About Deptford X

Deptford X is a visual arts charity based in Deptford, South East London. We foster artistic talent and nurture community within the borough of Lewisham and beyond. We achieve this through a free annual festival in Deptford and ongoing activity supporting artists and our local communities throughout the year.

Founded in 1998, Deptford X is London’s longest-running visual arts festival. Each year, we stage a free, ten-day festival, working with hundreds of artists to locate art at the centre of everyday life for all of the area’s communities.

Our Vision

Deptford X:

Is led by local artistic ambition, interests and practice.
Brings art into informal contexts and public spaces for all to access.
Seeks to make a positive contribution to our locality, communities, and to art, and to lead by example.
Places equity, accessibility and care at the heart of the organisation.
Holds space and advocates for difference, creativity, experimentation and learning within art.

Fundamentally we support artists and creative practice, as well as those who do not yet identify as artists, with a focus over the next three years on:

1) People of Colour: Specifically local Black communities. We are actively redressing the balance of participation in Deptford X and visual arts as a whole and making space for People of Colour-led creative programming.

2) Disabled people: We are working to remove barriers to participation in our work and inviting disability-led programming.

3) Young people: We are developing ways to engage local audiences and participants at a younger age and create pathways for their participation and ownership of Deptford X.

Deptford X Staff

Director: Nathalie Boobis – nathalie@deptfordx.org

Freelance Fundraiser: Catherine Herbert – catherine@deptfordx.org

Board of Trustees

Seema Manchanda (Chairperson) is Managing Director of The Showroom Gallery, former Assistant Director Planning & Environment, London Borough of Wandsworth, and is chair of Action for Race Equality. She made the jump from the world of planning and regeneration to arts in 2020 when she joined The Showroom as Managing Director, following the completion of a Fine Art Diploma from the Art Academy in 2019. When she has time, she is also a practicing artist.

Teresa Cisneros is a Chicana cultural producer. She is Senior Practice Manager Culture Equity Diversity and Inclusion at The Wellcome. She has worked with many art institutions including Nottingham Contemporary, Tate, Spike Island and Serpentine to explore care, policy making, learning, and institutional change. In 2016-18 at The Showroom she curated Object Positions to explore cultural equity, decolonial processes and colonial administration. She is a part of agency for agency and is interested in reconstructing cultural institutions from the inside to begin working towards forms of transformational justice. Teresa was one of the panelists for the inaugural Supported commissioning programme for the 2019 Deptford X festival.

David Cotterrell is a visual artist who maintains an active studio practice from his studio in Deptford. He is engaged internationally in the realisation of art, curatorial and advocacy projects. His work spans galleries, architecture and the public realm. He is Research Professor of Fine Art, Director of the Culture & Creativity Research Institute (CCRI) and co-founder of Empathy & Risk C.I.C. David is a regular contributor to the Deptford X Fringe programme.

Margaret (Meg) Gorman is a professional HR & Transformation Lead with over 25 years’ HR and Finance experience globally and nationally. She is an entrepreneurial, commercial problem solver with an engaging, collaborative approach. She leverages her global experience to deliver business change with creativity, energy and enthusiasm.

In 2024, Meg left Citigroup to become an interim HR & Transformation lead while building her artistic practice. She uses data to drive people transformation and business change via strategic organisational planning and execution in not-for-profit and global financial service sectors, including 18 years at Citigroup. She is the co-founder of Adelpha Studio, an online art collaboration, and regularly exhibits her work.

Meg joined Citigroup after completing her MBA and MA at the University of Pennsylvania at The Wharton School and The Lauder Institute. Prior to business school, Margaret’s work experience included strategy and advisory roles at Charles Schwab and Dresdner Bank.

A graduate of Pomona College, Meg grew up in Indiana. She developed a lifelong love of art and writing which culminated in her first self-published work in October 2018. She wrote, illustrated and self-published the children’s picture book All Animals Count in five countries, raising funds in partnership with a conservation charity to save valuable ecosystems worldwide. Meg can often be found wandering the Thames path between her home and her studio, searching for good light.

Jordan Mourzouris is a curator and researcher with a background in Fine Art and History of Art. They are currently a curator at the Contemporary Art Society and have previously worked at Historic England, Arts Council England and held an associate lecturer post at Central Saint Martins. Jordan has curated and programmed several radio projects with Montezpress and worked as a freelance producer and editor.

Celeste Ricci is a development and fundraising specialist with a background in art history and contemporary art theory. She is currently Head of Development at Create London, and was previously Senior Development Manager at Tate.

Nicola Thomas is a multidisciplinary artist born and based in South London whose work often utilises performance, film, sound, and print. She completed her MA at the Royal College of Art, where she was awarded the Augustus Martin Prize 2013 and the RCA Graduate Jealous Print Prize 2013. She is also the recipient of the London Print Studio New Graduate Award 2013. She has shown her films recently in Paris, Berlin and Miami. Exhibitions include Multiplied at Christie’s; Carousel at Aspex Gallery; and Parallax, at CG Projects. She is programme coordinator for BA Fine Art at Winchester School of Art and associate lecturer at Central Saint Martins. Nicola was nominated by Larry Achiampong to produce new work for Deptford X 2018’s Platform strand.

Suleyman Wellings-Longmore is an artist and human rights lawyer, with a creative practice that fuses painting, sculpture and design, and a legal career focused on migration and protest rights. He is currently on the MA Painting programme at the Royal College of Art as a Sir Frank Bowling scholar and is a graduate of Harvard Law School.

Nora Wuttke is a social anthropologist, with a background in architecture. As an anthropologist of infrastructure, energy and the (built) environment, she is a postdoctoral research fellow at Durham University and fellow of the Durham Energy Institute. She maintains and active art practice in her studio in Deptford.

Company Number: 04133414
Registered Charity: 1087490