Press Release 4 September 2012
Professor Seona Reid, CBE is to retire as Director of The Glasgow School of Art in August 2013 after completing 14 years in the post.
Announcing the news Philip Rodney, Chair of the Governors of the GSA said: “Seona has made an immeasurable contribution as Director of the GSA and her outstanding leadership of the School, reflected in the current standing of the GSA nationally and internationally, is testimony to that”. Seona Reid was appointed as Director of The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) in September 1999 and under her leadership the GSA has reinforced its reputation as one of Europe’s leading university level institutions for the visual creative disciplines with demand for places continuing to grow. With only 1900 students, it is one of only a handful of small specialist institutions in the UK.
Since her appointment, GSA’s research profile has been substantially strengthened and extended to reflect the role, contribution and impact creative disciplines can have within science, technology, engineering and medical research. GSA now has one of the UK’s largest and art and design research communities with 50% of the research produced, judged at the last UK Research Assessment Exercise to be world leading or internationally excellent. Today our research profile extends across the areas of sustainability, health and wellbeing, urbanism and regeneration, medical visualisation, business and design innovation reflecting the School’s commitment to the transformational role creativity can play across the social and economic life of the nation.
Today over 33% of GSA students are from outside the UK. The School has a Representative Office in Beijing responsible for recruitment and developing our academic partnerships in the People’s Republic of China and in 2012 the GSA opened GSofA Singapore, which will deliver undergraduate design programmes in partnership with Singapore Institute of Technology and Temasek Polytechnic. The growth of postgraduate provision has also been a major development with the GSA now one of the UK’s largest postgraduate communities in art and design.
One of the most visible legacies of Seona Reid’s leadership is the GSA’s ambitious plans to create the UK’s premier campus for visual creative disciplines. An £8.7m project to conserve and make more accessible the category A listed Mackintosh building, its collections and archives, at the centre of the School’s Garnethill estate was followed by a major new £50m academic building which has now commenced on the site opposite and is due for completion in Autumn 2013.
Seona Reid has also played a major role beyond the institution she leads. She is, for example, currently Deputy Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Scotland’s Fulbright Commissioner, on the Executive Committee of Universities Scotland and a Board member of Cove Park, the artist residency centre in Argyll.
Speaking of her time at the GSA Professor Reid said: “Walking into my office in the Mackintosh Building always reminds me what a joy it is to lead The Glasgow School of Art and to be surrounded daily by incredibly creative, motivated and engaged staff and students. It can sometimes be something of a rollercoaster but it is always stimulating, stretching and full of personal and professional fulfilment. Some of the rewards are physical and visible – our new Steven Holl building and the endless inventiveness of the work in the annual Degree Show, for example J but some of it is simply the knowledge of the success of our staff and students and the tremendous impact they are making on cultural, social and economic life whether in Scotland or much further afield.”
Notes to Editors
Professor Seona Reid will retire on 31 August 2013.
The recruitment and selection of the next Director will commence immediately led by the Chair of the GSA Board of Governors Mr Philip Rodney.
This will be an international search process. The School anticipates making an appointment by spring 2013 with the new Director in post from August 2013.
Biography – Professor Seona Reid CBE BA (Hons) D.Art Hon D.Litt FRSA
Seona Reid was appointed Director to The Glasgow School of Art in September 1999. Previously she served as Director of the Scottish Arts Council for 9 years, and before that Assistant Director (Strategy and Regional Development) of Greater London Arts; Director of Shape; Head of Public Relations Ballet Rambert; Press and Publicity Officer at Northern Dance Theatre; Business Manager, Lincoln Theatre Royal and a freelance arts consultant working with the Arts Council of Great Britain and the London Contemporary Dance Trust. She is Trustee and Scottish Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Scotland’s Fulbright Commissioner, a member of the Universities Scotland Executive Committee and a Board member of Cove Park, an artist residency centre in Scotland. Until recently she was a member of the Knowledge and Evaluation Committee of the Arts and Humanities Research Council; a Commissioner on the Scottish Broadcasting Commission; Vice Chair of the Lighthouse Centre for Architecture, Design and the City and on the Boards of the Arches and Suspect Culture Theatre. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; has honorary degrees from Robert Gordon, Glasgow, Glasgow Caledonian and Strathclyde Universities, all for services to the arts in Scotland. She became an honorary professor of the University of Glasgow in 1995 and was awarded a CBE in the 2008 New Year Honours for services to the Creative Industries.
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