Weds 25 July 2018

Doreen Foster has been announced as the next Director of Warwick Arts Centre. She is currently Deputy Director of the Black Cultural Archives and, before that, chief executive of the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham.

Speaking about the appointment Professor Stuart Croft, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick, said:

Doreen’s energy and passion for the Arts is infectious and I look forward to welcoming her back to the West Midlands where the Arts is playing a central role in regeneration and when our City of Coventry is preparing to host the 2021 UK City of Culture. Doreen is a nationally recognised leader in the Arts and her broad-ranging experience makes her uniquely placed to help us position both Warwick Arts Centre and the University at the heart of the communities we seek to serve”.

Doreen Foster commented:

I am delighted to be appointed the new Director, building on the great work and solid foundations built by Alan Rivett and carving out new directions. I am really excited to be leading Warwick Arts Centre in the next chapter of its life. I look forward to developing Warwick’s reputation as a culturally inclusive and creatively ambitious arts centre”.

Peter Knott, Area Director at Arts Council England, said:

We are delighted to welcome Doreen Foster as Warwick Arts Centre’s new Director, with her wealth of experience and genuine passion for the arts, dance and heritage. This is a very exciting time for Warwick Arts Centre as they begin major redevelopment work of their building and prepare to play an important role as Coventry gets set to host UK City of Culture in 2021. Alan Rivett leaves behind him a great legacy, and we look forward to seeing how Doreen will build upon this, engaging with Coventry and Warwickshire’s diverse communities and making great arts and culture accessible for all.”

Doreen will take up the position of Director, Warwick Arts Centre on 1 September 2018.

Brief biography

Originally from the West Midlands Doreen Foster started her arts career as Executive Director of Kokuma Dance Company in Birmingham before joining the Arts Council for the West Midlands as Dance Officer with a remit to reinvigorate dance in the region and open up dance – contemporary and classic – to new audiences.

From there she joined the Prince’s Trust for two years before taking up the role of Executive Director of Birmingham Partnership for Change, an organisation dedicated to addressing underemployment in black populations in Birmingham.

She then joined the West Midlands Social Economic Partnership as Director before moving to the Arts Council as Director of the Chief Executive’s unit, overseeing the merger of three separate arts bodies into the new Arts Council England. From the Arts Council Doreen moved to the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham to take up the post of chief executive and to oversee a capital development.

In 2013 she assumed her current role as Deputy Director at the Black Cultural Archives, an organisation dedicated to collecting and exhibiting material, raising awareness and building interest in the presence and experience of Black people in Britain pre-1948.