Trustees and Staff

Nancy Bell (Chair)

Nancy joined in November 2021 and was confirmed as Chair in May 2022.  Nancy Bell has worked in the heritage sector for over twenty years, as a conservator and collection care manager for archives, libraries and museums including The Oxford Conservation Consortium, The National Archives, UK and The National Records Administration, USA, and currently The National Trust. In recognition of her services to heritage and environmental management she was awarded the Plowden Medal in 2015. She has served as a Trustee for several organisations including Wikimedia UK and held positions on advisory boards for grant awarding organisations. She is a committed ambassador for the cultural sector, believing the arts, and heritage can change lives and build communities. When not at her desk, she enjoys the creativity and challenge of gardening.

James Brooke Turner (Trustee)

James has been a trustee since November 2021. James has been responsible for investments at the Nuffield Foundation, a £500m grant making charity in the field of Social Research, for 20 years, now part-time alongside running a small business promoting good investment governance for charities. He studied at the Courtauld Institute (History of European Art) and subsequently at Birkbeck (Medieval Culture) and investment management at Yale and London Business School. He was one of Anthony Gormley’s 4th Plinth sculptures and has a love of opera, cold water swimming and of learning to draw.

Serena Davies (Trustee)

Serena has been a trustee since November 2021. Serena Davies is an arts editor and journalist with 20 years’ experience of covering UK culture. She is currently Director of Culture and Events at the Telegraph. She has also experienced life on the inside of an arts organisation, having previously been Head of Press and PR at Glyndebourne Opera House. Her particular interests are in visual art, opera and theatre.

Helen McCabe (Trustee)

Helen has been a trustee since 2009.  After a career in teaching and publishing in London, she moved to Cornwall, where she served as a governor of Falmouth College of Art (now University College, Falmouth) from 2000-2008 and as Honorary Treasurer to the Friends Committee of International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove.  Author of 'Houses and Gardens of Cornwall', she has lectured extensively throughout Britain on English and French architecture.  She has a strong interest in old buildings, chamber music, ballet and 20th-21st century British art.


Dr Tessa Murdoch (Trustee)

Tessa has been a trustee since 2007. Tessa has forty years’ experience at the Museum of London and the Victoria and Albert Museum and is currently V&A Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Research Curator. She has curated exhibitions on furniture, jewellery and silver and contributed to the Museum of London's exhibitions on The Huguenots, V&A’s British and European, Sacred Silver and Gilbert Galleries. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, Chair of the Huguenot Museum and external adviser to Apollo Magazine and the Silver Society.  Her book Europe Divided: Huguenot Refugee Art and Culture completed as Getty Rothschild Fellow in 2019 was published by the V&A in November 2021. 

Rachael Williams (Trustee)

Rachael became a trustee in May 2022. Rachael is currently Chief Executive of Streetwise Opera, an arts organisation working with the homeless sector to empower people to realise their creative potential. Prior to this, Rachael was Executive Director and Joint CEO of Park Theatre, Executive Director for theatre company Improbable, and has also worked at the Gate Theatre Notting Hill, English National Opera and Oxfordshire based outdoor theatre company Creation Theatre. Rachael was previously Chair of the Board for Metta Theatre and is currently a Trustee of the National Centre for Circus Arts and The Running Charity. 

Other information

Director

The Idlewild Trust is managed by a part-time Director. The Director is Gail Devlin-Jones who joined us in June 2022. 

The Director can be contacted on info@idlewildtrust.org.uk