Without Walls has appointed eight new members to its Board of Directors, as well as the full complement of board members for 2018 onwards. 

This expansion of Without Walls’ Board brings together those with sector knowledge and skills alongside new perspectives and insights. Drawn from our existing networks and through an open call, the eight new directors will join the existing Board of two directors and Josephine Burns, executive chair of Without Walls to carry the consortium forward during this exciting and dynamic time of change. 

Those joining the Without Walls Board in 2018 are:

  • Dr Jane Ali-Knight (pictured), professor in Festival and Event Management at Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland and a Visiting Professor at Curtin University Australia;
  • Angie Bual, producer and artistic director of Trigger, winner of the Creative Producer Arts Foundation Award, Clore Fellow and Interim Chair for Mayk in Bristol;
  • Mark Denbigh, head of production at Norfolk and Norwich Festival;
  • Richard Holt, head of Global Cities Research for Oxford Economics
  • Jan Lennox, director of Watermans, London;
  • Anthony Missen, Clore Fellow, member of Greater Manchester Culture Steering Group, founding Director of New Movement Collective and co-founder of Company Chameleon;
  • Stephen Munn, chief executive officer and Artistic Director of Déda & Derby Festé;
  • Gemma Thomas, creative producer for Appetite, Stoke-On-Trent, and Special Projects Producer at the New Vic Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire;
  • And will sit alongside existing Without Walls Board Directors:
  • Andrew Comben, chief executive of Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival;
  • Joe Mackintosh chief executive of SeaChange Arts and artistic director of the Out There International Festival of Circus & Street Arts.

Josephine Burns, chair of Without Walls said We are delighted to welcome the new Board Directors to Without Walls. As the UK’s largest, most ambitious network of outdoor arts festivals and organisations.  Collective and democratic decision-making by festival directors from across the UK lies at the heart of our operation, managed by XTRAX. This model is central to the success of the past ten years of commissioning ambitious new work for touring. The new Board structure ensures that the undoubted strengths of this model is enhanced by new voices and ideas”.