Skip page header and navigation

The Art of Leadership: Episode 1, About a Board

What makes a good board? What makes a bad one? Where's the line between the executive and the trustees? Join host Kirsty Lang and guests Clare Connor, Moira Sinclair and Gurvinder Sandher as they discuss boards and how to demonstrate good leadership and governance in arts and culture.
7 November 2019

share

Contributor biographies

Host

Kirsty Lang is an experienced journalist and broadcaster with a special interest in foreign affairs and the Arts. She is the chair of the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead and sits on the board of the British Council.

She spent many years as a foreign correspondent reporting for the BBC and the Sunday Times from Eastern Europe and later Paris. She’s been a presenter on Channel 4 News, BBC World, and Radio 4s daily arts programme Front Row.

She chaired the Orange Prize for Fiction, was a judge of the Independent Prize for Foreign Fiction in Translation and was also a visiting Professor in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York.

Guests

Moira Sinclair is Chief Executive of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, which has a particular focus on social justice and makes about £30m grants annually to organisations and individuals working in the arts, in cultural education, in migration and integration, and in giving young people voice.

Moira is Chair of Clore Leadership, Chair of East London Dance and Vice Chair of the London Mayor’s Cultural Strategy Board. She is also a member of the British Library Advisory Council, of the Investment Committee of the Arts Impact Fund and of the Governing Council for the European Foundation Centre.

Previously she was Executive Director London and South East for Arts Council England, and Director of Vital Arts. She has worked in local government, and in theatre and production management. A graduate of Manchester University where she studied drama, Moira became a Clore Fellow in 2004/05.

Clare Connor is Chief Executive of The Place. With a longstanding background in dance and performance, Clare trained at London Contemporary Dance School before embarking on a successful performing career with Phoenix Dance. She then worked as a teacher-artist in both further and higher education and collaboratively produced performing arts programmes for the University of East London, as well as supporting the validation of new arts programmes in several universities.

In 2014, Clare joined the team at Southbank Centre as Director of Business Development and took the lead on innovative large-scale capital fundraising programmes. Her previous roles, prior to that, include co-founding the national network Future Arts Centres and working as Director of Stratford Circus Arts Centre, from 2005-2014, where she led the re-imagining of the organisation to create a new charitable body to run it in 2012.

Gurvinder Sandher is the Artistic Director of Cohesion Plus, CEO of the KECC (Kent Equality Cohesion Council) and member of Arts Council England’s South East Area Council. His background is in bhangra dance which he has been performing since 1985. 

He has worked in the voluntary sector in Kent since 1999 and established Cohesion Plus in 2008 to compliment the work he was already doing around equality and diversity.  The focus of their work is to use the arts and community engagement to bring people together, showcase culturally diverse arts and promote community cohesion, celebrating their shared values. 

He is the County Chair of the Independent Police Advisory Group for Kent, Vice Chair of the Kent Police and Crime Panel (Independent Member and sits on a number of strategic boards, which include: Policing Independent Advisory Panel; Kent Youth Justice Board; Ideas Test; and Citizens Advice in North & West Kent

About Creative Matters

Creative Matters brings you views from the cutting edge of arts and culture.

With guests from the world of creativity and beyond, asking the hard questions and sharing ideas.

This is your podcast, powered by Arts Council England.

Want to hear more?

Imagine Watford 2018

Creative matters

Views from the cutting edge of arts and culture

More on good leadership:

(L to R) Donna Munday, Tim Crarer, Kirsty Lang, Tony Butler

The Art of Leadership: Episode 2, Conflict and Crisis

Top stories

Purple square with text stating 'The Art of Leadership'

The Art of Leadership: Episode 3, Leadership Development

Read more