Bridget McConnell   

Biography: Chief Executive of Culture and Sport Glasgow since April 2007, formerly Executive Director (Culture and Sport) Glasgow City Council from August 2005 – March 2007 and Director of Cultural and Leisure Services, Glasgow City Council August 1998-August 2005, Bridget was formerly with Fife Council as Community Services Manager (1996-1998), Fife Regional Council as Principal Arts Officer (1988-1996), Stirling District Council as the first Local Authority/Scottish Arts Council funded Arts Development Officer (1984–1988) and before that Curator of the Doorstep Gallery, Fife's first travelling Art Gallery (1983-1984). Bridget has a wide interest in the policy, practice and management of the Cultural Services Sector, having been a junior music student at the RSAMD (1973-1976), gaining a M.A. (Honours) in Fine Arts from St Andrews University (1982), a Management Diploma from Dundee College of Commerce (1983), a M.Ed. (1990) from Stirling University and currently completing the Doctor of Education programme at Stirling University. A founder member and previous Chairperson of both the Scottish Local Authority Arts Officers' Association (1993-1996, Founder Member 1991), and the Scottish Youth Dance Festival (1993-1996, Founder member 1988), Chair of VOCAL (Voice of Chief Officers of Culture, Community and Services in Scotland (2002-2004) Bridget was also formerly Vice –Chair of the Scottish Arts Lobby (1995-1997, Executive Board Member since 1993), an External Verifier for SCOTVEC/SQA Arts and Leisure Management Courses (1990-1998), a member of the Scottish Arts Council Combined Arts Committee (1988-1994), Adviser to the Scottish Arts Council Performing Arts Department (1995-1998), Executive Member (1998-2000) and Chair (2000-2002) of SADLS (Scottish Association of Directors of Leisure in Scotland) (1998-2002), Link Arts Adviser to COSLA (1997-2001), Founder Member of the Institute of Contemporary Scotland (2002), a member of the Focus Group set up to develop a National Cultural Strategy for Scotland in 2000, Joint Chair of the COSLA/VOCAL Culture Strategy Task Group (2005).

In 1987 she was awarded the first British American Arts Association/University of Minnesota Fellowship and in 1999 was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Bridget is also currently a member of the Board of RSAMD (since 2002), member of the Sunday Herald Advisory Board (since 1999) and the Heritage Lottery Fund Committee for Scotland since September 2004. She has written and presented a number of papers on Arts, Education and Leisure policy and practice, including “Arts and Adult Education if Fife” published by the Free University of Brussels in “Truth without Facts” (1995) and “Modernising Britain: Creative Futures”, with Chris Smith, M.P., Trevor Philips and Jude Kelly, Edited by Michael Jacobs and Published by The Fabian Society (1997) and co-edited “One World, Many Cultures”, papers from the Fourth International Conference on adult Education and the Arts (1996).

Abstract: Culture and Sport Glasgow

Establishing a charitable company to deliver arts, museums, libraries and sports services to Glasgow on behalf of the local authority. Why? How? The scope of services; contractual arrangements and structures. What are the benefits to Glasgow and how has the library service gained?