Arts Centre Director retires

Aberystwyth Arts Centre

Aberystwyth University and Mr Alan Hewson, Director of the Arts Centre issued the following joint statement.

Mr Alan Hewson, Director of Aberystwyth Arts Centre, has announced his retirement after 28 years of leading the Centre. Mr Hewson said that he had enjoyed the many challenging and very rewarding years working with such a creative and committed team to place the Arts Centre at the heart of the community. Mr Hewson said he particularly wanted to thank the loyal and committed Arts Centre audiences; it has been his privilege to serve them.

The University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Aled Jones, stated that Mr Hewson had made a very significant contribution over many years to the development of the Arts Centre’s artistic programme, including one of the UK’s most comprehensive and ambitious community arts programmes, a leading centre for the contemporary visual arts in Wales, an innovative media programme and critically acclaimed summer musicals. This ‘National Flagship for the Arts’ has become one of the most highly regarded arts venues in Wales and the UK with over 700,000 visitors a year.

Alan Hewson also led the major award winning redevelopment of 2000 which dramatically expanded the Arts Centre facilities and artistic and commercial programmes, making it one of the key arts centres in Wales and the UK and gaining an international reputation for its ambitious festivals programme. More recently the multi award winning 2009 Thomas Heatherwick Creative Studios complex added a new dimension to the Centre’s work, including the Artists in Residence Programme.

In the wider Wales context Mr Hewson has been involved with a range of organisations to develop art forms and cultural cooperation and was the Chair of Creu Cymru the  Development Agency for Theatres and Arts Centres in Wales. 

The University will now continue to work with the Arts Council Wales and other stakeholders to ensure that the Aberystwyth Arts Centre continues to build on its many successes, and will make every effort to appoint a worthy successor to Mr Hewson to lead the Arts Centre and to maintain its highly-regarded position in the arts in Wales, the UK and internationally.

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