Executive Director, North East
Mark Robinson has been Executive Director in the North East since 2005; previously, he was Director, Arts & Development. From 2000 to 2002 he was Head of Film, Media and Literature at Northern Arts.
He was previously Director of Arts & Humanities at the Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Durham (1999-2000). As Director of Cleveland Arts (1993-99) he created Teesside Arts in Education, amongst other initiatives. Prior to this he worked as a freelance writer, tutor and literature worker, prison writer-in-residence, and directed the Writearound Festival. Before that he was an award-winning Head Chef in vegetarian catering.
Mark is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is also a widely published poet and critic. His most recent publication is A Balkan Exchange: 8 British and Bulgarian Poets (Arc, 2007). For 10 years he directed Scratch poetry magazine and press.
He regularly writes about arts strategy and policy on his blog Arts Counselling (http://artscounselling.blogspot.com).