Create welcomes Kevin Murphy and Michelle Browne to Board of Trustees

Create is pleased to welcome new members to our Board of Trustees.

Kevin Murphy, CEO of the Playhouse in Derry~Londonderry joins the board as Chair, following the departure of Clodagh Kenny, who served as chair for a number of years. We are also delighted to welcome Michelle Browne, artist and educator, to the board.

We know that both Kevin and Michelle will bring a wealth of experience and insight to their roles on the board, serving to inspire both the board and staff of the organisation. They will work alongside fellow board members Frances Brennan, Dr Helen Burke, Liz Burns, Oein DeBharduin, Tony Fegan and Philip Napier.

Kevin Murphy is CEO of The Playhouse in Derry~Londonderry, a cultural leader who seeks to build things he believes in with others that help make positive change. His diverse career began as a professional musician in London, followed by roles on the island of Ireland with Music55-7 as an Artistic Director and Creative Lives Ireland as their Chief Officer. At The Playhouse Kevin engages with the locality and people of the North West of the island of Ireland and important global narratives around art making, empowering people and making peaceful change. He works with a highly creative team to provide a space for making meaning together creatively, peacefully and with hope. Kevin is also a Clore Fellow, Common Purpose Graduate and International Futures Forum Practice Advisor. He has co-written the influential books Making Common Cause and Recovering Hope, and is a core member of the Wellbeing Economy Ireland Hub.

Michelle Browne is an artist and educator based in Dublin. Her work looks at what it means to live together: how society organises itself socially, politically and spatially. Performance and participation are core parts of her practice. Recent work includes: ‘Cycles’ (2024) for Carlow Arts Festival, an audio experience of the countryside, considering our relationship to land, history and our precarious future as climate change takes hold; World of Work (2022) a new board game looking at employment commissioned by Heart of Glass, a Merseyside community arts organization. Other recent exhibitions and events include: Mná na hÉireann at NCAD Gallery, 2024; live performances for Twist, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Tasmania (2023); The Midnight Run with Inua Ellams at The Abbey Theatre (2022). She is a lecturer in Sculpture and Expanded Practice at NCAD.