Miranda Prag
Director and co-founder

Miranda co-founded Mainspring Arts with Katya Balen in 2015, and has run it ever since. Outside of Mainspring, she is an artist, performer and boat dweller. She makes solo performance, touring nationally and internationally, and has also worked as a drama facilitator and access support worker.

Karis Okereke
Trustee

Karis has extensive fundraising experience in the arts, international development and charity sectors. She currently works in partnerships for ArtBrowser, a digital startup that supports artists and creatives, and for Certitude, a disability charity. Prior to this, she managed partnerships and client relations at the V&A Museum and worked charities including the Prince's Trust, the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, Panos London, Prostate Cancer UK and Leonard Cheshire Disability.

Joanne Limburg
Trustee

Joanne Limburg is a writer and creative writing tutor, who has published memoir, fiction and poetry. She was diagnosed with ASD in 2012 and has previously worked with Mainspring as a tutor and mentor on our Square Peg Stories writing project.

Gayathiri Kamalakanthan
Project Manager

Gayathiri is our Project Manager at Mainspring Arts. Outside this they're a poet and access worker, working with Out On The Page and Raze Collective.They also run the decolonising poetry workshop WORD-BENDERS at The Common Press and Queer Poetry Sauna at Community Sauna Baths.

Catherine Herbert
Development Manager

Catherine is a freelance fundraiser and visual arts project manager/producer, working with artists and organisations including The Showroom Gallery, SPACER and Turner Contemporary. Previous roles include Deputy Director, Whitstable Biennale; Development Manager, Deptford X; & Chair of Ideas Test (ACE Creative People & Places project). Catherine has worked long-term with international artist Adam Chodzko including projects at Tate St Ives, Museum of Contemporary Arts Belgrade & Museum of Modern Art Bologna.

Lisa Gee
Trustee

Lisa works across arts, education and business sectors facilitating, lecturing/tutoring, writing and editing and making (fairly basic) videos. She has a background in digital communications, EDI, and publishing.  Lisa was diagnosed with ADHD (mostly H) in 2022, and is on the waiting list for ASD assessment.

Eleanor Hughes
Trustee

Eleanor works across the health and justice sector as a Speech and Language Therapist, identifying and supporting the communication differences of neurodivergent children and young people. She is passionate about removing barriers within society and enabling access, through a combination of workforce training, active-allyship and promoting the self-advocacy skills of others. Eleanor identifies as multiply neurodivergent. For her this means the way she thinks, processes and interacts is influenced by a combination of different conditions and traits. She has a formal diagnosis of Dyslexia and is on a waitlist for ADHD assessment. She is interested in creativity as a means of empowering self-expression and communication.

Katya Balen
Co-founder

Katya co-founded Mainspring in 2015, and was a co-director alongside Miranda until 2022. She is a children's author and freelance editor.