Author, curator and cultural strategist Mark Waugh has more than 30 years’ experience in the support and development of public and commercial infrastructures for curators and artists in the UK. He co-founded the International Curators Forum in 2006 with David A. Bailey, and Art360 Foundation in 2014 with Gilane Tawadros. Previous roles include; Director of Business Development at Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS), International Commissioner for emerging Artfairs, Head of Visual Arts, South East Arts Council England and many more. He is also the author of the novels, Bubble Entendre and Come. Waugh Office is the hybrid platform he directs with Julia Waugh working with artists and artist estates. Mark grew up in Cornwall and plans to return to make his home there again in the near future.

Simon is a founding member and Excavations Director of the Early Mines Research Group, and has worked on excavations and geo-archaeological research at sites in the UK and around the world. He undertook research and dating on the antler pick, found during 18thc mining in the Carnon Valley in Cornwall, establishing it as the earliest Bronze Age tin mining tool of its kind found in Europe. Retired from the Archaeological Unit at Cambridge University he now edits an archaeological journal, writes and continues to work on fieldwork projects, principally in Wales. He has published several books and articles. Simon studied Geology at Leicester University, as did Matthew, but they did not meet until around 2014 in Cornwall. His talk on Friday July 3rd will appeal to anyone interested in the subject of early mining and Cornish history and will be a rare treat and it’s free. It will include an outdoor tin smelting demonstration.

Barbara Santi is an award winning documentary filmmaker/producer using film and digital media for positive social change. Her first professional job was at Working Title Films (1994 - 1997). She moved to West Cornwall in 1997 to pursue her filmmaking career. In 2006 she set up awen productions CIC with two other filmmakers and in 2025 Folklife Films, a new platform for showcasing their cinematic documentaries.  At the heart of her work is to raise underrepresented people’s voices through film. She has also produced films for the private, public and educational sectors and commissions include Museum of Cornish Life, Arts for Health Cornwall & IOS, Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change, English Heritage,and The British Council. In 2020, she was one of 10 female entrepreneurs in the UK selected to take part in Creative England's Female Founders Scale Up programme. Her interest in collaborative film, and creative storytelling developed into a PhD, completed in 2023. Recent films include King for a Day; No Holds Barred, The Life and Art of Matthew Lanyon; and Gentle Angry Women (2025) which has been screened widely at cinemas in the UK.

Luke is a writer and publisher from Cornwall; he is founding Co-editor of the award-winning poetry publisher Guillemot Press. His own books include Doma-Doma Blum- Blum Conversations with Other Animals (Ortac 2024); Treasures of Cornwall (2023) and Singing about Melom (2020).  Luke is also Course Director for the MA in Professional Writing at Falmouth University. Luke will be presenting the inaugural Matthew Lanyon Poetry Prize on behalf of the judges.

Ellie Porter is Head of Archives and Estates at A/POLITICAL. She was previously Head of Programme at Art360 Foundation which supported artists and their families with the creation of archives. Ellie has also managed Gifts and Bequests at Art Fund, transferring private art collections to public museums including works by Matthew Lanyon. Ellie worked with the Matthew Lanyon Archive between 2021 - 2024, developing a legacy strategy, generating new visibility for the documentary film No Holds Barred and launching an ongoing archive residency programme in Penzance.

Zelda Cahill-Patten works in publishing, but her background is in medieval literature and art history, with degrees from Oxford and the Courtauld. She has held roles at institutions like the Swedenborg Society and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Zelda took part in the first Matthew Lanyon Archival Residency in 2024, where her primary focus was cataloguing Matthew’s poetry and researching Annunciation themes in his work. She has been closely involved with the Festival’s poetry programme and is one of this year’s judges for the Matthew Lanyon Poetry Prize. Her own poetry is widely published. 

Amy-May Brand currently works in AI development. She studied Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where she investigated the intersections of ecology, gender, and identity in contemporary photography and painting. Alongside her studies she co-directed the East Wing Biennial contemporary art exhibition, acted as Print Editor for the student-run arts & culture publication, The Courtauldian, and founded Society Exhibition Nouveau, a student society for networking in London's contemporary art world. Amy undertook a ML Archive Residency in 2024 and has continued to work closely with the Archive; she has enjoyed researching, and cataloguing Matthew Lanyon’s photography and photocollage. Amy will return to the Courtauld in September 2026 to pursue an MA in Art History, specialising in Ecology in American Art from 1950 to the present.

Stella Douglass is an art historian working at the intersection of art and archiving. An alumna of the University of Arizona and The Courtauld Institute of Art, her research explores the performance of identity, ranging from feminist monstrosity to the use of queer terminology in museum databases. Drawing on experience from The National Archives and the Horniman Museum, she is dedicated to enabling public engagement to ensure underrepresented histories remain visible. Stella has undertaken two Matthew Lanyon Archive Residencies between 2024 and 2025, and continues to work with the Archive. She will attend University College London in Autumn 2026 to pursue an MA in Records and Archive Management.