Julie Batten is Director of People Express. After graduating with a BA in Creative Arts from Nottingham Trent, Julie went on to form Cloak and Dagger Theatre Company, which created and toured original small scale theatre to community venues. She then worked for several years as a freelance dance and drama practitioner and part time lecturer before joining East Midlands Shape, a disability led arts development company as part-time Arts Development Officer for Nottinghamshire. In 1997 Julie first joined People Express as part time Coordinator (job share) until she took over full time as Director in 1999. In 2000 People Express launched the ground breaking Tea, Toast and Technology project, which was included as part of Tate Britain’s outreach programme and showcased at an international conference in Japan. Since then People Express has developed and defined its own style of participatory arts based on sharing much of the decision making and creative processes with participants through project steering groups.