Alexander Moinet Poots is an arts and cultural leader who has built major new organizations from the ground up and who has inspired established organizations to reshape their familiar approaches into more innovative, popular and culturally democratic programs. In 2015 he was appointed the founding artistic director and chief executive of The Shed in New York City, a pioneering cultural institution that opened in 2019. Prior to this, Poots was the founding artistic director and chief executive of the

Manchester International Festival The Manchester International Festival is a biennial international arts festival, with a specific focus on original new work, held in the English city of Manchester and run by Factory International. The festival is a biennial event, first takin ...

(2005-2015) and the founding artistic director of New York's

Park Avenue Armory The Park Avenue Armory, also known as the 7th Regiment Armory, is a historic armory for the U.S. Army National Guard at 643 Park Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed in the Gothic Revival style ...

(2012–2015), establishing a reputation for producing and presenting artist-led, inventive, interdisciplinary new works and programs.

Early life and education

Born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland, to a French mother and Irish father, Poots developed an early passion for music, particularly the trumpet and composition. He pursued this interest, earning a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in music from

City University London City, University of London was a public university from 1966 to 2024 in London, England. It merged with St George's, University of London to form City St George's, University of London in August 2024. The names "City, University of London" and ...

. During his studies, he also contributed trumpet performances to

The Blue Nile The Blue Nile is a river in Ethiopia and Sudan. Blue Nile may also refer to: * Blue Nile (state) Blue Nile State ( ') is one of the eighteen States of Sudan, states of the Republic of the Sudan. It was established by presidential decree nº 3 i ...

's album

Hats A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

and performed with

Pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit * Pulp (band), an English rock band Engineering * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture ...

Glastonbury Glastonbury ( , ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than across the River ...

Early career

From 1996-2003 Poots’s professional journey began at London's

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London, England, and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings a ...

, programming the ‘Inventing America’ season including

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awa ...

La Monte Young La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best k ...

Ken Kesey Ken Elton Kesey (; September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and Counterculture of the 1960s, countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies o ...

, Gayle Ross and

Max Roach Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He wo ...

, and

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

’s ‘Elektronic’ including

Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), known professionally as Aphex Twin, is a British musician, composer and DJ active in electronic music since 1988. His idiosyncratic work has drawn on many styles, including techno, ambient music, ambi ...

. He later commissioned interdisciplinary productions for

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

and

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in En ...

, including the iconic collaborations between artist

Steve McQueen Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of counterculture of the 1960s, 1960s counterculture, made him a top box office draw for his films of the late ...

and soprano

Jessye Norman Jessye Mae Norman (September 15, 1945 – September 30, 2019) was an American opera singer and recitalist. She was able to perform dramatic soprano roles, but did not limit herself to that voice type. A commanding presence on operatic, concert ...

, Arvo Part,

Anish Kapoor Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor (born 12 March 1954) is a British sculptor specializing in installation art and conceptual art. Born in Mumbai, Kapoor attended the elite all-boys Indian boarding school The Doon School, before moving to the United Ki ...

and

Peter Sellars Peter Sellars (born September 27, 1957) is an American theatre director, noted for his unique stagings of classical and contemporary operas and plays. Sellars is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he teaches ...

, and new work by

PJ Harvey Polly Jean Harvey (born 9 October 1969) is an English singer-songwriter. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments. Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined local band Automat ...

and

Wolfgang Tillmans Wolfgang Tillmans (born 16 August 1968) is a German Fine-art photography, photographer. His diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium’s foundations. Tillman ...

Manchester International Festival (2005–2015)

In 2005, Poots was appointed the founding artistic director and chief executive of the

(MIF). Under his leadership, MIF gained international acclaim for commissioning original, interdisciplinary works. Notable projects included Monkey: Journey to the West, a collaboration between

Chen Shi-Zheng Chen Shi-Zheng (; born 1963 in Changsha, Hunan, China) is a New York–based theater and film director. Having earned a BA from the Hunan Art School in Traditional Opera, he received his MA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts. In ...

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (, ; born 23 March 1968) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the frontman, main vocalist, and lyricist of the rock band Blur (band), Blur and the co-creator and primary musical con ...

and

Jamie Hewlett Jamie Christopher Hewlett (born 3 April 1968) is a British comic book artist and illustrator. He is the co-creator of the comic book ''Tank Girl'' with Alan Martin (writer), Alan Martin and the virtual band Gorillaz, alongside Blur (band), Blur ...

;

The xx The xx are an English indie rock band from Wandsworth, London, formed in 2005. The band consists of Romy Madley Croft (guitar, vocals), Oliver Sim (bass guitar, vocals), Jamie Smith, also known as Jamie xx (beats, MPC, record production), ...

staged concert; The Life and Death of

Marina Abramović Marina Abramović ( sr-Cyrl, Марина Абрамовић, ; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Her work explores body art, endurance art, the relationship between the performer and audience, the limit ...

, directed by Robert Wilson and featuring

Willem Dafoe William James "Willem" Dafoe ( ; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. Known for his prolific career portraying diverse roles in both mainstream and arthouse films, he is the recipient of various accolades including a Volpi Cup Award for ...

and Abramović;

Abida Parveen Abida Parveen (; ; born 20 February 1954) is a Pakistani singer, composer, musician of Sufi music, painter and an entrepreneur. Parveen is one of the highest-paid singers in Pakistan. Her singing and music have earned her many accolades, and s ...

with

John Tavener Sir John Kenneth Tavener (28 January 1944 – 12 November 2013) was an English composer, known for his extensive output of choral religious music, religious works. Among his best known works are ''The Lamb (Tavener), The Lamb'' (1982), ''The ...

and

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; né Stipetić; born 5 September 1942) is a German filmmaker, actor, opera director, and author. Regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema, his films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unusu ...

; '

Massive Attack Massive Attack are an English trip hop collective formed in 1988 in Bristol, England, by Robert Del Naja, Robert "3D" Del Naja, Daddy G, Grant "Daddy G" Marshall, Tricky (musician), Adrian "Tricky" Thaws and Andrew Vowles, Andrew "Mushroom" ...

Adam Curtis Adam Curtis (born 26 May 1955) is an English documentary filmmaker. Curtis began his career as a conventional documentary producer for the BBC throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The release of '' Pandora's Box'' (1992) marked the in ...

’; ‘Il Tempo del Postino,’ a time-based group show with

Matthew Barney Matthew Barney (born March 25, 1967) is an American contemporary artist and film director who works in the fields of sculpture, film, photography and drawing. His works explore connections among geography, biology, geology and mythology as well ...

Trisha Donnelly Trisha Donnelly (born April 22, 1974) is an American contemporary artist who is particularly well known as a conceptual artist. Donnelly works with various media including photography, drawing, audio, video, sculpture and performance.Cotter, Suz ...

Philippe Parreno Philippe Parreno (born 1964 in Grenoble, France) is a French contemporary artist, living and working in Paris. His works include films, Installation art, installations, performances, drawings, and text. Parreno's work centers around both expand ...

, Koo Jeong-A,

Pierre Huyghe Pierre Huyghe (born 11 September 1962) is a French contemporary artist, who works in a variety of media from films and sculptures to public interventions and living systems. He lives and works in Santiago de Chile. Early life and education Pier ...

Tacita Dean Tacita Charlotte Dean CBE, RA (born 1965) is a British visual artist who works primarily in film. She was a nominee for the Turner Prize in 1998, won the Hugo Boss Prize in 2006, and was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 2008. She lives ...

Doug Aitken Doug Aitken (born 1968) is an American multidisciplinary artist. Aitken's body of work ranges from photography, print media, sculpture, and architectural interventions, to narrative films, sound, single and multi-channel video works, installatio ...

Rirkrit Tiravanija Rirkrit Tiravanija (, Jerry Saltz (May 7, 2007)Conspicuous Consumption''New York Magazine''.) is a Thai contemporary artist residing in New York City, Berlin, and Chiangmai, Thailand. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1961. His installatio ...

; and Akram Khan, and

Tamara Rojo Tamara Rojo Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 17 May 1974) is a Spanish ballet dancer. She was the English National Ballet's artistic director and a lead principal dancer with the company between 2012 and 2022. She was previously a principa ...

’s

Giselle ''Giselle'' ( , ), originally titled ''Giselle, ou les Wilis'' (; ''Giselle, or The Wilis''), is a romantic ballet () in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam. Considered a masterwork in the classical ballet performance canon, it was first perfor ...

with

English National Ballet English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin as London Festival Ballet and based in London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scott ...

Park Avenue Armory (2012–2015)

Simultaneously, Poots served as the founding artistic director at New York's

. His tenure was marked by ambitious, provocative, and commercially successful projects, notably

Paul McCarthy Paul McCarthy (born August 4, 1945) is an American artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Life McCarthy was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1945. He studied art at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and later continued to ...

’s WS, a controversial yet critically lauded immersive exhibition;

Douglas Gordon Douglas Gordon (born 20 September 1966) is a Scottish artist. He won the Turner Prize in 1996, the Premio 2000 at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Work Much of Gordon's ...

and

Helene Grimaud Helene or Hélène may refer to: People * Helene (name), and Hélène, a female given name, including a list of people with the name * Hélène (singer) (Hélène Rollès, born 1966), French actress and singer * Helen of Troy, a figure in Greek ...

’s ‘tears become, streams become…’; the FlexN dance production;

Igor Levit Igor Levit (; born 10 March 1987) is a Russian-German pianist who focuses on the works of Bach, Beethoven, and Liszt. He is also a professor at the Musikhochschule Hannover. He lives in Berlin. Biography Born in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) to ...

and Marina Abramovic’s ‘Goldberg’;

Berlin Philharmonic The Berlin Philharmonic () is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world. Throughout the 20th century, the orchestra was led by conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler (1922� ...

Simon Rattle Sir Simon Denis Rattle (born 19 January 1955) is a British conductor with German citizenship. He rose to international prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, while music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–1998). Rat ...

and

’s St Matthew Passion;

Kenneth Branagh Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh ( ; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Reading, Berkshire, Branagh trained at RADA in London and served as its president from 2015 to 2024. List of award ...

’s immersive staging of

Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...

; and Tree of Codes with Paris Ballet, Wayne MacGregor,

Olafur Eliasson Olafur Eliasson (; born 5 February 1967) is an Icelandic–Danish artist known for sculptured and large-scaled installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer's experience. In 1995, ...

, and

Jamie xx James Thomas Smith (born 28 October 1988), known professionally as Jamie xx, is an English musician, DJ, record producer, and remixer. He is known for both his solo work and as a member of the indie pop band the xx. He has been described as a " ...

The Shed (2015–Present)

In December 2014, Poots was appointed founding artistic director and chief executive of The Shed, the first purpose built arts center in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

for over 50 years. Under his leadership, The Shed emerged as a dynamic center for innovative, interdisciplinary art, commissioning and presenting new works across and between various forms of creativity.

Notable commissions and programs

During Poots’s tenure, The Shed commissioned and premiered several significant productions. * Soundtrack of America: Conceived by

and

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received List of awards and nominations re ...

, this concert series celebrated the global influence of African American music on contemporary culture. * Norma Jeane Baker of Troy: A performance piece by poet

Anne Carson Anne Patricia Carson (born June 21, 1950) is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator, classicist, and professor. Trained at the University of Toronto, Carson has taught classics, comparative literature, and creative writing at universities across ...

, starring

Ben Whishaw Benjamin John Whishaw (born 14 October 1980) is an English actor. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Ben Whishaw, various accolades, including three British Academy Television Awards, two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Aw ...

and

Renée Fleming Renée Lynn Fleming (born February 14, 1959) is an American soprano and actress, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Fleming has been nom ...

exploring the lives of

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe ( ; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "Blonde stereotype#Blonde bombshell, blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex ...

and

Helen of Troy Helen (), also known as Helen of Troy, or Helen of Sparta, and in Latin as Helena, was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believed to have been the daughter of Zeus and Leda (mythology), ...

. * Reich Richter Pärt: An immersive experience featuring newly commissioned works by painter

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced Abstract art, abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, photographs and Glass art, glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important con ...

with composers

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich descr ...

and

Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in p ...

. * Bjork’s Cornucopia: A month-long, theatrical concert residency. * Open Call: A biennial commissioning program supporting emerging New York City-based visual and performing artists, providing them with resources and space to create new works. * Help: a performance piece by acclaimed writer and poet

Claudia Rankine Claudia Rankine (; born September 4, 1963) is a Jamaican-American poet, essayist, playwright, and the editor of several anthologies. She is the author of five volumes of poetry, two plays and various essays. Her book of poetry, '' Citizen: An A ...

. * William Forsythe: A Quiet Evening of Dance, set to the sounds of breath and music. * Tomas Saraceno: A major, sensory exhibition with spider webs, air and the cosmic web. * Kagami: The world’s first mixed reality performance featuring

Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Music of Japan, Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the Synthesizer, synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his ...

. * Sonic Sphere: The realization of

’s spherical 3D concert hall featuring works by

Yaeji Kathy Yaeji Lee (;, born August 6, 1993), known professionally as Yaeji, is an American singer, DJ, and producer based in Brooklyn, New York City. Her style blends elements of house music and hip hop with mellow, quiet vocals sung in both English ...

and

Carl Craig Carl Craig (born May 22, 1969) is an American electronic music producer, DJ, and founder of the record label Planet E Communications. He is known as a leading figure and pioneer in the second wave of Detroit techno artists during the late 1980 ...

. * Here We Are: The world premiere of

Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March22, 1930November26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, he is credited with reinventing the American musical. He received Lis ...

’s final musical. * Luna Luna: A showcase of carnival attractions and performances by visionary artists including

Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved notoriety in the late 1970s as part of the graffiti ...

Sonia Delaunay Sonia Delaunay (; 14 November 1885 – 5 December 1979) was a French artist born to Jewish parents, who spent most of her working life in Paris. She was born in the Russian Empire, now Ukraine, and was formally trained in Russia and Germany, be ...

Keith Haring Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the Graffiti in New York City, New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual l ...

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, Printmaking, printmaker, Scenic design, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considere ...

Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein ( ; October27, 1923September29, 1997) was an American pop artist. He rose to prominence in the 1960s through pieces which were inspired by popular advertising and the comic book style. Much of his work explores the relations ...

, and a new score by Andre 3000, Nicholas Brittel,

Jockstrap A jockstrap is an undergarment for protecting the scrotum and penis or vulva during contact sports or other vigorous physical activity. This article deals chiefly with the genital protective sports gear designed for the male body, colloquially ...

, and more. * Diffuse Control: the world premiere of

Beeple use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates ...

’s collaborative encounter with art and AI

North Star Studio (2023-Present)

In 2023, Poots decided to step back as chief executive of The Shed to focus exclusively on the artistic direction of The Shed and to establish a new production house called North Star Studio (NSS), designed to develop innovative, multi-sensory, participatory, non-prescriptive shows and formats for a broad range of audiences. Working with leading artists and creatives across pop, performance, visual arts, science and technology, NSS has unparalleled experience in combining these cultural forces to produce the next generation of live shows, exhibitions, editions that realize unique, commercial opportunities. Next generation shows require artists, investors and commerce to authentically integrate, and NSS is uniquely positioned to realize this creative and commercial potential.

Awards

* 2012: Diaghilev Award for '' The Life and Death of Marina Abramović'' * 2015:

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 2015 for services to the arts Notice ID: 2347760. * 2024: Honorary Doctorate for services to arts from

Edinburgh Napier University Edinburgh Napier University () is a public university in Edinburgh, Scotland. Napier Technical College, the predecessor of the university, was founded in 1964, taking its name from 16th-century Scottish mathematician and philosopher John Napie ...

Personal life

Poots is married to Dr. Kathryn Spellman-Poots, an American

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

professor and author at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. The couple have two children and live in New York City

References

External links

Manchester International Festival

New York's Culture Shed
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poots, Alex Living people 1967 births Alumni of City, University of London British artistic directors British chief executives Businesspeople from Edinburgh Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Scottish people of French descent Scottish people of Irish descent Date of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people)