Bridget McConnell

Bridget McConnell: no 15 in the Power 100 list published by Scotland on Sunday .

Early Years and Family Connections

Born Bridget Mary McLuckie on 28 May 1958, she was educated at Our Lady's High School, Cumbernauld, St Andrew's University (MA Hons 1982), Dundee College of Commerce (DIA 1983) and Stirling University (MEd 1992). Her brother, Robert McLuckie, is a millionaire property tycoon who has been portrayed in the press as drunken, sectarian and lewd.

In 1990, Bridget married Jack McConnell who would go on to become First Minister of Scotland from November 2001 to May 2007.

Cultural Interests

In 2006, Bridget spearheaded the controversial devolution of Glasgow City Council's Cultural and Leisure Services to form the company/charity known as Culture and Sport Glasgow with a separate trading arm, Culture and Sport Glasgow (Trading) CIC. Since March 2007, she has held the post of Chief Executive of both companies.

Controlling all cultural provision in Glasgow, Bridget McConnell would be expected to have an interest in culture.

Glasgow the Brand

Bridget McConnell is fully conversant with the fact that culture and sport generate tourism and increase the revenue of a city. In her introduction to Glasgow’s Cultural Strategy, published in 2005, she noted that cultural tourism accounted for 37% of all tourism to the city.

Commonwealth Connections

Bridget McConnell was instrumental in launching the campaign for Glasgow to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Plans are afoot to house the offices of Culture and Sport Glasgow at the site of the Commonwealth Games.

National Galleries in Glasgow

Following the renovation of Kelvingrove Museum, McConnell is now campaigning to establish a National Gallery in Glasgow.

Career Trajectory

• March 2007-present Executive Director Culture and its trading arm

• August 2005–March 2007 Executive Director of Cultural and Leisure Services, Glasgow City Council

• August 1998–August 2005 Director of Cultural and Leisure Services, Glasgow City Council.

• 1996-1998 Community Services Manager, Fife Council

• 1988-1996 Principal Arts Officer, Fife Regional Council

• 1984–1988 first Local Authority/Scottish Arts Council funded Arts Development Officer, Stirling District Council

• 1983-1984 Curator of the Doorstep Gallery, Fife's first travelling Art Gallery

• 1973-1976 junior music student at the RSAMD

• 1982 M.A. (Honours) in Fine Arts from St Andrews University

• 1983 Management Diploma from Dundee College of Commerce

• 1990 M.Ed. Stirling University

• 2008 Completing the Doctor of Education programme at Stirling University

Other Positions Held

• Founder member and previous Chairperson of both the Scottish Local Authority Arts Officers' Association (1993-1996, Founder Member 1991), and the Scottish Youth Dance Festival (1993-1996, Founder member 1988)

• Chair of VOCAL (Voice of Chief Officers of Culture, Community and Services in Scotland (2002-2004)

• Vice–Chair of the Scottish Arts Lobby (1995-1997; Executive Board Member since 1993)

• External Verifier for SCOTVEC/SQA Arts and Leisure Management Courses (1990-1998)

• Member of the Scottish Arts Council Combined Arts Committee (1988-1994)

• Adviser to the Scottish Arts Council Performing Arts Department (1995-1998)

• Executive Member (1998-2000) and Chair (2000-2002) of SADLS (Scottish Association of Directors of Leisure in Scotland) (1998-2002)

• Link Arts Adviser to COSLA (1997-2001)

• Founder Member of the Institute of Contemporary Scotland (2002)

• Member of the Focus Group set up to develop a National Cultural Strategy for Scotland in 2000

• Joint Chair of the COSLA/VOCAL Culture Strategy Task Group (2005).

In 1987 Bridget was awarded the first British American Arts Association/University of Minnesota Fellowship and in 1999 was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She is also currently a member of the Board of RSAMD (since 2002), member of the Sunday Herald Advisory Board (since 1999) and the Heritage Lottery Fund Committee for Scotland since September 2004. She has written and presented a number of papers on Arts, Education and Leisure policy and practice, including “Arts and Adult Education in Fife” published by the Free University of Brussels in “Truth without Facts” (1995) and “Modernising Britain: Creative Futures”, with Chris Smith, M.P., Trevor Philips and Jude Kelly, Edited by Michael Jacobs and Published by The Fabian Society (1997) and co-edited “One World, Many Cultures”, papers from the Fourth International Conference on adult Education and the Arts (1996).