BATS Improv Welcomes Hannah Henderson As New Managing Director

BATS Improv, the Bay Area's premier improvisational performing and improv training company has announced Hannah Henderson as the company's new Managing Director. Ms. Henderson, a highly regarded art professional with international experience, will be responsible for overall business operations to enable future growth and innovation and to help BATS realize its vision for the future.

Hannah Henderson is a dual national British/American arts professional with 16 years' experience managing complex operations and programs, including over a decade at senior management level in the non-profit cultural sector. She has spent her working life creating access to the arts and opportunities for artists, students and diverse communities.

She's had senior roles in producing arts organizations such as the British Council, the UK's organization for international cultural relations and the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (ADMAF), the oldest independent cultural foundation in the Arabian Gulf. She's directed programs covering all art forms, has run large scale festivals, and grant programs, and with a focus on enabling talent, community arts and arts education initiatives. Most recently she was Executive and Artistic Director of the UK/United Arab Emirates Year of Creative Collaboration, a multidisciplinary bilateral cultural festival designed to strengthen relations between the two countries run by the British Council.

Hannah relocated to San Francisco last year and is a local resident of the Marina District. She is a member of the Executive Committee of Litquake, San Francisco's literature festival, where she co-produced the global programing strand of this year's 20th anniversary festival. She volunteers with several San Francisco based arts non-profits and is a member of the Arts Education Alliance of the Bay Area.

"I'm thrilled to be joining this creative community and look forward to working in partnership with the company, staff and board," said Henderson. "Working with BATS is right in my wheelhouse. I feel fortunate to have landed in a company where I can continue to follow my passion for enabling arts, education and live performance as I believe the arts have the power to foster mutual understanding and to build open and more interconnected communities."

Founded in 1986 BATS is the most highly acclaimed and longest running improvised theater company and school in Northern California. The BATS professional theater company is an artistic community that cultivates and innovates the craft of improvised theater through engaging, playful, creative performance and training. A center for improvised theater, BATS has performed to sold-out audiences continually in their 200-seat Bayfront Theater at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture.

www.improv.org