Bristol Partnership gets new head
Dick Penny, managing director of Watershed and Chair of Bristol Old Vic, two of Bristol’s renowned cultural organisations is set to be the new Chair of the Bristol Partnership.
The Bristol Partnership is the city’s Local Strategic Partnership. It is a group of agencies and organisations from the business community, the public sector, voluntary and community sector organisations and higher and further education who are working together to make Bristol a successful city in Europe.
The partnership works together to achieve success, encourage improvement and overcome problems for the benefit for all citizens now and in the future. Its work involves the effective implementation of a long-term plan for the ongoing economic, cultural and environmental development of the city.
This plan is being developed and put into practice by a number of partnership groups. In Bristol these groups are:
- Thriving Neighbourhoods
- Children and Young People’s Partnership
- Safer Bristol Partnership
- Health and Well-being Partnership
- Prosperous and Ambitious Partnership
Council Leader, Barbara Janke, said: “I’m delighted that Dick Penny has agreed to take on the role of Chair of the Bristol Partnership. Dick Penny has the experience and expertise to lead the partnership and ensures its programme of ambitious works is well-directed and delivered.
“There is still a great deal of work to do to make Bristol a place where people increasingly choose to live, bring up their children and work. I’m confident that with Dick Penny as Chair the partnership will work well together to improve services and quality of life in Bristol by tackling the toughest problems residents say affect their lives.”
Dick Penny, new Chair of the Bristol Partnership, said: “As someone who is passionate about our city, I’m looking forward to this new role. There are some big challenges: climate change; traffic congestion; deprivation and equalities are just a few of them. These are all issues that require us to work together if we are to be successful.
“Bristol has always had a radical edge and I believe that we have a unique opportunity to meld our diversity and creativity with the instinct for innovation to come up with new ways to deliver outcomes for everyone who lives, works or studies in Bristol.”
His first job in the theatre was as administrator of the Little Theatre Company (1980-1983), which was set up by a group of Bristol Old Vic actors to keep the Little Theatre, in the municipally owned Colston Hall complex, going as a professional venue. His duties inclded everything from set building to front of house. Notable productions included Raymond Briggs’ 1983 adaptation of his own book When the Wind Blows, based on the UK Government civil defence booklet Protect and Survive, which transferred to the Whitehall Theatre.
Between 1986 and 1988 Penny was the Associate Director at Bristol Old Vic with a brief to develop programme and audience. In 1991 he became director of Watershed Media Centre, the UK’s first media centre. He has been a board member of the Ashton Court Festival, Circomedia and Bristol +. Penny has stated that he has “a passion for Bristol and a drive to make the city a more exciting, open and inter-connected place to live, work and play.”
In the 1990s Penny’s production company Rebbeck Penny co-produced Macbeth, starring Peter Postlethwaite, with Bristol Old Vic for a UK tour, and in 2001 Scaramouche Jones, which also starred Postlethwaite, for a UK and world tour. In 2007 he took over as Executive Chair of Bristol Old Vic with the main objective of reopening England’s longest running theatre.
Penny is also founding director of Bristol +, a creative partnership board made up of public sector officials and creative entrepreneurs.
