About

I’ve been working in the arts almost all of my life – I started early, around age 3, cleaning the tables in the third eye centre, Glasgow, when my mum ran the cafe and my dad the centre.  I’ve been very lucky over the last 20 years to have worked in some wonderful organisations and with great artists.

I am the Creative Director of Red Bridge Arts – an ideas-led organisation that aims to provide a supportive structure to stimulate and sustain artists’ development and practice.  The company’s mission is to nourish creativity and encourage curiosity. My previous roles have included: Creative Development Director at Imaginate (2002 – 2011), Director of Creative Development, Participation and Research at macrobert arts centre (2011 – 2015) and Executive Producer at Scottish Dance Theatre (2014-2015).

I manage, facilitate and collaborate on arts projects and events including curated arts programmes, open space events, workshops, organisational change workshops, talks and masterclasses. I have a Postgraduate Certificate in Creativity in Education and am trained as a mentor, in Critical Response Process and in Lincoln Centre Institute’s Aesthetic Education process.

I am on the boards of Magnetic North Theatre Company and TYA UK and also a trustee with the Tom McGrath Trust, set up to support writers, in memory of the life and legacy of my father Tom McGrath, poet and playwright, who died in 2009.

Links to recent interviews that give more info on my work and interests: artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/283/job-ladder/alice-mcgrath
stellarquines.com/2013/10/01/alice-mcgrath/

My values
There’s a great deal of talk about values in business now a days – Virgin have even appointed a Chief Values Officer, he is their conscience…they claim (I kid you not).  So it is with some trepidation that I commit my idea of values and beliefs to paper / screen.  However having recently had to review my values in order to make some tricky decisions and subsequently having shared these with people i think there is some benefit in sharing.

I value my family, conversation, collaboration, honesty, taking time and drinking tea with family, friends and colleagues.  The drinking of tea is, in a way, how I live my values.

Over the last few years I have been mulling on ideas around creative nourishment, slow art, supporting change on an individual, community and organisation level, family friendly policies and radical arts practice which all link to my values.  I will write or invite colleagues to write more on each of these topics on my blog.