LOOK Liverpool International Photography Festival, the North West’s premier festival of contemporary photography and photographic practice, today announced it has appointed former arts industry manager Emma Smith as Executive Director. Emma will be responsible for leading the company through its next phase of growth, building on LOOK’s established festival history. She will direct the company's long-term growth strategy and lead the evaluation and delivery of all fundraising and sponsorship efforts.

"Given Emma’s arts management, cultivation and enterprise experience within the arts industry, the LOOK Board thought Emma was an ideal choice to lead the organisation through the next critical phase in our growth story," explains Chair of the Board, Sara-Jayne Parsons. "The entire team is thrilled to welcome Emma as our Executive Director as the festival continues to evolve”.

Since its launch in 2007, LOOK has become one of the UK’s leading photographic festivals, celebrating its connection with contemporary culture whilst exposing the artistry of the form. Festival exhibitions have included works by internationally acclaimed and nationally recognised photographers such as Edmund Clark, John Darwell, Moyra Davey, John Davies, Mitch Epstein, Charles Fréger, Ken Grant, E. Chambré Hardman, David Maisel, Martin Parr, Rankin, August Sander, Eva Stenram, The Caravan Gallery, Issa Touma, Paul Trevor, Weegee and Tom Wood.

Most recently, Emma was Head of Creative Enterprise at the Bluecoat, reporting directly to the company's Chief Executive, Mary Cloake, where she sat on the senior management team. In that capacity, Emma was responsible for recruiting and maintaining an extensive creative community and developed additional income streams to support the charity. During her 5- year tenure at the Bluecoat, Emma held other management positions, including those of Creative Community Manager and Creative Enterprise Manager. Earlier in her career, Emma worked as House Manager at the Bluecoat, the Liverpool Playhouse and the Neptune (now Epstein) Theatre having studied fine art with theatre at Liverpool Hope, earning her degree from the University of Liverpool.

Asked to comment, Emma stated: “I am incredibly honoured and wholly excited to have the opportunity to work with artists - locally and globally – and our city’s world-class arts and knowledge organisations to develop a thought-leading, international festival that Liverpool can be proud of. We are an ambitious festival and look forward to demonstrating this with LOOK/15”.