Andrea Stark, FRSA, (born August 1962) is a British arts executive. She was chief executive of

High House Purfleet High House is the collective name for a group of historic buildings in Purfleet, Thurrock, Essex, which was used as a farm for hundreds of years, with a Grade II listed house and barn, but with the addition of one of the best dovecotes (dove hous ...

, director of the Foundation for Future London, the organisation responsible for developing the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as a new cultural and educational district and is currently Director of Employment, Skills and Culture at the London Borough of Islington. She was previously executive director of

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

, chief executive of East England Arts, and chief officer of arts and culture at Dundee City Council. The financial arrangements for her departure from Arts Council England for High House Production Park caused some adverse comment in the arts press. Her appointment was announced by High House chairman Tony Hall, now director general of the BBC.

Early life

Stark grew up in the North-East of England, where she attended school. She studied theatre at

Dartington College of Arts Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts college located at Dartington Hall in the south-west of England, offering courses at degree and postgraduate level together with an arts research programme. It existed for a period of almost 50 ...

, later moving to postgraduate study at the University of Birmingham.

Career

Stark first worked in theatre before becoming the arts chief for the City of Sunderland and later Dundee City Council, where she worked on major regeneration programmes using the creative industries to drive local economic growth. At Dundee, she was key in ensuring £5.6 million in National Lottery funding for the Dundee Centre for Contemporary Arts, the largest award to a Scottish institution at that point, and was suggested as a possible head of the Scottish Arts Council. In 1999, she became Chief Executive of the Eastern Arts Board, the

Executive Director for the East and South East, and a member of their National Executive Board. Whilst in this post, "she devised a highly successful investment strategy that generated over £125 million for a series of world class arts centres". In 2012, Stark left to become Chief Executive of the new

in Essex. There, she led the team that created a national centre of excellence for creative industries. The purpose-built centre is shared by other organisations such as the Royal Opera House,

Creative & Cultural Skills Creative & Cultural Skills is one of the Sector Skills Councils established by the UK Government in 2005 to foster the development of a skilled workforce. Function It covers crafts, cultural heritage, jewelry, design, music, performing, literary ...

and Acme Studios, and built on work Stark had done to support redevelopment while at the Arts Council. After the end of the 2012 London Olympics, a body was set up to redevelop the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London into a new cultural and educational hub as part of the Mayor of London's 'Olympicopolis' project. Stark was appointed its first director in June 2016. Stark was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Essex in June 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stark, Andrea Living people 1962 births British chief executives British arts administrators Women arts administrators Alumni of the University of Birmingham