AV FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES NEW DIRECTOR!
Audio Visual Arts North East, organisers of the AV Festival - now established as one of the leading electronic art festivals in Europe, and secured as one of Arts Council England's regularly funded organisations - are delighted to announce that they have recruited a new Artistic Director to lead the festival to the next level.
Rebecca Shatwell is a curator and founder of alt.gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, a space focusing on the links between visual art, sound and music culture. She previously worked as New Media Curator at Pavilion, Leeds; Education Programmer at The Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow; and Curatorial Assistant at Beaconsfield, London.
Rebecca has recently curated six exhibitions for alt.gallery, described in Contemporary Magazine as one of the top fifty emerging galleries from across the world. This has included the first UK exhibitions by artists including cult US musician Daniel Johnston, Japanese artist Yamataka EYE and People Like Us.
Since 2003 Rebecca has worked as Media Arts Officer at Arts Council England, North East.
Rebecca said today:
"AV Festival is one of the most innovative and engaging cultural events in the region. I'm extremely excited to be taking on the post of Director and to build on the incredible work that's been done over the past three festivals to make AV one of the most important electronic arts festivals in Europe."
Said Mark Dobson, AV Festival Chair of the Board of Trustees:
"We are delighted to announce that Rebecca is the new AV Festival Director and though competition for the post was of an extremely high standard she shone out above the other talent. We feel sure that she will be an inspirational new leader who will chart out new territories for the festival."
Stella Hall, Creative Director of Culture 10 at NewcastleGateshead Initiative, said:
"We are extremely excited to have Rebecca on board to lead the AV festival. AV has a growing reputation that attracts both audiences and high profile artists from around the world. It is real proof that here in North East England we have some of the most innovative and high quality festivals in the country, giving us not just unrivalled opportunities to enjoy world class events but also to attract people to visit and experience our vibrant region."
For further information please contact:
Nicky Harrison, White Hot Communications
T: 0191 280 8020 / 07824 390826
E: nicky@whitehotcomms.co.uk
Editors notes:
AV Festival is an international biennial festival of electronic arts, and features visual art, music and moving image. The most recent festival - AV 08 - spanned four cities throughout its nine day period and was not only the most ambitious to date – but also the most successful ever.
The programme for AV 08 included over 75 projects which manifested as over 100 events and attracted audiences of over 100,000 including visitors to events, online and through its on air radio stations. As well as that it involved the work of almost 200 artists and delivered a whole range of new commissions and premieres, exhibitions, conferences, courses and workshops.
In addition to the programme achievements, the festival also recruited nearly 100 volunteers and attracted over half a million pounds worth of national and regional media coverage.
Rebecca Shatwell Biog
Rebecca's other freelance curatorial work has included Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival (Berwick, 2007) and Laptop Lovers, ICA Digital Studio (London, 2003).
Rebecca graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1999 with an MA in Curating Contemporary Art.