David Newland (Director of South Wales)

After a short (but happy) career in retail, David studied community drama and dance at Bretton Hall then spent two years leading its students union. He then moved into arts marketing, with five years marketing a producing theatre and two-and-a-half years launching and marketing a brand-new presenting theatre and arts centre, both in the English Midlands, as well as freelancing for BBC Radio.

In 1996 he joined Valleys Arts Marketing as Director, establishing Marketing the Arts in Swansea & Carmarthenshire in 1998 and raising more than £1m in public funding to deliver audience development initiatives across ten local authority areas and upgrade box office systems in seventeen theatres and arts centres across South and West Wales.

Before joining the Arts Council in 2002 he served on the Theatrical Management Association's Marketing Committee, the Arts Marketing Association board, the Databox Users Group board, the Roadmender Northampton management committee, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park management committee, the Bretton Hall Higher Education Corporation board, the Creu Cymru board and the Arts Council's Presentation & Marketing Advisory Panel. He was also an Arts Council Lottery Assessor and a 'Welcome to the Arts' trainer.

Passionate about developing high quality arts provision and nurturing productive partnerships, David lives in Cardiff and in his (tiny amount of) spare time is an LEA-appointed Governor at a primary school in Barry.