Helen Thomas

Helen is our Once in a Lifetime Project Officer. This is a 3-day per week post funded jointly by Voluntary Arts and Making Music. Her main role is to encourage voluntary arts groups across the UK to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. She spends approximately one day per week on Making Music work, which includes leading on Making Music's proposed Cultural Olympiad project, representing Making Music on the steering groups for music-related parts of the Cultural Olympiad and providing assistance with Inspire Mark applications.

Helen has spent several years in various posts within the voluntary and community sector, including four years supporting organisations in west Wales to organise community-led festivals and events. She has organised many events and festivals mostly involving watersports, music and dance, and has coordinated the Welsh cultural representation at the International Celtic Watersports Festival. Her favourite and most challenging event was the main stage for the last Stonehenge Free Festival.

Outside work Helen volunteers as a steward at Farnham Maltings and is addicted to exercise. Through supporting her daughter's passion for acting and dance, she has been around several dance forms and youth theatre, knows quite a lot about Bollywood dance in particular, and has chaperoned young performers at the Proms.