Staff Directory

Meet our team

The Gallery is run by Co-Directors Peter Richards and Sarah McAvera. Peter is the artistic lead, with Sarah leading on fundraising and operations.  Working together, they set the strategic direction for the gallery, design the programmes, source the funding and allocate the staffing resources to achieve this vision.  Both are among Ireland’s leading specialists in Northern Irish Art and collectively have over 36 years’ experience of curation, leadership and project management in the Visual Arts sector, at national and international level.

Peter Richards

Co-Director

Peter Richards

Co-Director

Peter Richards has over twenty years’ experience in the arts, both as a curator and as an artist. He has led the Golden Thread Gallery since 2001 and is the current Chair of the Belfast Visual Arts Forum. Peter has developed and managed projects across Northern Ireland, nationally and internationally. Peter’s role includes devising the gallery’s’ exhibition programmes, curation, engaging with key stakeholders, budgetary control, strategic development, and lobbying for the arts.

He currently serves as the secretary of IACA (International Association of Art Critics, Ireland) and on the Board of Directors of the Cathedral Quarter Trust, Belfast. In the past Richards has served on the Board of Directors of Bbeyond, Catalyst Arts and Flax Art Studios.

Sarah McAvera

Co-Director

Sarah McAvera

Co-Director

Sarah has two decades of experience as a project manager, curator, facilitator and fundraiser, and has been with the GTG since 2005. Her role encompasses strategic development, fundraising, management, stakeholder engagement, curation and mentoring. Sarah was editor of the GTG Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art series, and her writing has appeared in Circa, Irish Arts Review and CURA Magazines. She is a member of the Belfast Visual Arts Forum Audiences Group and the Imperial War Museum Specialist Subject Network. Sarah’s commitment to making the arts more accessible and championing Northern Irish artists was recognised in her 2023 NI Women’s Award for Achievement in Arts & Culture.  

Liz Byrne

Development Manager

Liz Byrne

Development Manager

Liz joined the GTG as fundraising officer in August 2019, seeking new funding and partnerships. She works to support the Gallery’s strategic development and vision for the future; identifying new opportunities and community partnerships, diversifying income, fundraising and donations, press and marketing, and supporting the co-directors in gallery operations. Her previous experience includes Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and BBC Current Affairs for 12 years, producing films for Panorama, Spotlight NI and BBC Three. Liz holds an MA in Creative Writing from QUB. She received a 2024 ‘Inspirational Woman in the Arts’ award from Local Women Magazine.

Mary Stevens

Exhibitions Officer

Mary Stevens

Exhibitions Officer

Mary has worked at Golden Thread Gallery since May 2018 and was made the Exhibitions Officer in August 2019. Previously, Mary worked at the University of Atypical (formerly Arts and Disability forum) the MAC Belfast, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and was a Co-Director of Catalyst Arts Belfast for two years. Mary is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh (MSc) and the University of Ulster (BA Hons). She has published articles in Paper Visual Art, VAN Newsletter, The Thin Air, and the Herald, Scotland. For GTG she has co-curated several exhibitions, including Hold On Tight (an exhibition of female performance artists, November 2022) Claire Langan’s solo exhibition The New Dawn Fades (August 2023) and curated I Can Never Nail the Days Down in January 2023. She was a member of the British Art Network’s Emerging Curators Group (2023) and was recently awarded funding from the Paul Mellon Foundation (BAN) and a Frieze curatorial grant from Art Fund UK (2024). 

Katharine Paisley

Outreach Officer

Katharine Paisley

Outreach Officer

Katharine joined the GTG team as a Gallery Assistant in September 2020 and has fronted outreach and workshops since 2022. Her role includes developing outreach activities and planning in the Hub, assisting the GTG team, liaising with artists, organisations and visitors, and overseeing our FOH volunteers. Katharine launched our award-winning Junior Gallery Newsletter and creates many of our online workshops. Katharine graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in 2018 with a BA Hons in Fine Art. She is an artist, a member of Flax Art Studios Belfast, and was a British Council Venice Research Fellow 2021.

Jennifer Alexander

Audience Development Assistant

Jennifer Alexander

Audience Development Assistant

Jennifer joined the GTG team in a new role of Audience Development Assistant in 2022, thanks to support from the Department for Communities via the ‘Art Work’ Scheme administered by Future Screens NI. Her role includes audiences’ evaluation, social media and marketing, outreach and assisting with gallery operations. Jennifer is a graduate of the RSAMD (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) in Technical & Production Theatre Arts and received an MFA in Fine Arts from Ulster University in 2020. Jennifer is an artist and curator for Threshold Gallery, a studio member at Flax Art Studio and a former Catalyst Arts Co-Director.

Board of Directors

Joe McVey

Joe McVey (Chair), a founding partner of Blueprint Development, has worked extensively in regeneration and development, in local government and the private and community sectors.

John FitzGerald

John FitzGerald (Treasurer), Dickson FitzGerald Architects, & Specialist Architectural Advisor to the Ministerial Advisory Group for Architecture and the built environment.

Amanda Croft

Amanda Croft, art historian and former Teaching Fellow and Head of the History of Art department at Queen’s University Belfast.

Tony Hill

Tony Hill, Artist & former Director of the Master of Fine Art Course at University of Ulster.

Paul Brolly

Paul Brolly, Head of Creative, BBC Northern Ireland.

Catherine McLaughlin

Catherine McLaughlin, Campaign Manager at The National Museum of the Royal Navy, visual artist and visual arts representative of the Go Girls.

Andrew Drylie

Andrew Drylie, Principal at Quadri Ventures, financial consultant.

Shan McAnena

Curator, author and art historian. Former Public Engagement Manager at Historic Royal Palaces, founding Director of the Naughton Gallery at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Front of House Volunteer Team

Zoe Meeks Cony Ortiz Layhwa Cheah Louise Kennedy Maya Todd

Áine Crawford Ella Connor Erin Bennett Anna Rankin Ben Crone

Abby Dunn Henry O’Neill Leo Fitzsymons Emma Brown

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