KIRSTY COTTON

1978 – 2024

Theatre Arts

Suggested by Charlotte Bister

Kirsty worked at Hall For Cornwall in the Arts Development Team before sadly passing away this year. She was a total champion of the performing arts, helping many people grow their companies, and many young people develop their skills to eventually become professionals.

This is taken from the HFC website:

It’s almost impossible to summarise Kirsty’s impact on the creative community of our region – indeed, perhaps we’d not even be a functioning community today without the compassion, character and wicked sense of fun Kirsty brought to our world. Without fail, she was a force for good, a fierce feminist and a true friend, protector and connector for artists and creatives across Cornwall.

Having joined Hall for Cornwall in 2014 as Talent Development Programme Manager, Kirsty worked across the next decade, toiling tirelessly on behalf of hundreds of artists while helping to build HfC’s Get Creative programme, which now supports more than 400 artists and 10,000 young people every year. Deploying her previous experience as a drama teacher, Kirsty also cemented ties with schools and teachers across Cornwall, ensuring creativity remained high on the agenda.

More recently, Kirsty became HfC Artist Development Producer which extended her role to work as a producer for HfC’s Cornwall Playhouse Productions. In a testament to her great stamina and flexibility, Kirsty wore these dual hats with great success, managing to nurture and cultivate emerging artists, providing an experienced shoulder for established Cornish creatives, whilst also producing a largescale production each year, culminating in 2023’s barnstorming hit Peter Pan, which received rave reviews nationally, breaking all records for festive productions and pantomimes in Cornwall.

More than any single project or professional achievement (of which there are too many to list here), Kirsty had an unbreakable moral compass. Promoter of the underdog, protector of equity and justice and a vocal advocate of the values we hold dear at HfC. Put simply, if you were trying to make good things happen, Kirsty was always on your side, coaxing us all along passionately, challenging us where we fell short, helping to ceaselessly ask the question “Is that the right thing to do”.

Charlotte Bister is an actor and producer @owdyadotheatre