Walker joins ACE as London's area director

Arts Council England (ACE) has appointed Michelle Walker as its new area director for London.

Walker will lead the delivery of Let’s Create, the organisation’s 10-year strategy across all boroughs in London, making strategic investment to ensure there is impact for the arts across the capital.

She has extensive leadership experience in London’s cultural sector and joins ACE from the London Borough of Southwark, where she led projects both with established cultural icons such as Tate and with locally rooted partners such as Theatre Peckham.

Prior to this, she was the strategic lead for culture at Nine Elms for Wandsworth Council, executive director at Festival.Org (Greenwich+Docklands International Festival) and has worked as director at the Hat Fair festival in Winchester and as a producer at Oxford Playhouse Theatre.

Walker said: "I am delighted to be joining Arts Council England and am very much looking forward to working with the London Area team to support creativity of all kinds across the capital.

"London’s remarkable range of cultural experiences and the diversity of our city has always been, and will always be, an exciting context in which to work."

She added: “But I am also mindful of the many challenges currently facing those making or accessing creative and cultural activity. As area director I hope to be able to contribute to the Arts Council’s efforts, alongside those of its key partners, in supporting London’s artists, cultural organisations and communities in meeting those challenges in the years ahead."

Laura Dyer, deputy-chief executive for ACE, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be welcoming in Michelle as our new London Area director. The expertise and experience that Michelle brings from her years working in London’s arts and culture sector, both at local authority level as well as directly from the heart of some of the capital’s best cultural organisations, will be a huge asset as we continue to move forward with our 10-year strategy, Let’s Create."

Dyer added: “Under her leadership we will ensure that London’s cultural ecology continues to work for everyone, not only championing  the city’s international reputation as a world leader in the creative industries, but also at a local level, where we want to continue to work towards ensuring that every Londoner, no matter their background or their borough, has access to a thriving cultural scene and world-class creative opportunities.” 

Walker will join ACE in November, succeeding Tonya Nelson, who became executive director for enterprise and innovation at ACE in July.