Jackie Wylie

Jackie Wylie is the co-director of Take Me Somewhere, a Glasgow-wide contemporary performance festival based at Tramway and former Artistic Director of The Arches arts venue in Glasgow. She is also the incoming Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Scotland.

Wylie was born in Edinburgh in 1980. She received a first class MA in Theatre, Film and Television Studies from the University of Glasgow in 2001 [1] and worked in film and television production until 2004, when she went to work for The Arches in Glasgow. She worked under Andy Arnold as arts programmer then became Artistic Director in 2008 at the age of 28, becoming the youngest serving director of a major Scottish venue [2]

Under Wylie, the venue’s artistic output shifted from the more traditional productions of the Arches Theatre Company [1], to supporting and nurturing new Scottish talent. She developed artists like Kieran Hurley, Gary McNair, Rosanna Cade, Rob Drummond, Julia Taudevin and Nic Green, commissioning work that would eventually tour internationally. [2] Theatre critic Lyn Gardner described the venue under Wylie as “one of the reasons that in recent years Glasgow has become a magnet for young performance-makers...as significant as Battersea Arts Centre in London in the way it nurtures tomorrow.” [3]

In 2009 Wylie created the Behaviour festival, which brought globally-renowned international artists and companies like Gob Squad, Ann Liv Young, Tim Crouch, Bryony Kimmings, Ontroerend Goed and The TEAM to Glasgow

[4] Wylie also co-commissioned large-scale performances by internationally established artists such as DEREVO's Natura Morte, and Linder Sterling's 13 hour performance Darktown Cakewalk.

Wylie was on maternity leave when the venue closed in 2015. She received a research grant from Creative Scotland and Glasgow Life to investigate how to fill the space left by the Arches, resulting in the festival Take Me Somewhere, which will open in 2017. [1]

Wylie was named a Clore Leadership Programme Clore Leadership Programme Fellow in 2016. [2] In October 2016 she was announced as the third Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Scotland, after Laurie Sansom and Vicky Featherstone.