Jessica Prendergrast

Director

Economics, Culture

Jess Prendergrast is one of the founding Directors of Onion Collective. She grew up living at the zoo her parents set up in rural West Somerset. With an economics background, Jess previously worked in academia and government research, and as Economics Editor for Oxford Economics, before leaving Westminster to return home to the West Country. There, she splits her time between cultural, funding and research roles. She is slowly writing a book on ‘Attachment Economics’ to explore what a more connected form of economics could look like and is interested in social infrastructure as a vehicle for transformation. 

Jess has been instrumental in the establishment of several social enterprises. She was one of the team behind the £3.2m Minehead Eye project, an indoor skate park and youth centre, for which she remains Director, and in the establishment of Contains Art which since grew into the major £7.3m development of East Quay. She has recently retired as a trustee of the Power to Change Trust and remains a trustee of Dunster Music Festival and is the Chair of Contains Art, now a charity.