Fife Cultural Trust Chief Executive wins ‘Contribution to Arts & Culture’ Award

Fife Cultural Trust’s Chief Executive Officer, Heather Stuart, was awarded for her contribution to arts and culture at the debut Scottish Women’s Awards held at Glasgow’s Crowne Plaza Hotel on Wednesday evening (30th August).

The awards aim to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of women entrepreneurs, business women, professionals, civil servants and charity workers that help make Scotland great. Organisers Creative Oceanic say thousands of nominations were received from the public since opening up in the past few months.

Celebrating the win, Heather Stuart said: “I am delighted to win this award and to do so in my role as Chief Executive of Fife Cultural Trust. None of what I achieve on a daily basis would happen without the support of the brilliant team that I have around me and the 400 staff within the organisation who do a great job enriching the lives of individuals and communities across Fife on a daily basis. I would like to dedicate this award to them and to thank them for all of their support, commitment, and dedication.”

Heather Stuart is Chief Executive of Fife Cultural Trust, which was established on 1 October 2012 and leads a dedicated staff of 400 delivering high quality libraries, museums, arts, archives, and theatre services for Fife’s communities across over 50 venues. Heather has experience in central and local government and in the private sector. She started her career in local government and held a range of posts in areas including community development and regeneration, European and external affairs, and cultural and community services.

Her career has included roles as Chief Executive of the Scottish Objective 3 Partnership securing over £300m of European funding for Scotland, Director of Regeneration at Communities Scotland leading the change and transition from Scottish Homes and a more integrated approach to physical and social regeneration and community learning and development.

Heather has worked in a range of roles in the Scottish Government supporting Ministers on local government, public service reform, regeneration, social inclusion, and cultural policy issues. Prior to her current post, Heather was Head of Cultural and Community Services at Perth and Kinross Council where she led a diverse service including a range of cultural facilities and services, community learning and development and sport and active recreation.

She has been involved with the arts for most of her life, and has worked in the arts and culture sector for over 15 years. She is a Member of the Institute of Directors, a Board member of the King’s Theatre Kirkcaldy, Vice Chair of Pitlochry Festival Theatre, and is a former Chair of VOCAL, the national association of culture and leisure managers. Heather is married to Colin, lives in Fife, has two stepsons, Kevin and Liam, who are 30 and 20, loves her golf (she is Club Captain at Kirkcaldy Golf Club), and walking her two dogs.

For further information on The Scottish Women’s Awards please visit www.facebook.com/thescottishwomensawards