Kathryn McManus

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Kathryn joined Creative Response as CEO in January 2021, making a career switch from the senior civil service, which allowed her to bring two big personal passions together in her working life: valuing the arts as a source of joy; and the importance of improving services and opportunities for the most vulnerable in society.  

Bringing renewed ambition for the organisation, and the people it supports,  Kathryn has driven and overseen significant growth and diversification of Creative Response’s service offer. This has included: setting up two new dedicated art groups at the main studios, for Ukrainian refugees, and older people; and two new satellite offers in Hampshire.

These developments have been underpinned by Kathryn’s energetic pursuit of new collaboration and partnership opportunities, widening the charity’s network, and strengthening community support.

While Kathryn enjoys making quick sketches, her own creative practice is more music-focused, playing piano and violin. Kathryn gets to galleries as often as she can, and also loves theatre – especially the consistently amazing and inspiring productions of the National Theatre in London.