Biography – Andy Paxton
Andy Paxton is experienced
and enthusiastic in all aspects of Project Management, with 20 years experience
in project development, co ordination and management in the Voluntary,
Statutory and Business sectors.
He has served on the board
of a number of charities and has remained an executive trustee for one for over 20 years and is passionate about long term commitment creating long term
change.
Andy was a founding member
of UseLess Arts Ltd, making great art from recycled and upcycled materials and is also founding co partner of The Magical Tea Machine Ltd,
an ethical festival catering business using local produce in a theatrical tented cafe.
His significant previous experience include:
Magical Tea Machine
Having a natural bent towards the eccentric I wanted to build a magical machine in the spirit of Professor Pots breakfast machine from chitty chitty bang bang. The machine has been modified from wood fired to gas (for practicality) and now forms the centre piece of a festival and event cafe business with a friend. Its toy railway and many kinetic elements, and bubble machine make it a star hit where ever it goes (the food and drink is equally fab) and we turn down booking offers at a rate of 3 -1 simply through lack of capacity. Its been to The Freedom Festival, Under the Stars, Mudfest, Pickering War Weekend and many others. for more info click on www.magicalteamachine.com facebook/magicalteammachine
Art Collision art car
This was my own concept built in collaboration with a number of local artists who are part of Useless Arts including Liz Dees, Michelle Davy and Liz Dorton. The car stared at the Freedom Festival in 2013. The inside was full of works of local artists, visible through peep holes, with one set of signs saying don't touch and don't look, the other set set saying please look, touch and feel. The notion was to satire the often pompous and exclusive art world colliding with peoples desire to interact and enage more with art, touch it feel it, experience it.
Large scale timber projects
My latest Timber garage has been a delight to design and build. Now host to the 'mad inventors' workspace, its tooled up for just about any creative project, along with its large yard space alongside. Watch this space to see what the next build is...rumours abound of a levitating tea pot pouring never ending tea....
Toddlers Tree House
Built so my 2 1/2 year old could climb trees safely, not quite finished but needing just a roof, some paint, telecom system, lighting, wet bar...or so my 4 1/2 year old says :-) Built with a large canterlever and siding bracing for wind flexing. And yes hes been up and down it safely.
Dannys
Secret – www.dannyssecret.com a children’s fantasy adventure book written for 8-12 year olds
chronicaling the life of a boy lost in so many ways, and yet with the support of
a very unusual family of children, and a home you simply wont believe. 
The
First Bridlington Advent Beach Huts
Co developing and staging,
a 24-day artistic retelling of the advent story using a beach hut as the
venue.
Over 250 people visited the last night (despite hail and strong winds)
but
crucially it gained a number of live regional TV slots. Its now an
annual event, but I'm sadly no longer involved due to other projects.
Zombie Nightmare - Indpendant Horror movie made in rural Scotland. A cast of 7 and crew of 3 I directed, did the make up and lighting. Its available on You Tube if you dare look at it here:
Zombie Nightmare - Indpendant Horror movie made in rural Scotland. A cast of 7 and crew of 3 I directed, did the make up and lighting. Its available on You Tube if you dare look at it here:
World War 1 Trench re enactment with dugouts, pillboxes full battle mock ups and pyrotechnic explosions for 30 young people. The media recorded as part of the project formed a month long exhibition at Hull History Centre and became extremely popular with all ages. The Heritage Lottery Fund still described the project 4 years later as “a stand out piece of work.’
Rock
Challenge – An international dance competition for schools. Over 3 years the project I coordinated became the first ever youth
project to be allowed to fully compete and produced an 8 minute full dance
performance re telling Alice in Wonderland contemporized as a teenagers party
gone wrong. The closing scenes had Alice die with her fading heart beat fading
the scene. We won awards for innovative set design and execution, and stage
crew areas I had been responsible for.
Odd
Socks Theatre Company – Run in partnership with Act Now the 2 years drama project
spin off culminated in a performance in Hull Truck Theatre called ‘A Fairystail
Story’ A highly creative amalgamation of numerous old tales and stories were
characters from distance tales and lands combined with dramatic results. The
lead was Cinderella, but she was recast as a sassy lesbian go-getter and ran
off with snow white leaving Prince Charming to marry an ugly sister. Spectacular fun. Workshops included
improvisation and a lot of street theatre.
Wedding
festivals – I have set up and run a number of DIY wedding festivals, including my
own. These involved full site catering, Tee pees, music and dance venues and a couple of churches. The most unusual location was in North Yorkshire by
the Settle and Carlisle Railway. I own everything in this picture including the 34ft tipi.Bigga Brova Project – The start of a 3 year run of TV spin off summer Youth Projects, the first had 2x 50ft barges in Hull marina, one as a ‘house’ boat and the other set up as a TV studio and editing studio. The project ran for a week and gained regional TV coverage and many newspaper articles. This was a multi partnership project with Andy as the lead.
Cyber Café – Set up in 2000, when they were a very new concept, I developed and managed Hulls first true Cyber Café serving food and drinks as well as fast broadband internet access. The methodology, policies and procedures I set up for the Cyber Café project were published in a CDF / DfES manual called ‘Switched On – How to set up and run a Cyber Café for disaffected youth’, in 2003
KEY SKILLS Experienced
artist with lead ability in 31 artistic disciplines
Self-aware youth and community worker
Creative Initiator
Managing dynamic situations, people, financial
resources and logistics
Strategic planning + Analytical thinking
Fundraising, Marketing and Profile raising
Skilled in Quality Assurance and Self Assessment
processes
Highly
competent in Media and IT
Natural leader
PERSONAL INTERESTS – I enjoy
creating and bringing projects into reality – the most recent have included
refurbishing a large Victorian house, A large self build wooden workshop with reclaimed slate roof, a recycled wood chicken coup + run, an art car called 'art explosion' for the Freedom Festival, and a self build motor home conversion. On a smaller scale I enjoy the intricacies of scratch built model projects, especially boats and trains. I own a 1968 VW type 3 fastback that keeps my engineering and welding skills up to date. I am an experienced snowboarder and mountain biker, and enjoy photography, both moving
image and stills. I have just finished writing a children’s fantasy adventure book
called ‘Danny’s Secret’. I love to travel, and have done so widely, and have
a particular passion for Eastern European countries.
Varied references available on request
Resources I have to offer projects
34ft Authentic Native American Tee pee with
fire pit and full internals
60ft x 30ft Marquee with full flooring
and lighting
Full sound and light rig suitable for theatre
or stage work
Festival site decoration – Festoon lighting,
bunting, lanterns, blackboards etc.
Full outside catering facilities, hot drinks
and hot food
Numerous craft resources
