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Team and board

Team & board
Metroland Studios as part of the Brent Biennial 2022, Kilburn Square, July 2022. Photo: Thierry Bal

Our team

Meet the Metroland Cultures team. You can contact us on the details below.

Lois Stonock (she/her)
Founder and Director of Metroland Cultures
lois@metrolandcultures.com

Dan Mitchell
Programme Coordinator, Studio and Residencies
dan@metrolandcultures.com

Becky Morris Knight
Digital Content Curator (currently on maternity leave)
becky@metrolandcultures.com

Annie Jael Kwan
Curator – Brent Biennial 2025
annie@metrolandcultures.com

Lizzie Graham (she/they)
Programmes Curator
elizabeth@metrolandcultures.com

Christy O’Beirne (he/him)
Assistant Curator
christy@metrolandcultures.com

Izzy Milenkovic (she/her)
Marketing and Communications Assistant
izzy@metrolandcultures.com

Alice Sewell (she/her)
Communications Consultant (Maternity Cover)
alice@metrolandcultures.com

Interested in joining the team? Jobs are advertised on our Opportunities page.


Metroland Cultures is a registered charity. As a charity, we are governed by a board of trustees. Our trustees are all from Brent or meaningfully connected to the borough through home, upbringing or work.

The Board and team work closely together. The Board bring invaluable knowledge and lived experience of Brent.

They also oversee of all our work in line with our charitable objectives and strategy.

Our trustees

Rachel Dedman (Chair)

Rachel Dedman is a curator, writer, and art historian. Her work examines the material and political lives of things, and challenges established narratives around cultural production in the Global South. Rachel is the Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East at the V&A, London, where she curates the triennial Jameel Prize exhibition and the Jameel Fellowship artist residency programme. Beyond the V&A, Rachel curated Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery for Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, and The Whitworth, Manchester, in 2023/24, and co-curated the State of Fashion Biennale 2024 in the Netherlands. Before returning to London in 2019, Rachel spent six years in Lebanon and Palestine, where she curated projects across the Middle East and Europe. Trained in the history of art at Oxford and Harvard Universities, Rachel’s writing on art is widely published and she is the author of two books on Palestinian embroidery and dress. Born, raised and still living in Brent today, Rachel is passionate about the borough, its histories and people.


Digby Halsby

Digby is an award-winning communications professional whose promotional experience spans public relations, marketing and publishing. At the Paris-based advertising agency Iceberg-Bozell he developed pan-European advertising campaigns for market-leading consumer brands.

In 2009 Digby co-founded Flint Culture, a specialist cultural consultancy that has gone on to provide cultural advisory and communications services to brands, businesses and organisations ranging from the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, the British Library, Christie’s and the London Art Fair, to BT, Time Out and the National Trust. Based in London and working across Flint’s international offices, Digby offers expertise in brand management, audience engagement, business development and corporate, consumer and cultural partnerships.


Roshni Hirani

Roshni is a Human Resources professional and has been working in the arts, culture and heritage sector for over ten years in a range of museums and galleries including Serpentine, Tate, Royal Museums Greenwich and the National Portrait Gallery. Having studied a fine art degree at the University of East London, Roshni has a huge passion for arts and creativity. She has been a proud resident of Brent for 4 years and a frequent visitor of her close family who have lived in Brent her whole life. Roshni sees huge potential for communities in Brent to come together to build, share and support arts and culture within the borough.

You can often find Roshni walking in green spaces, in her garden growing sunflowers during the warmer months and cooking.


Matt Holt

Matt is Commercial Director at Frieze, and has a track record of driving commercial strategy in the arts and media. In his current role, he has been involved in developing major global cultural initiatives, including the launch of Frieze Los Angeles. He established Frieze Studios, Frieze’s in-house creative agency, set up to deliver commercial projects that engage and support the creative community. Most recently he rolled out Frieze’s first ever membership programme, alongside a full creative rebrand.

He previously spent four years as Head of Corporate Development at Southbank Centre, prior to which he worked within various roles at Sky. He is a Non-Executive Board member of Everyday Plastic, a Community Interest Company that provides the public with a personal connection to the plastic problem.


Savannah Mullings Johnson

Savannah is a youth worker, creative, blogger, professional writer and member of the Blueprint Collective who is set to embark on a new chapter when she begins teacher training later on in the year. She has lived in Kingsbury, Brent her whole life and considers her relationship with Brent as an unbreakable bond. She works in a local primary school as a learning mentor and is passionate about lifting up the younger generation. Savannah loves writing, collecting vinyls and Y2K fashion. You can often find her rewatching Gilmore Girls and playing VR.


Lois Stonock

Lois is the Director of Metroland Cultures, and was previously the Artistic Director of Brent 2020, London Borough of Culture. She is also a consultant, writer, researcher and programmer working in the arts.

Lois specialises in taking people and organisations through change and development with new approaches and strategic thinking. Over 2018 she developed a cultural think tank, The Jennie Lee Institute, to imagine new cultural futures for the UK, engaging the voices of young people, artists and policymakers to extend the value of culture to all areas of the everyday. In addition to this Lois develops curatorial and research projects which are always artist and idea-led, working with artists to realise ambitious projects. This work also informs her strategic thinking in other areas, as she is increasingly working at the intersection of art and society.


Interested in joining the board? We advertise vacancies on our Opportunities page.