Asif Khan

Director

About me: I was appointed Director of the SPL from June 2016. 

I grew up in Dundee and studied Film and Media Studies with Marketing at the University of Stirling. I have spent much of my professional career in Bristol and London in business development, marketing and engagement roles across cultural platforms; including public libraries, performing arts venues and art galleries.

I led on the national cultural policy for the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade commemorative programme in 2007, based at the Museums Libraries & Archives Council (MLA).

As an associate of the Cultural Leadership Programme, I wrote the international visual arts strategy for Barbados (2010-15), incorporating the Black Diaspora Visual Arts initiative (a collaboration with the International Curators Forum).

Following the success of the Yardstick Festival in Bristol and Bath – showcasing contemporary poets and writers from the African Diaspora – I was invited by the Government of Jamaica to co-produce a showcase event with their new Poet Laureate, Mervyn Morris, and emerging Jamaican writers (2014). I also produced a poetry festival on the theme of Climate Change for Bristol and Bath Festival of Nature.