Download Mary Allen (Chair) Mary Allen was Secretary

Mary Allen (Chair)
Mary Allen was Secretary-General of the Arts Council from 1994 to 1997, and
then spent seven months as Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House, during
one of the most controversial periods in its history, saving the organisation from
bankruptcy. She published A House Divided, an account of her time there, which
was serialised in The Times.
Mary has worked for most of her professional life in the arts. She began her
career as an actor, then worked for a multi-national oil company, setting up one
of Britain’s first arts sponsorship programmes. She has served on a number of
boards and committees, including Cheek by Jowl, Dance Umbrella and Rambert
Dance, and was the Chairman of the Public Art Development Trust. She wrote the
definitive reference work on raising business sponsorship, and a book for the
Economist Publications Sponsoring the Arts: New Business Strategies for the
1990s. In the early 1990s she was director of Watermans Arts Centre, during
which time she introduced a series of literary talks presented by John Walsh.
Nina Caplan
Nina is an award-winning arts, food and drink, travel and lifestyle journalist as
well as Chief Editor at Save the Children, where she helps devise print and digital
strategy and oversees the commissioning, writing and editing of key content. She
has been Features Editor of Time Out and Directories Editor at The Guardian;
more recently she was Editor of Metropolitan, the trilingual Eurostar magazine.
Since 2011, she has been the wine columnist of the New Statesman.
Bea Colley
Bea works in writer and reader development and learning and participation, and
is currently Participation Producer (Literature & Spoken Word) at London's
Southbank Centre. She previously worked on a city-wide reading initiative in
Liverpool which partnered with the Great Reading Adventure in Bristol and other
cities, led the Poetry Society's education team as the organisation went through
huge growth, and was one of the lead producers of Poetry Parnassus, the largest
international poetry festival to ever take place in the UK at Southbank Centre.
Alongside these roles at more established organisations, Bea set up her own
poetry and spoken word initiative in Liverpool and London.
Vanessa Gebbie
Vanessa is an award-winning writer, writing teacher, mentor and editor. She has
worked as a trustee for a number of institutions including Brighton College, St.
Christopher’s School and Mothercraft Charity. Vanessa has a number of
publications including a novel, The Coward’s Tale published by Bloomsbury, and
two collections of short fiction, Words from a Glass Bubble and Storm Warning:
Echoes of Conflict published by Salt. She is also commissioning and contributing
editor of Salt’s Short Circuit, Guide to the Art of the Short Story, editions 1 and
2. Her most recent book is a poetry pamphlet,The Half-life of Fathers published
by Pighog.
Christine Harmar-Brown
Christine Harmar-Brown’s TV and theatre credits include a number of issue-based
plays for young people, the four-part TV drama Inside Out and two episodes
of Supply and Demand, 15 Minutes (developed as part of the National Theatre
Studio scheme), and several Shakespeare abridgements. She has previously
worked as a director of new writing with the Royal Court Young Peoples' Theatre.
She spent three years in TV as a BBC Script Editor and as Head of Development
for La Plante Productions before becoming a freelance writer.
Christine co-founded B&R Productions Ltd in 1998, with Ian Ross, originally to
produce new writing and revivals of contemporary classics. Latterly the company
has undertaken a number of arts consultancy projects, launched and developed
the award winning School Creative Centre as a studio facility and creative
industries hub across the visual and performing arts spectrum and continues to
work on projects in Kent and East Sussex.
Simon Richardson
Simon is an Assistant Producer of books programmes on BBC Radio 4 and the
World Service. He joined the BBC as a Talent Scout for BBC Writersroom North
before later working in BBC Radio Drama and now produces programmes about
books, from Book at Bedtime and Book of the Week, to interviewing writers for
Radio 4’s Open Book programme. He has a particular interest in new prose
writing and whilst at the BBC has commissioned new work from authors including
Teju Cole, Marina Lewycka, Michael Rosen, Niven Govinden, M J Hyland and
Chibundu Onuzo, and directed readings of this work by actors including Martin
Freeman, Riz Ahmed, David Suchet, Maxine Peake, Tom Courtenay and Juliet
Stevenson.
Before working at the BBC he was the manager of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize,
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Prior
to moving to London he worked at Manchester University's Centre for New
Writing programming writer events and launching its creative writing journal The
Manchester Review, and as an event manager for Manchester Literature Festival.
He is a former trustee of the United Kingdom Youth Parliament.
Bella Todd
Bella is a Brighton-based arts journalist and workshop leader. She writes about
theatre, music and the arts in general for publications including The Guardian,
Time Out and The Stage, and wrote the guidebook Time Out Brighton Shortlist.
She has worked as staff writer at Time Out, editor of what’s on magazine Latest 7
and entertainments editor of The Argus since winning the National Student
Journalism Award for arts writing. Bella gives talks and workshops about aspects
of arts criticism and journalism, and guest lectures in journalism at BHASVIC and
University of Brighton. She works closely with arts organisations committed to
diversity such as Disability Arts Online, Creative Minds and Gig Buddies, and has
a particular interest in introducing new voices to arts criticism. She is also a
trainee psychodynamic counsellor.
Rob Warr
Rob is an award-winning TV and film executive producer. Credits
include Casualty, the BAFTA winning Dunkirk, the Grammy winning Peter Gabriel's
Secret World and the feature film Let Him Have It. He has a particular expertise in
talent management, gained in the music industry and at the BBC. Rob started his
career in the music industry, managing bands such as Gang of Four, ABC, The
Human League and Scritti Politti. Switching to film and TV he produced Let Him
have It in 1991 and then joined PMI, the TV and video division of EMI Records as
Creative Director. From 1999-2004 Rob oversaw the BBC's talent management
division before producing Dunkirk and Casualty for the BBC. Recently, he had
been developing TV and feature film projects in the UK and US and working with
Griff Rhys Jones and Modern TV as Executive Producer.
Simon is an Assistant Producer of books programmes on BBC Radio 4 and the
World Service. He joined the BBC as a Talent Scout for BBC Writersroom North
before later working in BBC Radio Drama and now produces programmes about
books, from Book at Bedtime and Book of the Week, to interviewing writers for
Radio 4’s Open Book programme. He has a particular interest in new prose
writing and whilst at the BBC has commissioned new work from authors including
Teju Cole, Marina Lewycka, Michael Rosen, Niven Govinden, M J Hyland and
Chibundu Onuzo, and directed readings of this work by actors including Martin
Freeman, Riz Ahmed, David Suchet, Maxine Peake, Tom Courtenay and Juliet
Stevenson.
Before working at the BBC he was the manager of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize,
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Prior
to moving to London he worked at Manchester University's Centre for New
Writing programming writer events and launching its creative writing journal The
Manchester Review, and as an event manager for Manchester Literature Festival.
He is a former trustee of the United Kingdom Youth Parliament.