Forward Arts Foundation announces new roles for Andrews and Macnab

The Forward Arts Foundation, which is celebrating 30 years of its flagship programmes, has announced new leadership roles, with the British Library's Jamie Andrews taking over as chair.

Current chair of the charity Martin Thomas will be succeeded by Andrews, head of culture and learning at the British Library, who steps up from his role as trustee. Andrews brings experience across the charity sector, as well as his extensive knowledge of Forward’s impact having served as a Forward Prizes judge in 2019.

As well as a change in chair, there have been new trustees appointed this autumn. Mary Amanuel, Maya Ophelia, Amelia Richards and Aoife O’Connor have all been appointed following careers in data engineering, marketing, theatre and poetry respectively.

Thomas helped steer the organisation through a leadership transition across 2021 by creating a job share at the most senior level of the organisation. This means that in January 2022, Lucy Macnab will join Mónica Parle as co-executive director, with a view to building the organisation’s long-term resilience through the continuing pandemic.

“It has been wonderful to serve as chair of such a vibrant organisation that champions poetry’s power to link communities together, bridge social divides and empower people to use their voices,” said Thomas. “I’m pleased with the work we’ve done in my time on the board, and not least knowing the organisation has a more diverse board and staff team now than at any other point in the organisation’s history, and that they are poised – around the 30th anniversary – to engage more deeply and sustainably in their work, ensuring that more communities across the UK discover the power of poetry.”

“I am delighted to be appointed chair of Forward,” said Andrews. “I look forward to working with our new co-executive directors, Mónica and Lucy, to build on the exceptional legacy, and strengthened board of trustees, that our previous chair, Martin Thomas, has left us. The challenging events of the past year have demonstrated the incontrovertible value of, and need for, poetry at the heart of our national life; and I want the Forward Arts Foundation to continue to open an ever more exciting and diverse form to as many people as possible across the UK.”