News
The Spark appoints a new Artistic Director
The Spark has appointed new Artistic Director, Christopher Gorry, to take our organisation boldly and creatively into the future.
The Spark has appointed new Artistic Director, Christopher Gorry, to take our organisation boldly and creatively into the future, championing extraordinary experiences for children, sparking creativity and change.
Christopher currently works at Warts and All Theatre as the Artistic Director and CEO. A co-creation specialist, Christopher has grown Warts and All from the ground up, originally founding the company in 2016 to provide opportunities for children and young people to co-create great theatre in unexpected places.
In that time Christopher has achieved a significant amount, including a major organisational development project, the establishment of innovative school partnerships, implemented a coaching, consultancy, and training programme PROPER, conceived the organisation’s Speak Your Truth project which amplifies diverse young people’s voices to drive organisation decision making and introduced a Pay-On-Your-Terms membership model; ensuring no matter what a young person’s circumstances they can access high quality cultural experiences.
We pride ourselves at The Spark on delivering a collaborative and innovative children’s arts festival, organising world-class cultural work in local schools, libraries and communities year-round, supporting artists from diverse backgrounds to develop new practice and produce new work for young audiences, and working with others to help them grow and present the most exciting ideas, productions and cultural programmes in Leicester and beyond.
As successor to Director Adel Al-Salloum, who after nine festivals and nearly a decade of significant achievements, left last Autumn to work at UNBOXED2022, Christopher will build on a strong legacy. The Spark team are delighted to welcome Christopher, who will be officially starting in post in July 2022.
“I'm over the moon to be joining such an important organisation on the next chapter of their story. The Spark Arts for Children has been an organisation I've admired for a long time. I'm excited to be joining such a rich cultural ecology in Leicester, which demonstrates a real commitment to partnership working, ensuring that arts and cultural activity is accessible, inclusive and ambitious. I look forward to working with the team to continue the fantastic work already being done and finding opportunities for us to co-create dynamic art with the artists, audiences, participants and communities it is intending to serve.”
Christopher GorryArtistic Director
“We are excited that Chris has decided to join our talented team. We look forward to working with Chris to continue to provide extraordinary creative experiences for children and expanding our world-class cultural offer.”
Mike CandlerChair of the Board of Trustees
