Trustees
Anant Sharma, trustee
Anant Sharma has spent the last 14 years leading Matter Of Form — a brand and experience design consultancy that partner with timeless luxury brands, from Accor and Zaha Hadid Architects to Belmond, Diageo and Aman. A futurist, innovation enthusiast and keen advocate of developing meritocratic cultures that promote ideas and learning, Anant is also a dedicated teacher and student of behavioural design; exploring what drives us to do the things we do. Anant co-owns the design thinking school Experience Haus and lectures as an adjunct professor in branding, CX and innovation at EHL, the world’s leading hospitality university. Anant shares his insights at international public speaking engagements and via Matter Of Form’s podcast What The Luxe.
Ed Matthews-Gentle, trustee
Ed Matthews-Gentle FRSA is the programme leader for Creative Lancashire and strategic lead for Creative Industries at Lancashire County Council, with over 20 years of experience working with and developing creative organisations. Current projects and collaborations include the British Textile Biennial, the development of the Lancashire 2025 bid to host the UK City of Culture and overseeing Lancashire's Cultural Strategy. More recently Ed was invited by Crafts Council to join the Craft UK Anti-Racism Working Group. Ed also curates the National Festival of Making Conference and talks programme.
Ian Jindal, trustee
Ian Jindal is a consultant, researcher and advisor in eCommerce and multichannel retail performance.
He founded InternetRetailing.net and RetailX.net to serve Europe’s multichannel retailers with research, insight and analysis, including the Top500 performance rankings. Ian’s advisory clients have included Fiorucci, Selfridges, House of Fraser, Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Waitrose, De Bijenkorf, Kering and Walgreens Boots Alliance. Ian was group eCommerce director at Littlewoods Shop Direct, and head of online operations at the BBC. Ian founded the European eCommerce Forum and authored the UK’s first MSc in Internet Retailing. Ian was the general director of The Photographers’ Gallery and Treasurer of Engage.org.
Lady Kitt, trustee
Lady Kitt is a paper sculptor, researcher and drag king, based in Newcastle- upon Tyne. Kitt describes their work as "mess-making as social glue, driven by an insatiable curiosity to explore, share and (gently) incite the social functions of stuff that gets called art". Kitt is co-lead for Social Art Network North East, a founding member of Disabled artist-led consortium Disconsortia and a member of the global art-activism movement Nasty Women (NW), co-convening the NW International Art Prize in 2018. Kitt has recently shown work at Atlanta Contemporary (USA), Saatchi Gallery London (UK) and is currently maker in residence at Durham University and one of nine Constellations artists with UP Projects and Flat Time House.
Majeda Clarke, trustee
Majeda Clarke is an award-winning textile artist based at Cockpit Arts, London. She received the 2018 British Muslim Award for Creativity and took part in the Crafts Council Hothouse Programme. After a career in education, as a head of English and then as an inspector and advisor for Camden schools, Majeda retrained in textiles before setting up her studio. She is still active in education, recently working on the new UK government T Levels strategy for craft and design.
Melanie Eddy, trustee
Melanie Eddy is a renowned sculptural jeweller, with pieces held in public and private collections at the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Goldsmiths’ Company Collection and the Spencer Museum of Art. She is director of The Association for Contemporary Jewellery, a trustee for The Silversmiths & Jewellers Charity and advises industry organisations both in the UK and abroad, including Turquoise Mountain’s Institute for Afghan Arts and Architecture in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Melanie is an associate lecturer on the MA Design: Ceramics Furniture and Jewellery programme at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and the University for the Creative Arts and a visiting lecturer at West Dean College of Arts and Conservation. She is one of the founders of The Jewellery Futures Fund, an initiative looking to diversify the trade and effect change through a programme of scholarships, grants and industry opportunities.
Professor Geoffrey Crossick, trustee
Geoffrey Crossick is an urban social historian and distinguished professor of Humanities in the School of Advanced Study at the University of London. He was previously vice-chancellor of the University of London and warden of Goldsmiths after being chief executive of the Arts & Humanities research board. He was director of the AHRC Cultural Value Project whose report written with Dr Patrycja Kaszynska, Understanding the value of arts and culture, was published in 2016. He was chair of the Crafts Council (2013-2021) and was for the same period a trustee of the Horniman Museum. He has returned as a trustee of the Crafts Council and is also currently a member of the boards of Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the National Film & Television School, and Creative Lives as well as of the DCMS Science Advisory Council and the DCMS Cultural & Heritage Capital Advisory Board amongst a variety of advisory positions. He speaks in the UK and internationally on the creative and cultural sectors, higher education and research strategy, and the arts and humanities.
Yasmin Jones-Henry, trustee
Yasmin Jones-Henry is a Financial Times writer and co-founder and curator of The Lab E20, a new flagship for experiential retail, cultural exhibition and creative workspace, with a focus on positive fashion and sustainable living. She works in the space where fashion meets finance and culture meets commerce. Through her work as a writer with specialisms in sustainability (ESG), design and investment, she has established a career championing the role culture and creative enterprise can play as a catalyst to inclusive regeneration. As a cultural placemaking strategist, Yasmin is a thought leader and an advocate for rethinking retail, scaling circular economy design principles and working to diversify the talent pipelines across the fashion industry and the built environment.
Yinka Ilori, trustee
Yinka Ilori is a London-based multidisciplinary artist who specializes in storytelling by fusing his British and Nigerian heritage to tell new stories in contemporary design. Humorous, provocative and fun, every project that he creates tells a story. Bringing Nigerian verbal traditions into playful conversation with contemporary design, Yinka's work touches on various global themes that resonate with different audiences all over the world.