Bristol Beacon has appointed a new director of creative learning and engagement just days after watchdogs blamed the city council for the doubling of the venue's refurbishment costs.
Adam Kent, who has worked for Northern music and cultural centre Sage Gateshead since 2011, will take up the post in September. He is replacing Phil Castang, who left in June to take up a new role as chief executive of Music for Youth.
In April, Bristol Beacon was valued at zero pounds in city council’s accounts, despite undergoing a multi-million pound refurbishment project. According to Business Live's sister site Bristol Live, the local authority wrote off £39m on the project, with the cost of the refurb more than double a year ago - from £52.2m to £106.9m.
Last week, independent auditors blamed the city council for the doubling of costs. Accountancy firm Grant Thornton said the local authority had “underestimated the complexity and difficulty” of the concert hall’s revamp and that its “failure” to have effective arrangements in place caused the bill to spiral.
A city council management comment in the report said a delivery framework had been "developed and internally audited” and had received a ‘reasonable’ assurance rating.
When Mr Kent takes up his role at Bristol Beacon, he will be responsible for creating the future vision for the organisation’s education and community work. It is an area that has grown since the music charity, also responsible for Bristol’s iconic venue of the same name, was created in 2011. Its specialisms include working with underrepresented communities, including 2,500 young people with disabilities and in care; and providing community-based health and wellbeing programmes
In his current position at Sage Gateshead, Mr Kent is part of the senior team leading and delivering the centre's creative learning music programme - one of the largest in the UK - with responsibilities for strategy and new partnerships. He also recently oversaw the recent NPO submission to Arts Council England.
He said: “I am very excited to be joining Bristol Beacon at such a pivotal time in their history following a high-profile name change, a newly renovated venue and a vision to deliver greater music accessibility and opportunities for everyone."
Louise Mitchell, chief executive of Bristol Beacon, added: “We believe in the power of music to transform lives and are passionate about our role in delivering musical opportunities and experiences that are as far-reaching as possible.
“Our creative learning and engagement team’s work has flourished under the leadership of Phil Castang to become a creative, dynamic and agile team responding to the ever-changing scope of music education. We look forward to Adam bringing his knowledge, skills and expertise and play a key role as we head towards the completion of our venue’s transformation and re-opening in 2023.”
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