Alex Poots

Alex Poots
Born
Alexander Moinet Poots

Edinburgh, Scotland
NationalityBritish
EducationCity University London
TitleArtistic Director and Chief Executive, The Shed (arts center)
SpouseKathryn Spellman-Poots
Children1 daughter and 1 son

Alexander Moinet Poots CBE is an arts and cultural leader who has built major new organizations from the ground up and who has inspired established organizations to reshape their familiar approaches into more innovative, popular and culturally democratic programs. In 2015 he was appointed the founding artistic director and chief executive of The Shed in New York City, a pioneering cultural institution that opened in 2019.[1][2] Prior to this, Poots was the founding artistic director and chief executive of the Manchester International Festival (2005-2015)[3] and the founding artistic director of New York's Park Avenue Armory (2012–2015),[4] establishing a reputation for producing and presenting artist-led, inventive, interdisciplinary new works and programs.

Early life and education

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland,[5] to a French mother and Irish father, Poots developed an early passion for music, particularly the trumpet and composition.[4] He pursued this interest, earning a bachelor's degree in music from City University London.[5] During his studies, he also contributed trumpet performances to The Blue Nile's album Hats and performed with Pulp at Glastonbury.

Early career

From 1996-2003 Poots’s professional journey began at London's Barbican Centre, programming the ‘Inventing America’ season including James Brown, Alice Walker, La Monte Young, Ken Kesey, Gayle Ross and Max Roach, and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s ‘Elektronic’ including Aphex Twin. He later commissioned interdisciplinary productions for Tate Modern and Tate Britain, including the iconic collaborations between artist Steve McQueen and soprano Jessye Norman, Arvo Part, Anish Kapoor and Peter Sellars, and new work by PJ Harvey and Wolfgang Tillmans.

Manchester International Festival (2005–2015)

In 2005, Poots was appointed the founding artistic director and chief executive of the Manchester International Festival (MIF). Under his leadership, MIF gained international acclaim for commissioning original, interdisciplinary works. Notable projects included Monkey: Journey to the West, a collaboration between Chen Shi-Zheng, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett; The xx staged concert; The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, directed by Robert Wilson and featuring Willem Dafoe and Abramović; Abida Parveen with John Tavener and Werner Herzog; 'Massive Attack v Adam Curtis’; ‘Il Tempo del Postino,’ a time-based group show with Matthew Barney, Trisha Donnelly, Philippe Parreno, Koo Jeong-A, Pierre Huyghe, Tacita Dean, Doug Aitken, Rirkrit Tiravanija; and Akram Khan, and Tamara Rojo’s Giselle with English National Ballet.

Park Avenue Armory (2012–2015)

Simultaneously, Poots served as the founding artistic director at New York's Park Avenue Armory. His tenure was marked by ambitious, provocative, and commercially successful projects, notably Paul McCarthy’s WS, a controversial yet critically lauded immersive exhibition; Douglas Gordon and Helene Grimaud’s ‘tears become, streams become…’; the FlexN dance production; Igor Levit and Marina Abramovic’s ‘Goldberg’; Berlin Philharmonic, Simon Rattle and Peter Sellars’s St Matthew Passion; Kenneth Branagh’s immersive staging of Macbeth; and Tree of Codes with Paris Ballet, Wayne MacGregor, Olafur Eliasson, and Jamie xx.

The Shed (2015–Present)

In December 2014, Poots was appointed founding artistic director and chief executive of The Shed, the first purpose built arts center in Manhattan for over 50 years. Under his leadership, The Shed emerged as a dynamic center for innovative, interdisciplinary art, commissioning and presenting new works across and between various forms of creativity.

Notable commissions and programs

During Poots’s tenure, The Shed commissioned and premiered several significant productions.

North Star Studio (2023-Present)

In 2023, Poots decided to step back as chief executive of The Shed to focus exclusively on the artistic direction of The Shed and to establish a new production house called North Star Studio (NSS), designed to develop innovative, multi-sensory, participatory, non-prescriptive shows and formats for a broad range of audiences.

Working with leading artists and creatives across pop, performance, visual arts, science and technology, NSS has unparalleled experience in combining these cultural forces to produce the next generation of live shows, exhibitions, editions that realize unique, commercial opportunities. Next generation shows require artists, investors and commerce to authentically integrate, and NSS is uniquely positioned to realize this creative and commercial potential.

Awards

Personal life

Poots is married to Dr. Kathryn Spellman-Poots, an American sociology professor and author at Columbia University.[9] The couple have two children and live in New York City[4][10]

References

  1. ^ Blake, David (25 November 2014). "$400m New York Arts Centre Snaps Up MIF Director Poots". Manchester Confidential. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  2. ^ Pogrebin, Robin (24 November 2014). "Alex Poots to be Culture Shed's artistic director". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  3. ^ Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (25 November 2014). "Manchester international festival founding director off to New York". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  4. ^ a b c Sulcas, Roslyn (14 August 2013). "An outsize vision, forever filling voids". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  5. ^ a b "My week: Alex Poots: The Poots CV". The Observer. Guardian Media Group. 28 June 2009. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  6. ^ Trueman, Matt (6 July 2015). "Alex Poots: 'I always thought that if I stayed in Britain, I'd stay in London'". The Stage. The Stage Media Company Limited. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  7. ^ Kelly, Sean (26 May 2012). "Marina Abramović wins Diaghilev Award in Perm, Russia". skny.com. Sean Kelly (blog). Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  8. ^ "Birthday Honours List - United Kingdom". The London Gazette, S1. 13 June 2015. p. B10. Retrieved 14 June 2015. Notice ID: 2347760.
  9. ^ Spellman, Kathryn (2004). Religion and nation: Iranian local and transnational networks in Britain. New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571815767.
  10. ^ Lloyd, Isabel (May 2013). "Mr Poots reinvents Manchester". Intelligent Life Magazine. Economist Group. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
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