03/06/2026
All organisations change. But some changes feel more significant than others - and in terms of the people behind the work here, this is one of those moments.
One of the things I've learned in this work is that the best people don't fit into neat boxes. There are no clean lines between artist and producer, between administrator and storyteller, between the person who makes the work and the person who makes the work possible. I've been lucky enough to spend time with people who are all of those things at once.
In January we said goodbye to Sam, after 15 months with Villages in Action. Sam is an artist, not just an office manager, which meant the knowledge Sam brought - of people, places, and the creative community across this region - was lived, not just learned. It was through Sam that I first came across the word matrescence (the experience of becoming a mother) as a subject for artistic exploration. That kind of awareness, of what's quietly significant, what deserves to be named ran through everything Sam did here. Including the thankless task of pulling three years of impact and evaluation into one central place. That work is proving invaluable.
And in April, Luke finished nearly five years with us. A few words, because they're deserved.
Five years ago we didn't know what would happen next. The charity's management had come back to Devon, we've always described it feeling like we were a start-up. We set up in an attic room in Teignmouth, where Luke had to duck because he was taller than the ceiling itself, surrounded by seagulls and sky. We wanted to prove that the kind of work we care about could happen here, and be rooted in this coastal place. We were trusted to make something great happen. No roadmap, no rulebook. Just a shared belief that rural Devon deserved something unexpected, and the commitment to lay the track as we went.
I think we did that. Together, and with integrity.
Luke too is someone who resists easy categorisation: a filmmaker, editor, producer, storyteller, writer and historical interpreter. What he brought was an instinct for the hidden histories, the overlooked places, the artists worth paying attention to...
From Devon with Love
Paper Cinema in historic buildings
Phoenix Archive project
Chasing Crockern
Zest
Work in care homes, film editing, a circus in a field we still talk about. He wore a lot of hats, and wore them all well.
People said yes to us because of him. Communities trusted us because of him. And since April the thank yous haven't stopped coming in, which says it all really.
We'll miss his particular way of finding the story that hooks people. And that rogue spirit isn't going anywhere.
Go well, both of you! Thank you and we hope you'll carry a bit of Villages in Action with you into your future work and that our paths will cross again!
