A man has been charged two years after a crash that killed the founder of an arts charity while he was cycling.
Tim Joss, who founded Aesop Arts & Society and served as chief executive, died aged 68 in a road traffic accident near his Brize Norton home in January 2024.
Joss had been riding on his bike on Witney Road in Oxfordshire when he collided with a car travelling in the same direction. He died at the scene.
Kieren Kilminster, 22, of Wavell Way in Winchester, has now been charged with causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving, Thames Valley Police said. He is due to appear at High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court on 7 July.
Charity to be wound-up after Joss’s death
Aesop’s, which lists its mission as bringing “the transformative potential of the arts into people's daily lives”, is in the process of closing following Joss’s death.
After the 2024 crash, the charity’s board used 2024-25 “as a period of succession, stabilisation and recovery whilst envisioning a future for Aesop in the absence of Tim’s founding vision”, the trustees’ report for the year ended 31 March 2025 reads.
The trustees subsequently decided that the charity’s operations were no longer viable, and took a “difficult decision” to wind it up by 30 June 2026, with active programme management having ceased at the end of March.
A decline in arts and health programme commissioning, stretched public budgets and the wider macroeconomic environment were among the reasons given.
Aesop’s total income dropped from £689,000 in 2023-24 to £462,000 a year later, with government grant income falling from £505,000 to £75,000 over that period.
The charity’s board said it would be focusing on knowledge sharing and on enabling other organisations to build on its legacy ahead of its closure.
“This approach offers the most effective means of continuing its impact in the field of creative health and securing a meaningful legacy that honours the founding vision of Tim Joss,” the board added.
Tributes to ‘pioneer and leader’
Joss launched the charity in 2014 and his widowed wife Vivienne Parry, a former Aesop trustee, paid tribute to the man she loved “deeply” following his death.
Parry, a science writer and broadcaster, said in 2024: “He was a pioneer, a leader and deeply proud of his team, board and dance artists, using evidenced arts interventions for health problems.”
Kevin Fenton, former Aesop chair, described Joss as a “wonderful colleague and friend” and said “we will deeply miss his advocacy, passion and commitment to creative health”.
Joss also founded national organisations such as the Bath Literature Festival, National Numeracy and the Arts Impact Fund.
