Team - Timespan Skip to content The weather in Helmsdale: 5°C Broken clouds We are open everyday 10am-5pm Anyuta Gillespie Cafe Manager – Anyuta is the mastermind behind our cafe, ensuring that everything runs smoothly and that our guests have a memorable experience. She is a true foodie and loves to experiment with new recipes. rivercafe@timespan.org.uk Caroline Kelly: Finance Manager & Shop Manager Caroline keeps Timespan running and does all things numbers and finance. She is Timespan’s number one football nut and gives us Monday updates on trials and triumphs of being a Ross County supporter. caroline@timespan.org.uk David Jack: Gardener – David has a green thumb and takes care of our beautiful garden, making sure it looks its best throughout the year. Galina Popowska: Cafe Assistant – Galina is a passionate cook and baker, and her creations are always a hit with our guests. She also helps keep the cafe running smoothly and makes sure everyone is well-fed and happy. Giulia Gregnanin: Director & Curator – Giulia is interested in exploring the relationships between power, culture, and identity, and how these dynamics are influenced by issues such as gender, race, and class. She is always accompanied by her furry doggy companion Izi. giulia@timespan.org.uk Jacquie Aitken: Digital & Heritage Curator – encyclopaedic and endlessly curious about local history and how community knowledge informs and produces history. A trained archaeologist, she’s our star landscape de-coder and favourite person to walk the hills with. jacquie@timespan.org.uk Laurie Brown: Design & Editorial Manager – Laurie designs our content into gorgeous, cute gifs, videos and posters and we very much welcome them experimenting on us with new recipes. laurie@timespan.org.uk Lisa Macdonald: Front of House – Lisa is our am-dram queen and first port of call for the village’s dramarama needs. She writes plays and sings at full volume in the choir and bands, and is our go-to party planner. enquiries@timespan.org.uk Louise & Mauro Mcmeekin: Cleaners – Husband and wife team share the labour to keep us sparkling and sanitised after busy weekends. Penny Kane: Front of House – Penny is the number one ambassador for the village public loos and serves the village in a myriad of ways on numerous committees and councils. enquiries@timespan.org.uk Sam Harrison: Fundraising Officer and Museum Redevelopment Project Manager – Sam pulls together our funding applications. He is a crofter in Gartymore, just outside Helmsdale, where he raises Shetland cattle and sheep. When he’s not putting out the silage he’ll be in his workshop making furniture or out on the waves surfing with his son. sam@timespan.org.uk Sofia Cotrona: Communication & Marketing Manager- Sofia presents all our content through press releases, social media posts and newsletters. She is obsessed with highland cows and seals so you will find her hiking and walking around the village looking for both sofia@timespan.org.uk Board Prof Jim Mooney, Chair Expertise: Contemporary Art, Critical Theory Jim Mooney taught at Middlesex University and the Royal college of Art from 1989 – 2009 where, respectively, he was Reader in the Theory and Practice of Fine Art and Senior Research Tutor in Painting. Sunsequently, he held Visiting Professorships at Birmingham City University and Grays School of Art, Aberdeen and was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Art in 1995. Mooney has exhibited widely internationally and writes on contemporary art, focusing on painting, radical art practice, ecology, ethics, queer theory and Fine Art Research Methodologies. He has published extensively including essays on Lari Pittman, Félix Gonzalez-Torres, John Dougil, Michael Curran, David Wojnarowicz, Peter Hujar, Queer Sorority, Hamish Fulton, the Algerian photographer, Hocine, the Kurdish artist Rebwar Saeed and Shirin Neshat. His most recent solo exhibition was held at the Inverness Museum and Art Gallery in 2020. Alison MacDonald, Secretary Expertise: Human Resources Alison has been a Director of Timespan and member of the Board since 2003, as well as Company Secretary since 2004. Alison is responsible for strategic HR / People direction on the Board as well as ensuring Companies House has up to date information for Timespan, including the filing of all statutory company information. Alison has been working in HR since 1994 and is currently a People Manager for NatureScot. She is a board member of Ross-shire Women’s Aid since 2019. She advises the Board on HR strategy and employment law and also supports the Director on operational HR issues within Timespan. Catriona Whitfield, Treasurer Expertise: Accountancy, Law Catriona Whitfield is treasurer and is as such is responsible for ensuring the correct finance records, policies and procedures are in place. Catriona has a degree in law and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1991.  She has a professional background in audit, investigations, dispute resolution and commercial litigation.  She is currently a member of the First Tier Tribunal for Scotland Charity Appeals jurisdiction and she is a board member of the Scrabster Harbour Trust. She was a member of the Disciplinary Panel for the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries for 7 years and of the Scottish Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for 10 years, served as a member of board of management of North Highland College and has acted as trustee for a number of charities. Anson MacAuslan Expertise: Land Management, Commercial Business Grace Maxwell Expertise: Music management; Veg Stall Seller and Helmsdale Golf Club Number 1 Fan Grace is a music business veteran, having managed the career of her husband and partner, Edwyn Collins, for almost 40 years. Edwyn’s family have lived in Helmsdale for 200 years in the same house they both live in now. In 2015, after moving permanently to the village, they completed construction of a recording studio, home now to lots of recording projects. Among the various local activities she is involved with some favourites are driving the community bus, selling veg from the community kitchen garden and her role as secretary of the local golf club, still going strong after 130 years! Iain Robertson Expertise: Critical History, Higher Education Iain Robertson is a historian by training but a historical geographer by inclination, with a particular focus on the twentieth-century Highlands and Islands. Iain is a Reader in History at the Centre for History, University of the Highlands and Islands. Vivivana Checchia Expertise: Contemporary Art, Critical Theory Viviana Checchia is a curator, critic and lecturer active internationally. She has worked on curatorial and artistic programmes around contemporary art for the last twenty years. Her work has always foregrounded the public practice of art, the use of public and private space, the legacies of institutional critique, and of socially-engaged art practice. One of her first and major initiatives in the field of contemporary art is ‘vessel’. Vessel explores socially-engaged practices in relation to their context of emergence, to their geographies and psychogeographies, and the overlap of these concerns with fixed political ideologies. She joined the Board of Trustees of Timespan in 2022 because she is interested in the development of contemporary art forms and contents within the rural. Heritage Group Local heritage research and development of projects for the community archive. Chair: Lucretia Peckham Friends of Timespan Programmes events and keeps us intune with the local ecology and village life. Chair: Paul Peckham Knitting Ladies These women know their patterns and wool! Meet every Tuesday afternoon to knit together and their beauty jumpers, socks and toys can be bought for a bargain from our shop.