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Inderjit Singh Bhogal

Inderjit Singh Bhogal is the Director of Yorkshire and Humber Faiths Forum and is a leading Theologian and Methodist minister. He is a former President of the Methodist Conference. He was born into a Sikh family in Nairobi and came with them in 1964 to live in Dudley, West Midlands. He took his first Degree in Manchester and his Masters Degree in Oxford.

Inderjit lived in Wolverhampton for 8 years where he helped to establish one of the first Inter Faith Groups in UK, and was Co-ordinator of the Group 1984 – 1987. Inderjit lives in Sheffield where he has worked in Multi- Faith inner city contexts. He established a Christian – Muslim Group out of which has grown the Sheffield Inter Faith Group. He has organised Christian – Muslim Peace walks in the City. He helped to start Sheffield’s Homeless and Rootless at Christmas Project. This has involved several hundred volunteers.

Inderjit has also worked as Director of the Urban Theology Unit and Consultant Theologian for Christian Aid. He is a Patron of several organisations, including the Bradford Churches for Dialogue and Diversity. He has been a member of the Race Equality Advisory Panel [Home Office], and is a Trustee of the Multi Faith Centre at the University of Derby where he is also a member of the Governing Council.

Inderjit was awarded the Hon. Doctor of University by the Universities of Oxford Brookes [2001] and Sheffield Hallam [2002]. He was awarded the OBE in the New Year’s Honours List 2005 for his work in Inter-Faith relations.

Panni Poh Yoke Loh

Panni Poh Yoke Loh, is the British Chinese Artist holding this exhibition. Born in London, she has lived in Sheffield, where her two daughters were born, for over 20 years. She works passionately with spirit, culture and location creatively connecting people from diverse cultural backgrounds with each other and their environment.

Currently she is completing her PhD on ‘The Impact of cultural experiences on the work of British Chinese Artists-relationships with the natural world and spirituality’ at the Social and Environmental Art Research Centre (SEA), Manchester Metropolitan University. She has an M.A. in Art as Environment and has delivered international conference papers in Spain, South Korea and Australia.

She has worked as a qualified Senior Social Worker and Teacher and currently manages Kutien Arts offering photography, paintings, live art, installations and creative training for businesses, organisations and community groups.

As an artist she has exhibited in Australia, Japan, Thailand and South Korea. Her artist residencies at the U.K. Chinese Arts Centre and the 2006 Japanese Fukuoka Asian Art Trienalle focused on the natural world and interactions between humans. Her work is the permanent collections of the Irish Embassy, London and Sheffield Libraries. As the U.K. member of the International Women Artists Council, since 1999, she organized the 2002 ‘International Women’s Art Towards a Sustainable Environment’ conference and exhibition with participants from 9 countries and other associated international events(1999-2007).

In 2007 she was awarded the Lord Mayor of Sheffield Woman of Inspiration Award-Entertainment and the Arts following the ‘Community Cohesion’ award from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in 2004 for initiating and organizing the Abbeyfield Park Multicultural Festival with an attendance of 12 000.

Jackie Drayton

Jackie Drayton was born in Coventry and moved to Burngreave in Sheffield in 1979 and has lived there ever since. She has been an elected member, representing the Burngreave Ward, for ten years. During this time she has been involved in many areas including, Education, Regeneration & Area Action, Housing & Successful Neighbourhoods, Culture & Arts, Parks, Woodland & Countryside, Social Services and Sports Development. Recently she has been Cabinet Advisor for Crime & Community Safety as well as Chair of her local Area Panel.

Jackie had the honour to become Lord Mayor of Sheffield 2006/7 and had as her themes for the year; Linking, local, national and international, promoting the City of Sheffield and it’s people, Citizenship and Civic Pride, engaging young people in the life of the City and Celebration, celebrating the achievements of the City focusing on the lives of women. During her year as Lord Mayor she had the opportunity to go on official visits to China, The Somme and Kashmir. She also instigated, in partnership with the Sheffield Telegraph, The Women of Inspiration Awards.

Jackie left school at 16 with no qualifications, after attending adult education classes she became a mature student at the University of Warwick where she obtained a Degree in teaching. She worked in education for over 25 years working in the primary, further, higher and adult education sectors. Recently she worked in regeneration and community development helping to organise community elections and managed a Multicultural Arts, Music and Environmental Festival.

Jackie been a director of Sheffield Co-operative Development Group for the last 5 years and has been a School Governor in various schools in the City for the last 25 years. Jackie has recently been appointed as a Trustee on the South Yorkshire Community Foundation, and a member of the Flood Relief Flood and also of the J.G.Greaves Trust.

Jackie’s interests include art, dancing, cooking and entertaining friends and family and she relaxes by gardening and listening to music.

Margaret Harrison

Margaret Harrison is a Senior Research Professor and Director of the Social and Environmental Art Research Centre (SEA), a multidisciplinary Research Centre whose core membership consists of artists across all media whose work engages with social and environmental issues, including, ecological concerns, art in public spaces, the built environment and landscape architecture. She is an artist member of the university wide community committee.

Professor Margaret Harrison is an artist with an international profile, her work on Rape (in the collection of the Arts Council of England) has since its first controversial showing at the Hayward Gallery in 1979, entered Art History and is now seen as a feminist classic.

She lectures and shows her work internationally, mainly in North America, but also Germany, Holland, Australia and Canada and recently at the Liljevalchs Konsthal Stockholme as well as UK venues such as the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Whitechapel Art Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum London. Her work is in several important public collections including the Tate Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, kunsthaus Zurich, the Arts Council of England and the University of California. Her show at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco was represented by the Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York.

David Haley

Ecological artist, David Haley is a Research Fellow in MIRIAD, Manchester Metropolitan University. He co-founded SEA: Social and Environmental Arts Research Centre and leads the MA Art As Environment programme. Haley is, also a Fellow of the RSA and member of the AHRC Peer Review College.

In different media, current projects include Rivers from the Future, that critiques the values of the ‘new suburbia’ over freshwater; A Walk On The Wild Side, that considers Manchester as a living organism; and Greenhouse Britain, with Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison to determine how we might ‘withdraw gracefully’ as the oceans rises.

Judy Ling Wong

Judy Ling Wong, FRSA, CBE, is the UK Director of Black Environment Network, an organisation with an international reputation as the pioneer in the field of ethnic participation in the built and natural environment.

BEN works across diverse sectors, integrating social, cultural and environmental concerns. Current themes include the natural conservation, urban design, history and heritage, health, access to the outdoors and urban green spaces.

Judy is a major voice on policy towards social inclusion. Her contribution includes membership of the DCMS Historic Environment Executive Committee, ODPM Urban Green Spaces Task Force, National Trust Council, and the IUCN/WCPA Task Force for Cities and Protected Areas.

Maxwell Ayamba

Maxwell Ayamba is an environmental journalist by Profession and also as Associate Lecturer/Research Associate at the Faculty of Development and Society, Sheffield Hallam University.

He also works for the Sheffield Black and Ethnic Minority Environmental Network(SHEBEEN). Maxwell’s other commitments include: Board member of Ramblers Association U.K.; Board member Groundwork Trust, Sheffield; Member of the Regional Environment Protection Advisory Committee (REPAC) of the Yorkshire and Humber Region and member of the South Yorkshire wide Police Independent Advisory Group (IAG). He follows the Baha’i religion.

Dr. Satwant Rait

Dr. Satwant Rait was brought up and educated in India. She came to England in 1968 and studied Librianship in order to top up her qualifications.

She got her first job in 1974 and by 1986 she became Principal Officer. She was also appointed Justice of the Peace on Bradford Bench. She was awarded her PhD from Loughborough University and has written nine books, 3 reports and several research articles.

She has been associated with many community associations and currently on the Yorkshire and Humber Faiths Forum and Older People’s Forum.

She has been here for forty years and has two children and two grandchildren. Family have always been her first priority.

David Gray

David Gray works for Heeley City Farm, an environmental community organisation based in inner city Sheffield. He has a degree in Environmental Biology and over 20 years experience in environmental education and environmental community enterprise. The environment is his passion but not his only interest.

In an earlier career, David took a degree in Urban Estate Surveying and worked for nine years in the private sector property industry as a general practice surveyor and valuer. He has a number of other interests in the public and voluntary sector in both small and large organisations in the UK and Australia.

During his career at Heeley City Farm, David managed and developed many of the farm’s projects and enterprises in food, health, energy efficiency, renewable energy, recycling, composting and environmental education. His current role includes being the senior finance and administrative manager of the farm and having responsibilities for strategic planning and business development.

David has always been keen to share his experiences with others (as a way of learning himself) and maintains contact with a range of groups from the UK and overseas, provides a mentoring service to others and has been an occasional lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University on the MSc Urban Regeneration course.

Marina Larios

Marina Larios (M.A., M.Sc., B.A.) is President of WiTEC (European Association for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology) which is based in 13 countries across Europe and has been successfully working towards the promotion of and support for women in SET for the last 20 years.

Marina is also Director of Inova Consultancy, an organisation providing consultancy services in the field of diversity and equal opportunities. Inova specialises in the field of gender and SET (Science, Engineering and Information Technology) and entrepreneurship, aiming to redress the imbalance of women in non-traditional courses and careers.

Marina has been a speaker at various international conferences presenting positive actions to increase the representation of women in SET, including recent presentations at the United Nations in New York, Geneva and UNESCO Paris .

She is currently an advisor for the Cambridge Centre of Gender Studies, a consultant expert in European project management and evaluator of national and EU initiatives.

In addition she is past Trustee of the South Yorkshire Women's Development Trust; Co- Director of MEXWII-Mexican Women Inventors and Innovators and Steering Group Member of the Women and ICT Taskforce hosted by UNESCO.

Bernadette Grocock

Bernadette Grocock is the BME Co-ordinator, Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, responsible for engaging businesses and individuals from the BME community into the forum’s activities.

Sheffield Chamber of Commerce created this role as part of its continuing support of black and minority ethnic businesses in the city.

The Chamber, which backs the Black and Ethnic Minority (BME) Business Forum, created a position to help drive the forum forward and increase its influence

Bernadette has over 25 years experience working in local government, including numerous years in the Economic Development Services at Kirklees Council as a Business Development Manager and a number of years working within the voluntary and community sector.

Bernadette also spent more than two years overseeing and managing a key period of change at the South Yorkshire African- Caribbean Centre in Sheffield in the voluntary sector and also ran her own fashion design business in the 80s. Bernadette relishes new challenges.