Changing Faces

Birmingham Royal Ballet has appointed Professor Michael Clarke CBE, Deputy Lieutenant for Worcestershire and former Vice Principal of Birmingham University, as its Chairman designate. The current Chair, Tessa King-Farlow, will retire in March.

Victoria Emms is taking over the Marketing and Communications function from Lisa Coates at outdoor theatre and cultural events charity ‘Walk the Plank’.

David Sulkin (pictured), Director of Programmes at Youth Music, is to become Chief Executive of the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund in January 2009.

Harrogate International Festivals’ Chief Executive, William Culver-Dodds, has left to set up his own consultancy business. He has also been offered a Visiting Fellowship of Festivals, Culture and the Arts at Leeds Metropolitan University.

Andy Horn has left Craftspace in Birmingham to take up the post of Exhibitions Manager at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Susan Hope has been appointed to the new three-year post of Crafts Social Enterprise Manager. Stuart Shotton and Melissa Davies-Lawrence are acting as maternity cover for the Education and Community Co-ordinator and Marketing and Administrative Assistant posts respectively.

Annie Warburton (pictured), Chief Executive of ArtsMatrix, will leave at the end of the year. She became Programme Director in 2005 and Chief Executive in 2007.

Keith Bartlett, currently Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in the North East, has been appointed as Area Director North of Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. He becomes the third Area Director of Engagement, alongside recent appointees Jon Finch, Area Director West, and Sam Bestwick, Area Director East.

The Wycombe Swan theatre has announced the appointment of Abi Singleton (pictured) to the new post of Marketing and Sales Manager.

Prashant Singh joins the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as its new Communications Manager.

Kate Flannery has joined the Arts Marketing Association as Membership Development Manager.

Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery has announced Catherine Hemelryk (pictured) as its new Curator. She moves from the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania, where she has been Curator since 2005.

Beam, a Wakefield-based consultancy working to improve the public realm, has appointed Mary Nash as Marketing and Development Manager, and Dette Allmark, a practising artist based in Westgate Studios, is the new Resources Officer.

Kirstie Davis (pictured), currently Associate Director at Cheltenham Everyman Theatre, will replace Sean Aita as Chief Executive Officer and Artistic Director of Forest Forge Theatre Company in January 2009.

The Octagon Theatre, Bolton, has appointed David Thacker as Artistic Director, succeeding Mark Babych, who will leave in July 2009.

Sheila McGregor (pictured) is the new Chief Executive of Axis, an online resource for contemporary art. She was previously Deputy Director at The New Art Gallery, Walsall, and before that Curator of Art at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

Mig Kimpton has been appointed as Theatre Director of the newly reopened Arts Theatre in London. He moves from his role as General Manager for the Carl Rosa Opera Company.