Alex M Poots (1985)
24/11/2015
Alex was awarded the C.B.E. in the 2015 Birthday Honours for Services to the Arts. He was the founding director of the Manchester International Festival He took up the role of the festival’s artistic director in late 2004, has seen the biennial event grow from a £5m project in 2007 to a projected £12m project in 2015. In 2010 he served as a part-time artistic adviser to the 2010 Olympics. He is leaving Manchester to take up the position of chief executive and artistic director of the huge $360 million Culture Shed in New York, an innovative new Manhattan venue that will showcase a variety of arts – from fashion to video to theatre – which is due to open in 2018. “It felt right to go at a time when the festival still feels very relevant and exciting, and I just thought, if the right thing comes along, ten years seems like a good time to leave. And then the right thing did come along.”