Without Walls is the UK’s largest commissioner of outdoor arts shows, taking inspiring new work to audiences all over the country and beyond

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

This significant 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 network forward during this exciting and dynamic time of change.

Those joining the Without Walls Board in 2018 are:

  • Dr Jane Ali-Knight, 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, Co-founder of Company Chameleon, Clore Fellow, FRSA;
  • 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. 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’.

The announcement comes in a year of change. Without Walls was awarded Arts Council England (ACE) National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) status 2018 – 2022. This year, in year one, enhanced funding helped commission and support thirteen new outdoor shows to tour across the Without Walls festivals and beyond, and enabled Without Walls Blueprint research and development investment programme which launched in April 2018 and supported 21 exceptional artists and companies from a wide variety of art-forms across UK regions to explore the creation of ambitious, diverse and innovative new outdoor work

Since 2007, Without Walls has commissioned new work for the outdoors with project funding from Arts Council England and partnership support. It has supported the creation and touring of over 130 new shows that have toured to 22 countries worldwide. The NPO uplift and status from Arts Council England is a fitting recognition of the value of exceptional outdoor performances; enabling on-going commissioning of radical, surprising and thrilling work to attract more people to free events in places where they live, work and play.

Visit this page to find out more about the Board Directors.