Thinker-In-Residence: Claire MacDonald

From October 2017, Claire MacDonald will be a LADA Thinker in Residence.

Revd Dr Claire MacDonald is an artist and arts educator who recently trained as a Unitarian minister. A Professorial Fellow at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (London), her interests lie in creating conversational space across communities. Active as a performance writer and critic, two plays from her recent collection Utopia are currently in production in Europe, in Italy and the Czech Republic. She volunteers with Simple Gifts, a Unitarian food and story sharing project based in The Garrett Centre, where LADA has just relocated. She holds a PhD from the University of East Anglia in critical and creative writing, trained as a minister at Harris Manchester College Oxford, and is completing an MA in Abrahamic Faiths with a thesis on fashion and performance across faiths called ‘What to Wear and why it Matters: Clergywomen and Dress.’ She is the minister with Lewisham Unitarians in south London.

Her long-term artistic, activist, writing, research and Unitarian experience provides a strong foundation for her residency at LADA. As part of her residency she is working on Host, a radically local listening project. She will also research and test ideas for the development of LADA’s programmes and partnerships with the aim of bolstering connections with the Unitarian community, other tenants in the building and in the neighbourhood. As LADA settles into its new space at The Garrett Centre, we are delighted to be working with Claire on her residency.

Claire joins fellow Thinker in Residence Hester Chillingworth, who is focusing on Young People, Gender & Live Art.