Manchester has named Jennifer Cleary as its new Director of Culture and Creative Industries, a senior post charged with steering the city’s arts, cultural and creative sectors as part of its long‑term growth plans. Cleary brings around 20 years’ experience in senior leadership to the role and is due to begin in October 2026.
Responsibilities and immediate priorities
The council said the director will provide strategic leadership across Manchester’s cultural and creative sectors, ensuring arts and creativity are embedded within economic development and community wellbeing initiatives. The postholder will lead delivery of the city’s ten‑year cultural strategy and advocate for the development of creative industries across the region.
Cleary joins Manchester from Arts Council England, where she is Director, Combined Arts and North. In that capacity she has overseen new partnerships, programmes and opportunities designed to broaden participation and lift ambition across the arts in the north of England.
“The arts are in the very bones of Manchester. As a city, our reputation is on a global scale and what Manchester has always done right is placing culture and the creative industries at the heart of its growth strategy,” Cleary said on her appointment.
Track record and local impact
At Arts Council England she has been involved in initiatives that aim to widen access and representation, including supporting an Inclusive Sport and Culture Festival in partnership with UK Sport and the Theatre Breakthrough Fund, which targets new and ambitious projects by Black, Asian and ethnically diverse theatre makers in the North. Those strands of work are likely to inform her priorities in Manchester, where leaders have emphasised culture’s role in economic recovery, health and community cohesion.
- Start date: October 2026
- Experience: 20 years in senior roles
- Previous role: Director, Combined Arts and North at Arts Council England
- Key remit: Deliver Manchester’s ten‑year cultural strategy and grow creative industries
Local cultural organisations and communities will be watching how the new director balances high‑profile cultural programming with access and participation across the city’s neighbourhoods. The emphasis in recent years on placing culture at the heart of Manchester’s growth agenda means the role will intersect with regeneration, tourism and public health objectives.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Appointment | Director of Culture and Creative Industries |
| Appointee | Jennifer Cleary |
| Start | October 2026 |
| Experience | 20 years (senior leadership) |
As Manchester prepares for a decade of cultural strategy delivery, the council and local arts organisations will need to set out how funding, venues, and partnership work will be shaped under Cleary’s leadership. For residents, the most immediate question is how the appointment will translate into tangible opportunities to see, take part in and benefit from the city’s cultural life.
Her appointment marks a continuation of Manchester’s long‑standing ambition to place the creative sector at the centre of the city’s identity and future economic plans.
