Change of HOME for Manchester’s Director of Culture

Already working as an independent Director of Culture for the City Council alongside his role at HOME, from 1 April next year Dave will swap his desk at HOME for a desk in the town hall to focus full-time on helping ensure the city achieves its cultural ambitions. 

Continuing to work in an independent capacity, he will be tasked with leading the delivery and implementation of the city’s brand-new cultural strategy which is currently being co-created with local residents and the culture sector and is due to be published in early 2024. 

Dave has been Director and Chief Executive of HOME, the purpose built 7,500m2 multi art form venue since it opened in May 2015.  

In this role he conceived and led both the merger of Cornerhouse and Library Theatre Company and the £25m capital project to create HOME which has attracted almost 1million visits per year since it opened.  

In April 2018 Dave took on the part time role of Director of Culture for the City Council. He has responsibility for advising the Council on policy and strategy for culture and working closely with the Cultural Leaders Group on joint working and other collaborative initiatives. Dave has worked in Manchester in leadership roles in the arts since 1984 previously at Abraham Moss Centre Theatre, Arts About Manchester and Cornerhouse. 

He was awarded an OBE in the Queens Jubilee Honours List in 2022 for services to the arts especially during Covid and awarded a Doctor of Arts honoris causa by the University of Salford in 2018.  

Dave is a Fellow of the RSA, a member of the Chartered Management Institute, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Dave is Chair of the Theatres Trust and a trustee of the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh. 

The council’s major citywide consultation ‘It All Starts with a Spark’ with the people of Manchester on what culture looks like and how to ensure it is at the heart of the city and what the city does over the next ten years, began a fortnight ago and continues until the end of November.   

Have your say on the It Starts with a Spark conversation 

Find out more about the All Starts with A Spark conversations 

HOME

Councillor Luthfur Rahman OBE, Deputy Leader for Manchester City Council, said:   

“Manchester already has a global reputation for the arts and culture with a raft of incredible world-class venues. Through our new ten-year plan, with Dave at the helm, we want to go even further to harness the power we know the arts have to change and improve lives.   

“Dave has been a huge figure in the cultural landscape of Manchester for many years and has been instrumental in our approach to culture in the city since 2018. There are few people who understand the symbiotic relationship between the city, our residents and the arts.  

“As we develop our long-term cultural plan, Dave will act as an independent officer and a key link to the cultural sector but importantly also our residents – helping to enhance how inclusive culture positively impacts our communities.” 

Dave Moutrey said:  

“Manchester has a vital and exciting cultural and creative industries ecology that already makes significant economic, social and placemaking impacts that benefit our communities and the wider city region.   

“To be invited by Manchester City Council to work with our residents and the sector to help expend these impacts to benefit even more of our communities and grow the ecology through the new Cultural Strategy is an honour, privilege and a big responsibility which I am very excited about.   

“Partnership working and co-creation will continue to be central to the way that we do this especially as we are still recovering from the multiple impacts of the Pandemic and cost of living crisis.  I am looking forward to starting, there is much to do!”