Salisbury International Arts Festival welcomes Maria Bota!
Salisbury International Arts Festival welcomes Maria Bota, who starts today (August 4th 2008) as the new Festival Director.
Maria has worked for the Festival before in 1999, so she is familiar with the Festival and the area. Since that time Maria has been Deputy Chief Executive and Marketing Director at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall before winning a fellowship on the prestigious Clore Leadership Programme and undertaking secondments with producers of major festivals and events, including Artangel, Artichoke and the culture10 team in NewcastleGateshead. Maria’s first role in the arts was with the London Symphony Orchestra at London’s Barbican.
It is an exciting time to be joining the Festival, as the organisation goes from strength to strength. The 2008 Festival saw 115 shows with artists from over 15 countries around the world. There were six exclusive presentations, two world premieres and three UK premieres. Over 20,000 tickets were sold and almost three thousand people attended Africa: Rejoice, the closing concert in the Cathedral Close.
Comments received from Festival-goers this year included:
“What an artistic triumph the Festival was this year! There was a palpable buzz in the air and an artistic coherence that was superb.”
“Just to say we thought the 2008 Festival was absolutely brilliant - a real triumph of artistic creation and superb organisation...”
“I find that during the Festival I see and hear things that I wouldn't normally experience and to have them so close to Salisbury and Wilton is truly wonderful.”
Find out Maria's thoughts on her new role by clicking here.