Louise Mc Kinney

Founder of Cultural Development Consultancy A-I-R and Director of Future Connected

Louise serves as a thought partner to leading public and private cultural organisations. She helps clients navigate times of growth and transformation through vision-led, holistic strategic plans that deliver organisational change. 

Among her extensive international network, she is regarded as a strategic force with the stamina to enable organisations to overcome deep-rooted challenges. She is committed to partnering with individuals and organisations that are strengthening the impact of culture locally and internationally, creating new business models and practices. Her approach is about clarity, rigour and optimism. 

She founded the international collective of cultural advisors, A-I-R in 2015 to support clients shape, expand, and realise their objectives. Over three decades, as a hands-on consultant, and through her in-house leadership roles, Louise has served a wide range of cultural and creative clients, working with artists, architects, board members, leadership and organisation-wide teams, collectors, corporate partners, educational institutions, foundations, galleries, local authorities, museums, and philanthropists to ensure clients’ lasting impact, relevance, and resilience. 

Recent and current clients include: Art 2030, Black Cultural Archives, British Council, Camden Art Centre, Chisenhale Gallery, The Cosmic House, Culture&, Factory International, Gaia Art Foundation, Louvre Abu Dhabi, Milton Keynes Council & Museum, Royal Academy of Dance, Royal Academy Schools, San Marco Art Centre, SMAC, Venice, Turner Contemporary, The University of Birmingham, Victoria Miro Gallery and World Cities Cultural Forum. Her in-depth experience was gained leading the development of organisations such as the Serpentine, Whitechapel and Lisson galleries, overseeing multi-million capital campaigns and markets, brokering partnerships with artists, collectors and philanthropists. 

Louise devised Future Connected, a values-led leadership development programme, giving Directors of grass-roots and smaller-scale organisations tools to grow dynamic businesses that inspire and represent their communities. The programme was a collaboration with Lambeth Council’s Economy, Culture & Skills Team. She is a regular visiting lecturer at the School for Curatorial Studies, Venice.

For further information and contact, please visit: http://www.a-i-r.co/ and https://futureconnected.org/