for people to engage in arts, heritage, tourism and leisure activities. More recently, as Director of Kielder Water & Forest Park Development Trust, Lynn worked with partners to deliver economic, social and wellbeing benefits through culture and tourism.

She has a long association with Queens Hall Arts and was instrumental in the initial setting up of the charity.

Rachel Adam

Rachel is a freelance mentor and consultant, drawing on thirty years’ experience in the cultural sector, including Director of Museums Northumberland bait (the Creative People and Places programme in South East Northumberland), Director of Juice (Newcastle Gateshead’s festival for children and young people) and Head of Development at the Sage Gateshead (now The Glasshouse). She enjoys building partnerships and collaborating across sectors and has skills and experience as a commissioner, connecting artists with communities. She loves music and her own creative development currently includes having violin lessons with an inspiring teacher.

Angeline Lucas

Angeline is a theatre-passionate arts advocate with 20 years’ of experience working in the creative industries specialising in community participation, engagement and dance education. Being neurodivergent and disabled, Angeline is extremely passionate about inclusion: committed to increasing equality of opportunity within the arts and promoting accessible high-standard cultural experiences for all. She is an RSA Fellow and the founder of the award-winning North East Dance Co-operative.

The Queen’s Hall played a pivotal role in nurturing Angeline’s belief that a career in the arts was a possible for her and is honoured to serve as a Trustee.

Garry Lyons

Garry Lyons is an award-winning playwright, scriptwriter and producer.  He has written for the National Theatre, playhouses all over the UK, and extensively for television and radio.  He has recently moved to Hexham after 15 years as director of the masters programme in Writing for Performance and Publication at the University of Leeds, which he designed and launched in 2006. His broadcast work has been seen in more than 60 countries, and he has taught and lectured on scriptwriting in India, China, Australia, New Zealand and various countries in Europe.  In 2013 he was a Humanities Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.

Suzanne Fairless Aitken

Suzanne Fairless-Aitken was recently elected as Northumberland County Councillor & Hexham Town Councillor for the LibDems. She works for international poetry publisher, Bloodaxe Books, and also runs her own editing company, Swift Permissions. In her murky past she has been a school governor, activist and campaigner for education, the Arts green issues, anti-austerity and anti-corruption. I believe passionately in cultural regeneration and inclusive arts for all.

She writes in any spare time she can find.

Addison Keen

Addison Keen is an actor and film producer who gained his entry into acting through the Queen's Hall's own Youth Theatre. From there, he has gone on to work with a wide selection of different theatre and film production companies across the North East region, predominantly working with start-up filmmakers. Addison studied Film Practices at Newcastle University, focusing on studies of non-fiction documentaries in which he produced a film centered on the queer-friendly nightlife of Newcastle upon Tyne as part of his final year project.

Ellen Armstrong

Ellen is a theatre PhD candidate at the Guildford School of Acting where she is completing her doctoral thesis on British Sign Language interpreted musical theatre. Her publications and conference papers have explored areas such as accessible theatre pedagogy, disability representation in theatre and sign language interpreted performance. As a practitioner, Ellen worked for several years as a performer before being drawn into the wider world of stagecraft. She now combines her practical experience and academic expertise in her role as a dramaturg and accessibility consultant supporting creatives and producers in developing new work.  

Si Beckwith

Si is a stand-up comedian, writer, podcaster and freelance arts worker from Newcastle Upon Tyne. As a comedian he performs regularly up and down the country and has tried to carve out as many opportunities close to home as he can. Si is driven to make the North East cultural landscape as resilient and creative as possible. He works also as an audio producer as well as in freelance arts marketing and audience engagement roles on a project-by-project basis with organisations such as The Cultural Spring in Sunderland and South Tyneside.

Si is particularly passionate about access to arts and culture. Being working class and growing up in Hebburn, he often never felt like arts or culture were for him, and he sees tackling barriers in accessing the arts as vital. He is thrilled to join the Queen’s Hall board as a trustee and is excited to play a part in helping continue the great work that’s already been done and to get to know Hexham even more with every visit.

Carly Foster

Carly is a university academic working in design and technology. With over 15 years of experience in managing complex business transformation projects she has collaborated with public and private partners across the globe. Her writing covers how we interact with digital solutions to ensure our engagement with technology is meaningful and authentic.

As a local resident and parent, Carly wanted to volunteer her time to support the Queen’s Hall in recognition of the vital part it plays in the community. In addition to Carly’s local volunteering she is also a trustee of a national charity aimed at tackling food poverty in families with young children.

Ceri Gibson

Ceri Gibson has had a 30-year international career in environmental science and water quality, spending time emersed in different environments in Austria, Republic of Ireland and Kenya.  She has led national programmes for the protection of rare species and currently heads up the team at Tyne Rivers Trust, dedicated to improving the Tyne Rivers.

She has a passion for nature, helping people to learn more about our fascinating wildlife and supporting them to act positively to protect the precious resource of freshwater for all for life.

Ceri lives in the Tyne Valley and values the cultural provision afforded by Queens Hall Arts to the gap between Carlisle and Newcastle.  She is motivated to support QHA to contribute to addressing eco-anxiety and climate resilience through mulit-media arts.