Ruth Mackenzie

Director of Arts (Global)

British Council

Speaker Biography

Ruth Mackenzie is the Director of Arts (Global) of the British Council.

A former artistic director of Adelaide Festival, Holland Festival in Amsterdam and General Director of Manchester International Festival, Mackenzie was in charge of the official cultural programme for the 2012 London Olympics.

She also worked as Dramaturg for the Vienna Festival and was Director of Scottish Opera, major theatres in Nottingham and Chichester and the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris.

She was Special Advisor on Culture and Creative Industries for the UK Governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and is an Associate of the World Cultural Cities Forum.

Ruth has also been consultant artistic director for the Mayor of London working on a large-scale cultural program, Let’s Do London, and for Comme des Garçons in Paris to open a new arts centre aimed at audiences under 30 years old.

She advised on the curation of a cultural program for the Louvre Abu Dhabi, for the C40 Conference of World Mayors in Paris and Amsterdam, for the University of Arts London’s new AKO Storytelling Institute and was lead Creative for the Art Fund’s The Wild Escape with the BBC, WWF and RSPB.

She was Chair of the London Arts Council, sat on the National Arts Council of England, served as a Board Member of Musée D’Orsay, Paris, the Serpentine Gallery, London and UNESCO City of Music Adelaide She was also a judge in 2021 of the World Cultural Cities Leadership Prize, of the Pina Bausch Foundation Fellowship Prize and the Paris Urban Film Festival.

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