Festivals Edinburgh Appoints New Director

After a worldwide search, Festivals Edinburgh has appointed Lori [Lorraine] Anderson as its new Director, succeeding Julia Amour who is stepping down from the role in October 2024.

Lori Anderson will lead the organisation in the next stage of development, as it takes the steps needed to achieve the ambitions mapped out in the 2030 Festival City Vision.  She brings unique experience to the position most recently as Director of Culture Counts, the network of arts, heritage, and creative industries organisations in Scotland, and previously with Scotland + Venice, Creative Dundee, Collective Gallery, and Museums Galleries Scotland.

Simon Gage, Chair of Festivals Edinburgh said:

Lori joins us at a moment of significant change in our festivals landscape. We’ve bounced back from the covid pandemic but remain fragile, as does the wider culture eco-system. There are many challenges to be confronted in the coming years, but also many opportunities to be seized, and in Lori we believe we have found an exceptionally authoritative advocate to help shape our collective future.

A post-pandemic study has shown that the Edinburgh Festivals are an even stronger draw now thanks to their unique, ‘must see’ reputations, which support the regrowth of jobs and livelihoods. As well as realising more cultural and economic impact with a lower carbon footprint, the Festivals engagement with local communities and schools has also risen by more than a third since 2018.

The new Director will take up her role just as changes are underway in both festivals’ strategies and wider culture & tourism policies, including the planned introduction of a Visitor Levy by City of Edinburgh Council – the first in the United Kingdom - and the national campaign for all political parties to reinvest in culture, building on Scottish Government commitments to increase funding by £100m over coming years.

Commenting on her appointment, Lori Anderson said:

The Edinburgh Festivals are amongst Scotland’s greatest cultural assets, recognised at home and abroad as bringing immense cultural, economic and social value to the country and its people. The fragility of our cultural landscape is all too familiar to me, but the agility of the Edinburgh Festivals in responding to change has always impressed me, and I look forward to taking up this crucial role at the heart of the festivals family.

Formed in 2007, Festivals Edinburgh is the high-level organisation, created and driven by the directors of Edinburgh’s 11 major international festivals, to take the lead on their joint strategic development and work to sustain their leadership role locally and globally.

Lori Anderson is currently Director of Culture Counts a network of Scotland’s arts, heritage and creative industries organisations which provides a collective voice for Scotland’s culture sector through advocacy and contributing to policy change.  Prior to this Lori was Development Manager at Scotland + Venice developing and delivering the strategic vision for the international flagship art and architecture project which commissions and presents Scottish work at the Venice Biennale. Previous roles include interim Director at Creative Dundee and Head of Development and Enterprise at Collective where Lori managed the delivery of and fundraised for the capital project to redevelop the City Observatory on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill as the gallery’s new home. Other past roles include positions at Museums Galleries Scotland and 9 years at the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Lori has a degree in Scottish History from the University of St Andrews. She is on the board of Fife Contemporary and is a past vice chair of Scottish Contemporary Art Network (SCAN).