Rupert Thomson

Rupert is General Manager – APAC for Reed Words, the specialist brand writing agency. Before getting into the business of words, Rupert was an international arts curator and producer.

From 2011 to 2015 he was founding Artistic Director at Summerhall, a multi-arts venue in Edinburgh described by the Guardian in 2014 as ‘one of the world’s great arts centres’. From 2015-2019 he was head of Performance and Dance at Southbank Centre, Europe’s biggest arts venue – where he was also a client of Reed Words when they completed a major verbal rebrand for the Southbank. In Singapore he has been Director of Programmes at AHL (2019-2021), and Design Director at Neon.

As an artist he has presented works shaped by words in performance and visual art contexts. These include Manifesto (Battersea Arts Centre and Victoria & Albert Museum, 2010-2011), The Labyrinth Begets the Minotaur (Zacheta, Polish National Museum of Contemporary Art, 2014) and Glimpse (National Gallery of Singapore, 2022).

His awards include the Hospital 100 Award as one of the UK’s leading creative professionals (2014), and a Herald Angel award for Summerhall. At AHL he commissioned Red Sky by Troy Chin – winner of the Best Narrative Award at the Asia Games Awards 2022.

So words have always been part of Rupert’s story. Words that help us to understand. And words that help us to create.