Our team

Meet the team

Led by festival director, Niccy Hallifax, the team brings expertise, creativity, enterprise, and a wealth of experience delivering large-scale public events.

The wider festival team is made up of colleagues from across Darlington Borough Council, Durham County Council and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, our museum partners and is supported by the S&DR200 Board.

Thanks to Jo Booth, who won the commission to photograph the members of the festival team, through an open submission in partnership with Teesside University.

The S&DR200 Board

The members are:

• Reuben Kench - S&DR200 Chairman of the board and Director of Community Services, Environment and Culture at Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council
• Marie Addison - Regional Community and Sustainability Manager at Northern Railway
• Alison Clark - Head of Culture, Sport and Tourism at Durham County Council
• Lianna Francis-Kelly - Partnerships Team Leader of Historic England North East
• Niall Hammond - Chair of Friends of S&DR
• Helen Kemp - Business Solutions Director at Tees Valley Combined Authority
• Felicity Machnicki - Community Rail Officer, Bishop Line Community Rail Partnership
• Edward Perry - The Auckland Project
• Dennis Middleton - LNER
• Charlie Nettle - Group MD, AV Dawson
• Emma Robertson - Programme Manager of Railway 200
• Mark Sill - Northern Railway
• Ian Thompson - Assistant Director of Community Services at Darlington Borough Council
• Ed Turner - Communications Manager of LNER for the North
• Tim Wright - Customer Relationship Executive at Network Rail

S&DR200 Festival team

Niccy Hallifax (she/her) - S&DR200 Festival Director

Niccy is an experienced creator who has worked on numerous global, high-profile & internationally award-winning projects in the heritage and culture sector. She hassuccessfully directed and delivered large-scale, public-facing cultural projects and always prioritises the diversifying of audiences through a creative approach to cultural place-making. Recently she directed installations including SEE MONSTER, the opening and closing events for Waltham Forest Borough of Culture, and the handover to Birmingham 2020, a 10-minute, groundbreaking broadcast piece for the Commonwealth Games.

Jill Read (she/her) - S&DR200 Communications and Stakeholder Manager

Jill has over 18 years of experience working in communications roles in the creative industries. A natural collaborator she believes that art and culture can transform the lives of individuals, address issues of social justice and lead to better connected, more understanding societies. Most recently, Jill led the communications for the 2023 British Ceramics Biennial. Before this, Jill was Head of Marketing and Communications at the Crafts Council, the national charity for craft. While leading on strategic communications, she managed a team of five to create and deliver multi-channel marketing campaigns across a wide-ranging programme.

Richie Starrs (he/him) - S&DR Project Manager

Richie has been involved with the Stockton and Darlington Railway Heritage Project since2018. He was the lead officer overseeing the delivery of Historic England's S&DR Heritage Action Zone initiative, which saw a huge increase in research and raised awareness and investment into the S&DR programme. Richie previously worked for Hartlepool Borough Council and oversaw significant regeneration projects on Hartlepool's Historic Headland and played a lead role in delivering Hartlepool's Neighbourhood Renewal Programme.

Cait Barratt (she/her) - S&DR Heritage & Community Participation Manager

Cait has worked in the arts, culture, and heritage industry for 15 years in a variety of museums, galleries, and historic properties. Working initially as a volunteer and intern throughout undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, Cait then worked as a museum professional. Cait's background is in collections management and interpretation, developing exhibitions and National Lottery Heritage Fund projects as a consultant and project manager.

Jess Woodley (she/they) - S&DR Youth Engagement Officer

Jess is a recent graduate of the University of Southampton where they studied BA History and Archaeology and MSc Archaeology. Jess has spent 6 years working at Darlington Hippodrome and helped develop exhibition content for the theatre. They believe strongly in the impact the arts can have within heritage and is passionate about improving diversity and inclusion through creating space for the voices of young people within the heritage world.

Claire Skaife (she/her) - S&DR Volunteer and Training Coordinator

Claire was the Community Engagement Assistant at Preston Park Museum and Grounds in Stockton. She worked with 150 to 200 volunteers and local communities through a variety of large-scale family events and exhibitions before joining the S&DR team. During her 5 years of working for English Heritage, she worked at Whitby and Rievaulx Abbeys, Stonehenge and at History Live in visitors services and sales membership.