Press room

Luke Kemp to leave Barbican Immersive following more than a decade founding and leading one of the UK's most significant immersive and digital art programmes, continuing as advisor on Panorama St Paul's screen commissioning.

The Barbican has announced that Luke Kemp, Head of Creative Programme for Barbican Immersive, will be departing his role later this year following eleven years at the Barbican Centre.

Since founding Barbican Immersive, Luke has been instrumental in establishing it as one of the UK's most significant programmes dedicated to immersive and digital art and a key voice in the international immersive arts landscape. Over more than a decade he led the creative development and delivery of exhibitions and commissions of genuine international ambition, among them AI: More than Human (2019), one of the most widely toured cultural responses to artificial intelligence produced by a major institution, Our Time on Earth (2022), Feel The Sound (2025) and In Other Worlds (2026). He also programmed XR content including In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats (2025) and established a three-year partnership with Panorama St Paul's, commissioning new work on the largest LED screen in the City of London.

During his tenure Luke was instrumental in securing multi-million pound sponsorships and partnerships, including through the Bloomberg Digital Accelerator Programme, and the BFI. He pioneered an audience-first approach to programming and expanded co-production and touring partnerships across international markets including Japan, Canada, USA and China, strengthening the Barbican's global reputation through a sustained presence at major international festivals and forums including Venice Immersive, Mutek, Sonar, New Images Festival and CPH:DOX.

Luke will continue to support the Barbican as an advisor on the Panorama St Paul's screen commissioning programme for the next twelve months, ensuring continuity of the creative partnership he established.

Philippa Simpson, Chief Operating Officer of the Barbican, said: "Luke has made an outstanding contribution to the Barbican over eleven years. He founded and built Barbican Immersive from the ground up, creating a programme of genuine international significance that has reached audiences around the world and established the Barbican as a serious voice in immersive and digital art. His commitment to intellectual rigour, creative ambition and audience-first thinking has shaped everything the programme has become. We are enormously grateful for everything he has brought to the Barbican and are delighted that he will continue to support our Panorama St Paul's programme over the coming year. We wish him every success in what comes next."

Luke Kemp said: "It has been an extraordinary privilege to found and lead Barbican Immersive alongside a brilliant and dedicated team. Together we created work that I believe genuinely mattered with exhibitions that asked serious questions about technology, ecology and what it means to be human, and that found audiences not just in London but around the world. The relationships I have built with artists, commissioners and partners across Europe, Asia and beyond have shaped my thinking in ways I am only looking to continue exploring. I leave with enormous pride in what we achieved and real excitement about what comes next. I am also delighted to continue supporting the Barbican's Panorama St Paul's programme over the coming year. it remains one of the most exciting commissioning opportunities in London."