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Chris Carrell championed community engagement (Picture copyright Alan Wylie, 1989)
A visionary arts administrator who spent 13 years at the helm of Glasgow’s Third Eye Centre, Chris Carrell was a crucial figure in shaping Glasgow’s successful bid to be 1990 City of Culture. His energy and ability to enable others helped shape the grassroots arts scene for which the city is now internationally recognised.
Born Ronald Christopher Carrell in Barnard Castle in 1941, he never knew the father after whom he was named, Pilot Officer Ronald Carrell, who died in a bombing raid in Germany in October 1940. After the war, his mother and stepfather, Frank Hutchins, moved to Kent.
Died: April 13, 2021. THE death of Chris Carrell, not long after his 80th birthday and after Parkinson’s and age-related illnesses, has deeply saddened countless artists across the UK and beyond, while stirring magical memories among those who experienced his insightful practice of bringing art into the lives of people wherever he worked. His time as director of Glasgow’s Third Eye Centre (1978-1991) was undoubtedly a significant factor in Glasgow achieving its 1990 European City of Culture status, just as Sunderland and Portsmouth both gained a renewed sense of cultural identity from his astutely managed creative projects. He was born Ronald Christopher Carrell, at Barnard Castle, Co Durham, in March 1941. His father, Pilot Officer Ronald M. Carrell, died on a bombing raid in Germany in October 1940, before Chris was born, and is buried in the Commonwealth war cemetery at Charlottenberg, Berlin.