Josie Williams, 55, is a community arts development officer based at Commonweal School. She lives in Old Town with husband Victor, a pensions analysis officer, and has three grown-up children and a grandson  

“My job is about developing the arts not just for our school but for other schools and the wider community,” said Josie Williams.

“I think the arts in schools are a good way to deliver other things.

“Art is a fun thing – it should be a fun thing – and most people can do something in the arts, whether it’s painting or drawing, dancing or singing.

“It’s a good way for people to gain confidence and it’s all about transferable skills. If you’ve got confidence you can stand up in front of people and do absolutely anything with your life.

“It’s about getting to know people and building communities, so they can share something that hopefully doesn’t cost too much money.”

Josie’s responsibilities include publicising school arts events, organising the Swindon Festival of Literature Youth Poetry Slam and co-ordinating the Little Big Festival in the Town Gardens. She is a committee member for the Old Town Festival, a published poet and an exhibited photographer.

She was born in Upper Stratton, the youngest of four siblings. Her late father, Doug, was a foreman electrician at British Leyland, while her late mother, Edna, was a school dinner lady.

“She was involved a lot with the arts,” said Josie. “She belonged to amateur dramatics groups and she was a really good singer. She took part in the Swindon Festival every year and often came back with medals. She sang in choirs and entertained old people, even when she was in her 80s herself.”

Josie went to school at Kingsdown and Headlands and wouldn’t return to education until she was 40, when she went to Swindon College of Art and Design to study desk top publishing and secure an HND in multi-media.

Her ambition at school had been to work with animals. “I wasn’t quite sure how. I wasn’t very academic at school. I have minor dyslexia.”

The condition, Josie feels, has helped her train her mind, allowing her to handle multiple tasks by making lists and devising plans.

She said: “I think it’s quite sad these days that kids, unless they’ve got a grade C in Maths and English, are pretty much written off because you can’t even get a job filling shelves unless you’ve got a C grade.”

Josie’s own Grade 5 CSE in maths didn’t prevent her from rising to the position of chief cashier in a local shop after leaving school, but her arts career took off after a planned weekend trip to Wales ended up lasting five years.

“I was hitchhiking along the road from Cardigan to Fishguard and I happened to get a lift – me and my mate – from the editor of the County Echo, which is based in Fishguard. “By the end of the journey I had a freelance job with him, going around photographing events.”

On returning to Swindon she found work with the independent Swindon Messenger newspaper and the Swindon Business Report, handling everything from advertising features to food reviews.

Josie especially remembers one meal at The Manor House in Castle Combe.

“My husband had this beaten up V-reg Vauxhall Viva, so I said to him, ‘We’re not taking that up the drive, we’re going to leave it outside’.

“So we walked up the drive to this place and we had a lovely dinner there. At the table opposite was Jack Nicholson, but of course I couldn’t take my camera out or do anything like that because I wasn’t allowed to.”

Josie later worked as a freelance photographer and journalist for publications as diverse as Wiltshire Life, Gloucestershire Life, My Weekly and She magazine.

Sent by My Weekly to cover the Bristol Balloon Fiesta one year, she happened to enter and win a cigarette firm’s competition whose prize was a Concorde flight over the Bay of Biscay.

Once aboard, she offered to photograph the other winners so the images could be sent to their home town newspapers.

“I suppose it’s thinking on your feet, really, isn’t it?” Josie recalled.

Other career highlights included the publication of a book of erotic poems, which she performed at Glastonbury for three years and toured around venues in London.

“It didn’t go down too well with the Poetry Society in London – they thought it was rubbish – but lots of people enjoyed it and that’s the main thing, isn’t it?

“I haven’t been trained to write poetry but I don’t think you need to be trained to write poetry. It should come from the heart. So what if it’s not an exact format that you’ve been taught to do it in?

Later came a film company in partnership with artist Mike Juggins, who also has dyslexia.

“We set this company up called Ants in Your Pants, using art as a vehicle to explore issues with young people.

“We were in the House of Commons with one film we made about what it’s like to be dyslexic.”

The only fly in the ointment, she recalled, was the endless round of trying to secure funding Josie was has been in her current role for a little over a decade, and her belief in the value of the arts burns as brightly as ever.

“You need to keep your soul alive. There’s got to be more to life than just going to work day in, day out. There’s got to be something that excites you.”

“If you feel good, everything around you feels good, and that little light spreads to other people as well.

“You can’t change the world on your own, but you can add a little bit of light and pass that on.”