Bridget McConnell
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). [1]
Wife of former First Minister, Jack McConnell, 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 on the eve of Jack's election defeat. As of March 2008, Bridget McConnell holds the post of Chief Executive of the newly-independent organisation.
Prior to this, her career trajectory reads as follows:
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 if 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).[2]
