Mary-Venetia Genis FRSA

Mary-Venetia Genis is the artistic director and founder of CultureMix Arts a company specialising in carnival arts and music education, performance and professional development. A first generation British born Trinidadian, she was educated at The Holt County Grammar School for Girls and Berkshire College of Art and Design.

She began her career as a freelance designer in fashion, theatre and carnival costume, and as a touring musician and performance artist, later facilitating music and costume making workshops and advising on capital and carnival grants for The Arts Council of England. She then joined Reading Borough Council as the first arts officer specialising in cultural diversity piloting the free Black Arts magazine Boom later becoming the independent producer and editor whilst presenting The Sonic Boom Radio Show. She then joined Southern Arts subsequently Arts Council England South East as the arts officer for cultural diversity, again for the first time. She left to focus full time on CultureMix Arts and her vision for a pioneering carnival arts and music facility. She now leads the development of young musicians from the established home of RASPO Steel Orchestra at the CultureMix Centre for Steel Pan Music based in Berkshire.

She became the freelance audience development consultant to Reading Borough Council initiating Urban World events and coordinating the One World Stage at WOMAD for seven years until 2003. As a facilitator Mary has delivered training courses in board development, arts funding, cultural diversity, carnival and the history of Black Music for, amongst others, the Independent Theatre Council, Reading University and Creative Partnerships. She continues as a guest lecturer in Arts Business and World Music at Thames Valley University.

Her non-executive roles include Chair of Black Mentoring Charity Refocus, Board member for South Hill Park Arts Centre, Trustee for the Jelly Art Gallery and Readipop music projects. She is a member of the Cultural Diversity Advisory Group to the Media of which she was previously the vice president, contributing a chapter to ITV's Guide to Cultural Diversity. She sat on the BBC Local Advisory Council for three years. In 2006 she received an Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award to study carnival arts and music in Brazil and a BBC Radio Berkshire Community Award for her services to the Black community.

In 2007 Mary was awarded a Clore Fellowship through the Clore Leadership Programme, an initiative designed to help develop the skills, knowledge, networks and experience of exceptional individuals who have the potential to take on significant leadership roles in the cultural sector. She was seconded for three months to London 2012 as the UK Cultural Olympiad Launch Coordinator and in 2008 started research at Kings College London. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.