Meet the Sonder Arts Team
ELLEN RUSSELL
DIRECTOR
CARSON PARKIN-FAIRLEY
FOUNDER & DIRECTOR
Carson Parkin-Fairley is an artist and community worker. With a diverse background spanning journalism, event production, pr and social media, and hospitality, she currently co-runs a weekly community group on Ramsgate High Street called Happy Mondays and delivers art projects. In her personal artistic practice she explores themes of celebration, worship and symbology, crafting shrines that honour individuals and their unique qualities.
Growing up in a household surrounded by artists, Carson imbibed a valuable lesson from her upbringing: never shy away from the act of creation, but rather embrace it wholeheartedly. Now, she's on a mission to share that same sense of liberation with others, encouraging everyone to explore their creative side without hesitation.
She has exhibited her art around the UK and internationally, and has previously worked on projects with Arts Council England, Historic England, Westminster Council, Thanet District Council, Creative Debuts x Adidas, Culture Weston and The Great British Carnival. She thrives on engaging with people, forging meaningful connections, and sparking conversations through her art. She lives in Ramsgate and pineapples are her favourite symbol.
ELIZA HALL
DIRECTOR
Eliza Davies is a nurse, who honed her skills in London before returning home to work at her local hospital of QEQM in Margate in 2019. She has worked in many specialties including ITU, research and recently moving to a team supporting people holistically through their cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Originally from Deal, Eliza currently resides in Ramsgate. Raised in an environment where creativity was cherished, she sees its profound impact on her work and life. Now with a daughter of her own, she advocates for nurturing creativity in the next generation, recognising it’s entwined importance with learning.
Fascinated by people and the complexities of the human condition, Eliza believes in the power of creativity to enrich learning and shape perspectives.
WILLIAM POTTINGER
DIRECTOR
BIO COMING SOON
Ellen is an artist and educator based in Margate. She graduated from University of the Arts London with a Textile Design degree in 2021. It was during the pandemic that she began tufting, when lockdown halted her screen printing practice at university. This new tactile textile medium, albeit self taught, provided the perfect outlet for her creativity, and it was then that Ellen Tufts Studio was born. She then returned to her beloved home town of Margate, where she is now a studio holder at Resort.
Beyond her own artistic pursuits, Ellen is passionate about education in the arts and encouraging creativity within the community. For the past two years she has worked as an art technician in an international school and has recently begun training to qualify as a secondary education art teacher.
Through Ellen Tufts Studio, she teaches a range of workshops where participants can unleash their creativity, learn new skills and connect with like-minded individuals in a supportive and fun environment. In just a few years, she has enabled and celebrated creativity across a diverse range demographics, working with children, young people, adults and the elderly, including those with special educational needs, neurodivergence and learning disabilities.
HATTIE PIERCE
DIRECTOR
Hattie Pierce is currently completing a PhD, and her research focuses on the experiences of female separated migrant children and teenagers living in East Kent. Prior to this, Hattie has worked as a social worker within children and families teams, where she developed her research interests.
Hattie is connected to arts and creativity through working within arts organisations; as an editor and proof-reader for ecological arts publishing platform Dark Mountain, and running ecologically-themed reading groups through Well Projects in Margate. She also coordinates a cooking and arts project for refugee and asylum-seeking teenagers at Pie Factory Music.
Hattie enjoys finding new ways to encourage engagement with the arts and creativity with people from all walks of life, and draws on skills developed as a social worker and within diverse arts organisations in order to do so. Her aim is to continue broadening participation with arts within the local community.