Alex Poots to leave Manchester International Festival after 2015

The CEO and Artistic Director of MIF, Alex Poots, will be leaving after the 2015 event, which takes place from Tue Jul 2 - Sun Jul 19 next year.

Alex will be taking up a new role in New York, where he already programmes events at the Park Avenue Armory. He will be taking up the post of founding CEO & Artistic Director of New York’s Culture Shed, a centre for artistic and cultural innovation, due to open in 2018.

MIF announced three of its brand new commissions last week, 'Tree of Codes', 'The Age of Starlight' and 'The Tale of Mr Tumble', which will form part of Alex's final MIF. MIF13, which featured events including 'Macbeth' starring Kenneth Branagh, 'The xx-  In Residence' and Maxine Peake performing 'The Masque of Anarchy' had an estimated economic impact of £38million to the city.

Alex says of his departure, ‘I have had the best 10 years of my professional life at MIF. I have decided to move on while I’m still excited and engaged by this incredible job and remarkable city. We are working with a range of exceptional artists and innovators for MIF15 and I’m really looking forward to welcoming them and our audiences to Manchester in July.’

MIF15 is announced in full in February.