The Project Factory Team
Project Factory Mission & Values
Project Factory believes in the value of listening and curiosity, the power of experiential learning, the importance of story, of playfulness and the potential that lies in unique skills and gifts inherent in each member of the community - which is evoked through:
connection, collaboration, communication and celebration
We aim to foster new, fun and creative collaborations and education opportunities which will excite and inspire local people and visitors alike.
We celebrate our community by organising events such as the Wake Up Wells Community Day and Lantern Parade.
About Us
Project Factory is a dynamic group of Wells professionals who work together voluntarily to create partnership projects in and around our beautiful city.
Project Factory raised the funds to get DOUBT 2020 installed on the West Front of Wells Cathedral in 2021. It has since collaborated with partners to produce an Educational Programme, two promotional films, a Heritage Brochure and a Schools Art Project.
During the Covid 19 Epidemic Project Factory worked with partners to coordinate and manage a community response. The result was a new community organisation Wells Community Network CIC being formed, which continues the work and delivers further projects.
Project Factory CIC’s long term vision is to build a dynamic community hub in partnership with other local organisations which is run by and for the community of Wells.
In the beginning…
Following the City of Culture Bid 2021 and a desire to bring the community together, two minds collided and the Wake Up Wells initiative was born.
Emma Lefevre and Kirstie Harris are passionate about serving community and they have a wealth of experience, from organising festivals and events, to community activism, lobbying for better playground facilities and community space, from supporting local business, to supporting parents of children with complex learning needs, they have a strong interest in local people, arts, culture and heritage.
Since then it has been all systems go - they have been involved in a number of community engagement projects - they specialise in creating networks and forum, supporting existing organisations to collaborate and extend their impact. They enjoy creative projects supporting and delivering organisational support, including fundraising, communications, consultations
Emma Lefevre Director & Co-Founder
Emma (on the back of the camel) is a qualified teacher and certified co-active coach. She has 15 years coaching and leadership experience and has used these tools within the voluntary sector.
Emma was involved in the Wells Literature Festival for 9 years and spent 3 years in the lead coordinator role with diverse experience implementing systems for managing teams and communication, driving the digital strategy, initiating the Friends Scheme, the online ticketing process, and analysing /reporting the audience data and questionnaires.
Emma has run the Annual Volunteer's Week Tea Party for the last 4 years. As a member of the Culture and Festivals Forum she was involved in the team for the Wells City of Culture bid.
Most recently Emma has taken a lead role in Wells' response to the pandemic Wells Coronavirus Network.
Ann Whalley Director
Ann has a Psychology BSC Honours degree from Exeter University and set up her own business in 1992. Thepeoplepartnership is a strategic qualitative research and insight consultancy specialising in behaviour change.
Ann has over 25 years consultancy experience across sectors but with a particular focus on social projects. Her recent clients include the Departments for Health/Education/Transport/Disability, Food Standards Agency, UBS, Coutts, Santander, Tate and Key4Life.
She particularly enjoys creating a strategic vision and driving change, and as an analyst and with her breadth of experience she has core skills that will support the Project Factory scope, through strategy, vision, creativity, critical analysis and thinking.
Her work in the community includes - chair PA, sponsorship LitFest, Trustee the Foundation.
In all her work Ann is known to galvanise change and create a significant impact in growth of audiences, profitability, fundraising and visibility.
Maggie Charlesworth Director
Following a degree in Social Science and completing a person-centred counselling course, Maggie worked for Somerset County Council Social Services Department for 15 years.
In 2011 with a lot of experience of working with older people and groups, Maggie set up the Lawrence Centre and, with the support of trustees, The Lawrence Centre opened in May 2012.
Maggie has been involved with Project Factory since it started Wake Up Wells and the community art workshops. She has collaborated in joint fundraising projects and joined the team in 2020.
Bill Lloyd
Bill came to Wells 8 years ago via a peculiar route as a classically-trained pianist, BBC Producer and Director of Artist Development at Aldeburgh.
He now runs the Events programme for Cedars Hall and is also the Exhibitions Director for Wells Art Contemporary. He's interested in any initiative which will help make Wells a more joined-up place to live, work and play. He also rings bells but tries to keep quiet about that.
Kirstie Harris Co-Founder
Kirstie moved to London aged 19 to work at the newly launched Independent newspaper as a secretary in the newsroom, moving up the ranks to become PA to the Editor/Office Manager at the Independent on Sunday.
She was PA to the Editor of two regional newspapers and business magazines whilst raising her family.
She ran her own business, Ideamaze, offering virtual PA services and strategic support to businesses helping them to solve problems, develop and grow.
She campaigned for the provision of new playgrounds for Wells, developing relationships with local councillors, council officers and collaborations with other local groups. She has worked with Wells Food Festival, organising the kids area and was, until recently, secretary of Wells Chamber of Commerce and Tourism.
Steve Wilson Director
Steve has over 25 years experience in the business sector, and is a trained mechanic. Steve built much of his career in the Brewery industry, moving from Brewery Technician to Technical Manager, Export Sales Manager to Publican.
He has gained valuable knowledge and experience in the retail industry, and he has built his current business The Square - a soft-play centre, from a shell to a thriving and important hub in the community for young families. Steve combines his business acumen with his strong community values to help deliver services and experiences that appeal to young people.
He has voluntary experience organising community events including ‘Night on the Town’ for Wells Lions Club. He initiated and is currently on the board of Wells in Mosaic an ambitious project to create a piece of heritage artwork for the community.
Victoria Payne Volunteer Coordinator
After leaving school Victoria worked for a year on a big farm in the Canadian prairies looking after a family for a prominent lawyer in Winnipeg Manitoba. She came back to the UK and worked for a city then high street bank for ten years.
She has travelled extensively and even named her children geographically. Having retired early and renting out her house she travelled around Europe with her husband for two years in a caravan, her most memorable city being Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
She enjoyed the last twenty years of her working life in different aspects of social housing for one of the largest providers in the West Country and latterly empowered and supported tenants to become involved at the highest level shaping and forming our services.This helped her to become a good communicator and a fun and loyal colleague. She now enjoys getting involved in many different activities and her motto is “Seize the Day and say Yes to everything
Sophie Rucker CHATS Curator
Art, literature and music have always been hugely important to Sophie. She has a degree in English Literature from London University, studying during the era of emerging YBAs.
Sophie has worked in television, book and magazine publishing, for a maritime charity (organising their annual book award) and latterly, for Wells Festival of Literature, instigating the Young Poets’ Prize, part of the popular Poetry Competition. She has also been involved as a fundraiser for Help for Heroes.
Sophie is curator of CHATS, the monthly arts talks series at Cedars Hall, working collaboratively with other members of the Project Factory team.
Sophie is a creative thinker who enjoys researching and implementing new projects and promoting the arts. She dreams of doing a History of Art course.
Many of the Project Factory events and projects are for the community and are designed to be fun.
The Antony Gormley project represents a departure from some of the things we have done in the past. It is a huge honour to work with such a world famous artist. On this project we are delighted to be working with a number of people from the professional arts world, as well as Antony Gormley’s own studio.
The Team for the Antony Gormley Project
In addition to the Project Factory team we are delighted to welcome Paddy O’ Hagan, Tracey Grace, Giles Baker Smith, Grace England, Sophie Rucker, Caroline Lowndes-Northcott, Christopher Bond, Chris Lee, Zoe Harris & Adele Wright.
Could you join our team?
We are always on the look out for enthusiastic new team members who would like to join us in bringing opportunities for connection, collaboration and celebration to the community of Wells.
Please get in touch if you would like to know more about us, or head back to the homepage to find out more about current projects we are running.