Between June 21st - July 19th

ALICE FOX brings over 25 years of experience supporting artists to deepen their practice, clarify their voice, and turn creative ambition into sustainable work. As a former Head of the School of Art at the University of Brighton and an award-winning researcher, she has spent decades mentoring artists, writers, and researchers at pivotal moments in their careers, from first major projects to realising long-term creative visions.

Her work centres on inclusive, participatory practice, helping creatives uncover what matters most in their work and build structures that support it. Alice has mentored artists for Arts Council England, supervised doctoral researchers, and co-authored the landmark book Inclusive Arts Practice and Research (Routledge), launched at Tate Modern. Internationally, she has worked to develop government cultural policy across Asia through consultancy with the British Council, delivering keynotes and shaping creative strategy in diverse cultural contexts.

For writers, Alice offers something rare: rigorous critical thinking combined with deep care for process. Her mentoring creates space to reflect, refine, and reconnect with the heart of your creative ambition. As one artist reflected, “Our mentoring sessions were the most productive element of my DYOP award. I’m looking forward to implementing the tools you’ve taught me.”

Alice believes everyone has something of value to offer. Her role is to help you recognise it, strengthen it, and carry it forward with confidence.

JOANNE BRIGGS’ debut book, a mixed-genre memoir called “The Scientist Who Wasn’t There”, was published in hardback in June 2025 by Bonnier’s Ithaka Press, after winning the prestigious Bridport Prize for Memoir in April 2023. Described in the Times Literary Supplement in December 2025 as “a gripping story”, and in a Telegraph review by novelist Ian Sansom as “thrilling, unsettling” and “a vivid depiction of a world in which ambition and imagination collide, with devastating human consequences”, the book has had a positive reception from both reviewers and readers, and has been the subject of long-form author interviews on Sky news and the BBC World Service. A podcast series on the Sky platform is currently in production, with an updated paperback edition due for release in June 2026.

Joanne had a successful career as a barrister and judge before she became an author, representing clints in criminal and civil proceedings and later presiding in forensic mental health cases, special educational needs, and disability rights. She is highly experienced in academic and technical writing, including contributions in specialist law texts; most recently, a chapter on judges and witnesses for the manual “Giving Evidence at a Mental Health Tribunal: A Professionals’ Handbook”, published by Routledge in 2025. In addition to vocational qualifications, she holds a research degree in recognition of her work on the social history of psychiatry in the law, and an MA in creative writing.  Joanne is currently working on a multi-generational braided biography, with parallel timelines set in 1860s and 1920s London. Joanne has recently been appointed as a Visiting Research Fellow in creative writing at the University of Brighton, where she will be sharing her new work in seminars and collaborative projects. 

Joanne is represented by Euan Thorneycroft at literary agents AM Heath in Holborn, London, in all publication media.