Diversifying Governance: From Dialogue to Action
Event details
- Time/Date: 10:00am - 4pm, Thursday 10 April 2025
- Venue: Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, E1 7PJ
- Ticket prices starting from £160 + VAT. Early bird and promotional offers available, including Get Into Governance tickets.
Join Clore Leadership and the Cultural Governance Alliance in London for a day-long programme of action-oriented surgeries designed to help your organisation take concrete steps towards diversifying its governance. Gain practical insights, guidance, and tools to break down barriers, expand representation, and create a leadership team that reflects the communities you serve. Walk away with clear actions and the confidence to drive meaningful, lasting change in your boardroom.
Target audience: Chairs, Trustees and Executive level leaders.
This event has now sold out. Please contact [email protected] to be added to the waiting list for returns.
About the day
A one-day, in-person event based in London at the Whitechapel Gallery and aimed at Chairs, Trustees and Executive level leaders who are seeking further tools and advice in embedding equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within their governance practices across the arts, heritage and culture sectors.
We know that the sector registers high demand for diversity but across the board exhibits low strategic and practical responses. It is clear that organisations want to change but often don’t know how or lack the resources to implement desired change.
The in-person training day will provide the opportunity to build on shared learning and experience to support sector organisations to be proactive in response to EDI, and to shift their practice into building boards which attract and fully involve diverse trustees and operate on a systemically equitable basis.
Through this programme, we want to support organisations to catalyse a step change in the way boards understand, represent and develop the communities their organisations serve, placing diversity at the centre of governance.
Topics and Speaker Highlights
Introduction and Q&A to a new EDI Benchmarking Toolkit
Speaker – Keith Arrowsmith, Clore Leadership Governance Associate
- Surgery 1 – Community in Governance
Surgery Speaker: Saad Eddine Said, CEO and Artistic Director, New Art Exchange
Tips on how to use your board to develop a fair, equitable, inclusive and equal art world for everyone in the communities you serve. Perspectives from the first cultural institution in the world with a permanent citizen assembly as a key part of its leadership structure. - Surgery 2 – Embedding and Empowering Young People on your Board
Surgery Speaker: Sid Boyer, Agency Producer, Rising Arts Agency
Mobilising young people to join your board helps to bring fresh perspectives, varied life experiences, and a broader range of ideas, fostering more inclusive and dynamic decision-making. This session will tackle how to embrace generative conflict as your board becomes more intergenerational, building a board room that’s truly designed for everyone and common misconceptions about recruiting young people into governance. Advice, ideas and discussion on recruitment, retention, and gathering interest from young people to join your board. - Surgery 3 – Retention is the new recruitment
Speaker: Delia Barker, CEO, Brixton House and Chair, Phoenix Dance Theatre
You’ve created a diverse board – great! Now, how to retain it. Discussion, suggestions, and advice on how to retain and support your diverse board members. - Surgery 4 – Challenging Ableism
Speaker: Charlene Salter, Associate Artist and Sarah Pickthall, Consultant, both Co-Chairs, Access All Areas
The importance of valuing diverse abilities and perspectives. Advice on how to create an inclusive environment that strengthens decision-making around the board table.
Who is the event for?
This executive-level training day is designed for decision-makers in arts and cultural sector governance, including trustees, chairs and senior leadership teams who are committed to advancing equity, diversity and inclusion within their organisations. While we welcome participants from organisations of all sizes across the arts, heritage and cultural sectors, we encourage two colleagues from each organisation to attend together, as this typically leads to better engagement and implementation of learning. To support this, we are offering a £15 discount on second tickets. See the Eventbrite page here for more details about ticketing.
Full Programme
10:00 – 10:30 | Registration, breakfast refreshments and networking
10:30 – 10:40 | Welcome – Clore Leadership
10:40 – 11:15 | Diversifying Governance – are we nearly there yet? Panel discussion
11:15 – 11:35 | Introduction and Q&A to a new EDI Benchmarking Toolkit
11:35 – 11:45 | Break
11:45 – 12:45 | Surgeries I
12:45 – 1:45 | Lunch
1:45 – 2:45 | Surgeries II
2:45 – 3:00 | Afternoon Break
3:00 – 4:00 | What Next? Opportunity to discuss key learning, onward resourcing, networking
4:00 | Event Closes
Supporters
This event is generously supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Tickets and Promotional Offers
We are offering a 10% Cultural Governance Alliance Member discount during the first week of sales. Offer extended until 1pm on Monday 24 February 2025. Sign up to the CGA here
Organisations sending multiple delegates to the event are eligible for £15 off the second ticket when booking. Enter promo code MULTIDIVGOV on Eventbrite before purchasing tickets (a maximum of 2 tickets can be purchased per person).
Tickets are non-refundable once purchased.
Venue Accessibility
All venue spaces in use for this event can be reached through using the Whitechapel Gallery’s passenger lift. 4 people max capacity.
Free parking for Blue Badge holders is available at the top of Osborn Street in the pay and display booths for an unlimited period. Spaces are available on a first come, first served basis.
For further details about Whitechapel Gallery’s accessibility please visit this page
