Rosie Millard
Well-known arts broadcaster and writer Rosie Millard has been appointed to chair the company that will organise Hull’s year as the UK City of Culture.
The role will see the former BBC arts correspondent becoming one of the main figures involved in the event in 2017 and announcing it this morning on Twitter, she sounded delighted.
On my way to Hull this morning to announce my new job- heading @2017Hull . Excited, honoured and thrilled.
— Rosie Millard (@Rosiemillard) June 20, 2014
Speaking in today’s Hull Daily Mail, the former University of Hull English graduate said her time in the city 30 years ago had never left her heart.
“Hull now has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to use culture and the arts to transform perceptions of the city and to change the lives of local people.
“As chair of the culture company, I want to help Hull grasp this moment. I am looking forward to working with everyone involved to build on the wonderfully imaginative and witty cultural events and experiences already happening in the city. “As a passionate believer in accessibility of the arts for all, I believe I can also help Hull realise its ambition to harness audiences across the city and beyond in the build up to and during 2017.”
Millard was chosen this week from a four-strong shortlist of candidates for the part-time unpaid post and is initially expected to work four days a month.
She previously wrote about her affection for Hull after the city won its bid to be the next UK City of Culture in a Daily Telegraph was headlined, ‘Why I adore this unloved city‘.
“There is something about this city on the edge of Yorkshire, which almost dips its toe into the North Sea, that gets underneath people’s skin,” she wrote.
“It is quirky and irreverent and different from any other British city. It has a willful independence because it is on the edge of the earth.”
