MARCUS DAVEY (S 81-85) CBE, APPOINTED HONORARY DOCTORATE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Mdavey

Congratulations to Marcus Davey, CBE (S 81-85) who has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Gloucester University for his work as Chief Executive of The Roundhouse which has been working with Gloucester Culture Trust. Marcus has been Chief Executive and Artistic Director of The Roundhouse since 1999, which aims to raise future prospects for young people through artistic and creative programmes.

An honorary fellow of The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London and of Dartington College of Arts, Marcus was awarded an OBE in the 2011 New Year’s honours list for his services to the arts before being awarded a CBE more recently in 2019.

Marcus humbly says, more than himself, he would prefer the focus to be on the work he does with young people and in the artistic community.

Before moving to Sedbergh, where his father, Mr Robin Davey, became the Head of Art and where his mother was also an art teacher, Marcus explains, “we lived in Gloucestershire, so when he was asked to support the newly formed Gloucester Culture Trust (about 6 years ago) he was happy to help. Over that time we have seen the arts and cultural offer in Gloucester grow significantly. It was of course a real honour to be awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Gloucestershire. I attended the Graduation Ceremony about three weeks ago and in my speech I talked about the importance of building on one’s strengths, something we often forget to do.”

Roundhouse
The Roundhouse Theatre in Camden Town

“The last couple of years have been very tough working in the arts. At the Roundhouse, which is a charity and both North London’s largest arts centre and Europe’s biggest and most diverse creative centre for young people, where I am Chief Executive and Artistic Director, we simply had to close and make significant redundancies, but we kept working with young people online and in the local community. We have been fully back up and running since September but things are starting to look very challenging again.

Over the last three years I have led three major fundraising walks to raise money for our work with young people, who are some of the most disadvantaged in our society. In 2019 seventeen of us completed the 24 hour version of the three peaks and in both 2020 and 2021 over 40 of us walked 36 miles in about 10 hours. In total, as a team, we raised over £850,000 for our creative work with young people.

At school I was not a great runner, in fact I came last in the Wilson Run (twice I think) although I seem to remember breaking the shot put record, but I have always loved walking.”

Click here to visit the website of The Roundhouse Theatre.

A big congratulations to Marcus on all the terrific work he has done for the young artistic community- we are very proud of you.