Jerwood Charitable Foundation is an independent grant-making foundation and UK registered charity dedicated to imaginative and responsible funding of the arts, with a particular focus on supporting talent and excellence. We work with exceptional, dedicated artists and producers supporting them to develop and thrive at important stages in their practice, often in partnership with leading UK arts organisations, through making grants to organisations and individuals nationally alongside delivering our own strategic projects. We find, nurture and promote talent and advocate for the best possible conditions for the making of art, supporting artists, arts organisations and the sector to make artistic work of the utmost strength and quality.
Lilli Geissendorfer has a background as a theatre producer with an interest in creating definitive new work with outstanding artists. Previous roles include Producer at Almeida Theatre, delivering Rupert Goold’s ambitious productions, and Relationship Manager for Theatre at Arts Council England where she managed an NPO portfolio and developed environmental sustainability policies. Lilli co-produced the first HighTide Festival in 2007, ran the film and theatre producing company Strawberry Vale Productions and co-founded Londoners on Bikes, a pop-up cycle safety campaign for the London 2012 Mayoral election. She is a Salzburg Forum Cultural Leadership Fellow, a Clore Emerging Leader and studied social and political sciences at Goldsmiths and Cambridge University.
As part of her new role, Lilli will begin work on the next four year strategy for Jerwood Charitable Foundation, 2018-2022, which will set out the ways in which our organisation will continue to support the work of early-career artists and producers across art forms nationally, deepening and developing our strategic relationships around the programme. Until she joins the team in January the organisation is led by Deputy Director Jon Opie, with the support of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation Board of Trustees.
Jerwood Charitable Foundation’s experienced and specialist team members will continue to lead on the development of its strategic initiatives alongside the new Director, including: Sarah Williams, Head of Programme for Jerwood Visual Arts; Joy Francis, Project Manager for the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships; and Kate Danielson, Programme Director for the Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries.
Lilli says: “I am so looking forward to joining such an interesting and influential team at a time when Jerwood Charitable Foundation’s mission feels more vital than ever”.
Tim Eyles, Chair of Jerwood Charitable Foundation’s Board of Trustees says: “Following a rigorous search for a new Director Lilli was an outstanding candidate that immediately understood the ethos of Jerwood Charitable Foundation. We are very much looking forward to working with her.”
Two Trustees have also been recently appointed to the Board, Vanessa Engle and Catrin Griffiths.
Vanessa Engle is an award winning filmmaker who has been making documentaries for BBC Television for 30 years. For the first 15 years of her career, she made arts programmes, including films about art, music and literature. More recently she has made social affairs documentaries that explore our fundamental values and belief systems.
Catrin Griffiths is Editor of Award winning B2B publication The Lawyer, was Director of New City Media and a former editor of Legal Business Magazine where she also worked as a journalist. Her work has received a UK Press Gazette award and she has led the debate on diversity in the legal profession.
Download the full Press Release: Jerwood Charitable Foundation New Director Announced
