Jenny Roberts obituary

Other lives: Arts administrator who nurtured young organisations and became a theatre relationship manager for Arts Council England

My friend Jenny Roberts, who has died suddenly aged 66 of a heart condition, was involved in the field of theatre and the arts throughout her working life. She brought her mentoring skills and enthusiasm to many organisations over 40 years.

She was an energetic, kind person who could strike up a conversation with anyone she met and formed many close friendships.

Jenny was the eldest child of Sally (nee Loose), a primary school teacher, and Tony Roberts, an engineer. She was born in Twickenham, south-west London, and grew up in the village of Brill in Buckinghamshire, going to the newly established Lord Williams’s comprehensive in Thame, where she and I met in 1971.

After school she studied geography at Swansea University, before following her love for theatre and the arts to become an administrator at the Old Fire Station arts centre in Oxford. She then took the position of manager of the Limelight theatre at the Queens Park arts centre in Aylesbury, moving on to manage the Linford arts centre in Milton Keynes.

In 1998 she became the administrative director of the Oxfordshire Touring Theatre Company, making theatre accessible by taking productions to rural and small-scale venues across the county.

She was appointed as a theatre relationship manager for Arts Council England in 2007 and moved to Brighton. Jenny found her spiritual home in the city. She loved being by the sea and also walking on the South Downs, in latter years with her beloved dog, Eric, and visiting the many cafes and vintage shops with friends.

Jenny managed the Arts Council’s relationships with a range of theatres and authorities, including Rifco Theatre Company, which brings stories of British south-Asian life to the stage, and she went on to be executive director of the organisation for several happy years, from 2016 to 2022.

She loved travelling around the world and also spent some time leading cycling holidays. A creative person, Jenny adored clothes, although she eschewed fast fashion and preferred knitting, sewing and adapting older items and furniture.

Having recently retired, she was enjoying volunteering her sewing skills at Emmaus charity in Brighton and establishing a haberdashery section at her local Martlets hospice charity shop.

She is survived by her mother, Sally, her siblings Jill, Liz and Will, and two nieces and three nephews.