The Team and the Board behind Imbali

Alisa Ray is a Community Arts Counsellor and Visual Arts Facilitator who works in a range of different contexts. She works with children at an inner-city children’s home, as well as with adults at addiction and psychiatric recovery centres. Alisa is currently studying to become a qualified Art Therapist. At Imbali, she runs the Life Skills Programme, which was piloted in 2019.

Ane Lyngsgaard is a Danish basket maker internationally recognised for her innovative weaving practice. She has over 20 years of experience and has taught in Europe, Canada, the United States and Africa. Her work is exhibited in Europe and is included in several public and private collections. Ane specialises in merging old, traditional skills with contemporary design. Her work is inspired by nature and balance. At Imbali, she introduced new weaving methods and materials, including pack band, chop sticks, wire and thread, while working with both students and facilitators.

Eva Seidenfaden has worked in the field of basketry as a weaver, teacher, author and curator since 1983. She specialises in spiral basketry from Dordogne in France and Burkina Faso in Africa. Eva has exhibited widely and has participated in numerous international craft fairs. She founded the organisation Baskets4Life, a collaborative group of Danish basket makers and designers who exhibit together and work with communities to exchange weaving skills. Since 2006, Eva has been involved in working with women’s weaving initiatives in Burkina Faso, including developing a production line of shopping baskets. She came to Imbali to teach the Burkina technique with coloured telephone wire.

Harriet Riddell is a performance textile artist and educator from Oxfordshire, UK. She studied Contemporary Applied Arts at the University of Hertfordshire. Harriett uses freeform embroidery to create stitched portraits and live scenarios, often working in unusual locations such as public markets, slums and fields, sometimes powering her sewing machine with solar energy, bicycle batteries or foot pedals. Her work has been exhibited in cities around the world, including London, Delhi, Nairobi and Toronto. Harriet spent six weeks at Imbali in 2018 teaching freeform embroidery.

Kathrin Stadler is a full-time artist and creative practitioner based in Basel, Switzerland. She has travelled regularly to Imbali to teach, bringing new ideas, techniques and materials. Her enthusiasm is contagious and she is responsible for introducing Imbali to new products and creative directions. Kathrin approaches art in a playful way, encouraging her students to celebrate the often-overlooked details of everyday life. She has a studio at Kulturzentrum Kesselhaus in Germany, where she works with a wide range of materials, including found objects, photography, paper, fabrics, wax, inks and charcoal.

Kamal Naran has worked in a variety of different art and counselling facilitation contexts, including museum workshop facilitation, extracurricular art programmes in schools, the Lefika La Phodiso Community Art Counselling and Training Institute, and the Johannesburg Parent and Child Counselling Centre. He has also written and presented numerous academic papers at conferences. At Imbali, Kamal worked alongside Alisa Ray to develop and run the Life Skills Programme.

Kim Sacks is an award-winning ceramicist, a ceramics and craft teacher, a gallery owner and a collector of African art and crafts. She supports Imbali in numerous ways, including offering advice and mentorship to our ceramics teachers and students, and hosting tours of her gallery and ceramics studio for Imbali students and graduates.

Mara Fleischer is an inspired and uninhibited creative, specialising in finding sustainable environmental solutions. She is a community facilitator, focusing on meaningful collaborations with cultures, society and the environment. She is passionate about recycling and design for community enterprise, and she thrives on the innovation in Africa. Mara has over 20 years of experience in the crafts sector, specialising in product design and development, creative facilitation, design thinking and entrepreneurial skills.

Alisa Ray is a Community Arts Counsellor and Visual Arts Facilitator who works in a range of different contexts. She works with children at an inner-city children’s home, as well as with adults at addiction and psychiatric recovery centres. Alisa is currently studying to become a qualified Art Therapist. At Imbali, she runs the Life Skills Programme, which was piloted in 2019.

Ane Lyngsgaard is a Danish basket maker internationally recognised for her innovative weaving practice. She has over 20 years of experience and has taught in Europe, Canada, the United States and Africa. Her work is exhibited in Europe and is included in several public and private collections. Ane specialises in merging old, traditional skills with contemporary design. Her work is inspired by nature and balance. At Imbali, she introduced new weaving methods and materials – including pack band, chop sticks, wire and thread – while working with both students and facilitators. “In my teaching, I want to improve the skills of the students by using methods I have been taught by international basketry masters all over the world.”

Eva Seidenfaden has worked in the field of basketry as a weaver, teacher, author and curator since 1983. She specialises in spiral basketry from Dordogne in France and Burkina Faso in Africa. Eva has exhibited widely and has participated in numerous international craft fairs. She founded the organisation Baskets4Life, a collaborative group of Danish basket makers and designers who exhibit together and work with communities to exchange weaving skills. Since 2006, Eva has been involved in working with women’s weaving initiatives in Burkina Faso, including developing a production line of shopping baskets. She came to Imbali to teach the Burkina technique with coloured telephone wire. She imparted a keen delight in this technique, inspiring students with its creative possibilities.

Harriet Riddell is a performance textile artist and educator from Oxfordshire, UK. She studied Contemporary Applied Arts at the University of Hertfordshire. Harriet uses freeform embroidery to create stitched portraits and live scenarios. She often works in unusual locations – such as public markets, slums and fields – sometimes powering her sewing machine with solar energy, bicycle batteries or foot pedals. Her work has been exhibited in cities around the world, including London, Delhi, Nairobi and Toronto. Harriet spent six weeks at Imbali in 2018 teaching freeform embroidery. Her spontaneous way of working and her ability to capture the transient world on a permanent tapestry left a lasting impression on the students she worked with.

Kathrin Stadler is a full-time artist and creative practitioner based in Basel, Switzerland. She has travelled regularly to Imbali to teach, bringing new ideas, techniques and materials. Her enthusiasm is contagious and she is responsible for introducing Imbali to new products and creative directions. Kathrin approaches art in a playful way, encouraging her students to celebrate the often-overlooked details of everyday life. She has a studio at Kulturzentrum Kesselhaus in Germany, where she works with a wide range of materials, including found objects, photography, paper, fabrics, wax, inks and charcoal. Kathrin has completed residencies in Taiwan and Johannesburg, and has participated in numerous collaborative projects, one of the most notable being the “Graffiti Knitting Project”.

Kamal Naran has worked in a variety of different art and counselling facilitation contexts, including museum workshop facilitation, extracurricular art programmes in schools, the Lefika La Phodiso Community Art Counselling and Training Institute, and the Johannesburg Parent and Child Counselling Centre. He has also written and presented numerous academic papers at conferences. At Imbali, Kamal worked alongside Alisa Ray to develop and run the Life Skills Programme.

Kim Sacks is an award-winning ceramicist, a ceramics and craft teacher, a gallery owner and a collector of African art and crafts. She supports Imbali in numerous ways, including offering advice and mentorship to our ceramics teachers and students, and hosting tours of her gallery and ceramics studio for Imbali students and graduates.

Mara Fleischer is an inspired and uninhibited creative, specialising in finding sustainable environmental solutions. She is a community facilitator, focusing on meaningful collaborations with cultures, society and the environment. She is passionate about recycling and design for community enterprise, and she thrives on the innovation in Africa. Mara has over 20 years of experience in the crafts sector, specialising in product design and development, creative facilitation, design thinking and entrepreneurial skills. Mara works with Imbali as a specialist product developer and design-thinking facilitator.