Create London is delighted to announce the appointment of Kerry Bishop as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Bishop joins Create London at an important moment, following the completion of a series of acclaimed projects including the RIBA Award-winning A House for Artists by Apparata, new playgrounds with Eva Rothschild and Yinka Ilori and the Hackney Windrush commissions by Turner Prize-winner Veronica Ryan OBE and Thomas J Price.
Bishop has two decades of creative leadership experience at the intersection of art, design and architecture. She is the Founder and Director of Know Your Place, a business consultancy established in 2022 that helps creative organisations evolve, improve and change.
From 2019-2022 Bishop served as Managing Director and then Executive Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), leading the organisation through the COVID-19 crisis.
Her time at the ICA followed six years as Chief Operating Officer at Frieze from 2013-2019. She oversaw all of the organisation’s activities, including the expansion into Los Angeles and Frieze Magazine’s shift to digital publishing with frieze.com.
Before Frieze, Bishop held leadership positions within architectural studios for over a decade.
Bishop is an advisor to the Black British Initiative, which champions social mobility through progressive and ethical entrepreneurialism. She previously served five years as a Board Trustee for Peckham Platform, a creative and educational charity.
Bishop’s own experience makes her a passionate advocate for Create London’s mission to commission bold and socially engaged art and architecture woven into the fabric of everyday life in areas with little cultural infrastructure.
Bishop will take up her new role immediately, chairing Create London’s Board of Trustees which comprises Councillor Saima Ashraf, Vivian Chan, Dr Rohit K Dasgupta FHEA, Councillor Rosalind Doré, Ilona Harris, Councillor Christopher Kennedy, Sarah Mann, Caroline McGinn, Claude Moraes OBE, Leslie Morphy OBE, Sannan Pervaiz and Carey Robinson.
Kerry Bishop says:
“I’m delighted and honoured to join Create London as its Chair. Over the last 12 years, this extraordinary organisation has shown that art and culture can have a sustained and transformative impact, from award-winning projects to grass-roots level programming, commissioned and created in and with communities across East London. I look forward to supporting Marie Bak Mortensen, Sorrel Hershberg and the team as they – and we – build on Create London’s unique role at the forefront of commissioning new public work in our city”.
Marie Bak Mortensen, Director of Create London says:
“We are thrilled to welcome Kerry Bishop as our new Chair. We are at a pivotal moment as we embark on an ambitious five-year plan to evolve our creative programmes and deepen our engagement with communities in East London. Bishop brings a wealth of experience, natural leadership and an abundance of energy to the role, and we cannot wait to draw on her expertise to realise these ambitions. On behalf of the board and team, I also want to give thanks to Guy Nicholson for stepping in as Interim Chair while we recruited for the next chapter of Create London’s governance”.