A domestic crisis
As our leading arts institutions look abroad to fill their key roles, Anthony Field fpr The Stage asks if UK training should be doing more to find the next generation closer to home.

The recent appointment to top jobs of Michael Lynch to the South Bank, Tim Walker to the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Judith Isherwood to the Millennium Stadium all have one thing in common - all three administrators are from Australia. The performing arts scene is and should be increasingly international but is it the fault of the UK's senior training courses that we are missing out by not filling our top posts with local talent?

Clearly the Clare Duffield Foundation thinks so, as it is now looking into this problem of finding and training the leading figures required by the whole arts and entertainments industry.

We have so many excellent middle-management staff who shun assuming the top responsibility for running our major performing companies and who flinch from the legal and financial liabilities that have to be assumed if they become board members.

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Press Release

9 June 2004

Arts Council England Invests £245,000 to encourage and develop six arts leaders

Arts Council England has funded six fellowships as part of the Clore Leadership Programme, a new initiative of the Clore Duffield Foundation to strengthen leadership across the arts, announced its first ever group of 27 Clore Leadership Fellows at the Royal Society of the Arts on Tuesday 8 June.

Congratulating the six fellows, Sir Christopher Frayling, Chair of Arts Council England said:

“These fellowships will have a huge impact on the future of leadership in the cultural sector. The Clore Leadership programme is a groundbreaking achievement and we at the Arts Council are very proud to be part of it. The high quality of the applications for this first year has shown us that there is an enormous wealth of talent out there, ready for opportunity to reach its full potential.”

Maria Balshaw Aged 34. Lives in Birmingham. Creative Director, Creative Partnerships, Birmingham. Previously Research Fellow, University of Birmingham and Lecturer in Cultural Studies, University College Northampton.

Teo Greenstreet Aged 39. Lives in London. Co-founder and Chief Executive of The Circus Space. Previously Circus Development Officer for Greater London Arts and performer with Bamboozle and The Leadmill Circus.

Eddie Nixon Aged 33. Lives in London. Freelance dancer/performer with New Adventures, the National Theatre, The Featherstonehaughs and DV8 Physical Theatre. Has worked as Rehearsal Director, choreographer and, for Dance UK, as temporary Programme Manager.

Sara Robinson Aged 35. Lives in Ludlow. Director of Ludlow Assembly Rooms, a rural Arts and Community Centre. Previously freelance Arts Project Director for Yorkshire Youth Music, Kirklees Cultural Services, the Orange Darlington Festival and Bradford LEA Early Years.

Julia Twomlow Aged 37. Lives in Penzance. Until recently was Centre Director for Acorn Theatre in Penzance. Now freelance arts manager, including UK representation/tour management for Polish trio ‘Kroke’.

Erica Whyman Aged 34. Lives in London. Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre. Previously Artistic Director of Southwark Playhouse, Associate Producer/Director of Tricycle Theatre and Assistant Director for English Shakespeare Company and Oxford Stage Company.

For futher information about the six Arts Council fellows contact Alex Holdaway on 020 7973 6459 or alex.holdaway@artscouncil.org.uk
For further information on the Clore Leadership Programme contact Bolton & Quinn on 020 7221 5000

Notes

The Clore Leadership Programme sets out to develop a new generation of cultural leaders for the UK. Fellows will be selected annually, from the cultural sector or beyond, to undertake a year-long programme of work, research, training and secondment designed to develop the leadership skills and experience of each individual. Fellows have the option of remaining with their present employers, or of receiving a full-time scholarship of £20,000. The major funding partners for the Programme include Arts Council England, the DCMS, MLA (the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council), National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), Culture East Midlands, together with East Midlands Development Agency, England’s North West Cultural Consortium, together with the North West Development Agency, the King’s Fund, Youth Music, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Arts and Humanities Research Board, and the Clore Duffield Foundation. Direct associated costs, including tuition fess, will be met by the programme.

Full details are available at: www.cloreleadership.org or The Clore Leadership Programme, South Building, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA. Tel: 020 7420 9430

DCMS lags in leadership
By Ruth Gillespie for The Stage

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s investment in leadership development within the arts is substantially less than that of any other government body, Sue Hoyle, deputy director of the Clore Leadership Programme, told delegates.

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Flyman
From The Stage

One of the things about senior management is that they imagine they are the element without which the whole structure of theatre performance would collapse. Those of us of a more practical bent will know that everything is ultimately supported from the ground up. Sky hooks are just a wind-up, remember.

But our leaders and we will return to that term later, believe that without that carefully negotiated contract the playwright would have disappeared without trace; that unless minutes are produced and reports submitted plays will not happen. It was once noted that the only staff the arts council needed was a chap in a nissen hut with a cheque book. It could be argued that performing arts companies could function perfectly well if similarly equipped.

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