Board of Directors

The Directors serve the running of the Chisholme Institute according to its aims. They meet regularly at Chisholme House to discuss its financing, staffing, maintenance, building projects, household matters, garden, estate and publicity and so on.

You can write to them:
The Directors
The Chisholme Institute
Chisholme House
Roberton, Hawick TD9 7PH
Scotland, UK

Sylvain Ayité
Sylvain was born in Dakar, Senegal and has a mixed cultural background. He has lived in Scotland since 1998 where for the last 20 years he has worked in the field of mental health and wellbeing. Sylvain holds a postgraduate degree in counselling and psychotherapy and works in private practice in Edinburgh. He is the founder of Recovery Through Music, an initiative aimed at using music as a catalyst for healing and recovery from addictions. Sylvain has been involved with the Chisholme Institute since 2006 having undergone a six-month course. He has also co-facilitated a Discovery Unity course alongside Peter Young in Edinburgh.

Hannah Dalgleish
Hannah is currently a Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the University of Southampton. She is a researcher with a PhD in Astrophysics from Liverpool John Moores University, and has ample experience in science communication, knowledge exchange, and public and policy engagement. She has been involved with numerous international scientific projects and is a former Trustee of the Royal Astronomical Society. Hannah has spent time at Chisholme studying and over many years has been a regular volunteer. She also helped to facilitate the Foundations of Natural Intelligence courses.

Julia Dry (Chair)
Julia has been a student, volunteer and guest at Chisholme since 1976. On completing the second 6-month retreat course she then went on to study Fine Art (painting) with philosophy, sociology, history and archaeology. From researching Persian 'paradise gardens' at university through a period of painting, teaching and working in archaeological illustration she followed a love of gardening to study horticulture and then worked as a professional gardener. She has a practical knowledge of accounts, and has worked in the charitable sector.

Hiroko Nagato-Apthorp
Hiroko was born and grew up in Japan and has lived, studied and worked in UK since the mid 80s. She has a masters degree in Visual Islamic and Traditional Art, specialising in Japanese screen painting. She first visited Chisolme in the late 90s and since completed two six months intensive retreat courses. She subsequently joined the staff at the Institute, supervising courses, working as housekeeper and volunteering in other areas. She and her husband have two children and they currently live in Hawick.

Tim Roberts
Tim has been a director since 2004 and has been involved with the Chisholme Institute for over 30 years. He is a professional musician and works mostly as a teacher, privately and in schools, although he is also a founder member of the nearly-famous Vastearth Orchestra. Tim lives with his partner in Worcestershire, where they have a house and three allotments. When Tim isn't at Chisholme, meeting visitors from all over the world , he likes to travel around it as much as possible.
He has long been interested in environmental issues, and this is the area he is most concerned with as a director.

Hamid van Koten
Hamid has been involved with the Chisholme Institute since 1978 when Chisholme House was still a building site. He gained a degree in Design from Glasgow School of Art in 1993 and has worked as a Design Consultant on a number of listed buildings and small architectural commissions. He also lectured extensively and was programme Leader for History and Theory at the Design School of the University of Dundee. He lives with his family in an intentional community in Devon where he looks after the estate as well as legal and financial matters.

You can also email the Directors at directors@chisholme.org

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