National Council Members
national council members
Abigail Pogson
National Council Member
Abigail was born and grew up in Yorkshire. She has been Managing Director of Sage Gateshead since May 2015. She combines a commitment to developing artists and supporting them to create great work with a passion for ensuring that the arts can be accessed by as many people as possible.
Following a degree in Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge University and an MA in Cultural Management at City University, she began working in the arts.
Following a degree in Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge University and an MA in Cultural Management at City University, she began working in the arts.
She joined Sage Gateshead from Spitalfields Music, a charity based in east London with an international reputation for its quality, reach and innovation. She previously worked at English National Opera, Music Theatre Wales and SPNM. In 2007/8 she was a Fellow on the Clore Leadership Programme.
Abigail serves as a Trustee for V&A Dundee, as a Director for North East England Chamber of Commerce and as Chair of Sunderland Empire Theatre Trust.
Term of appointment: 15 May 2022 – 14 May 2026.
Abigail serves as a Trustee for V&A Dundee, as a Director for North East England Chamber of Commerce and as Chair of Sunderland Empire Theatre Trust.
Term of appointment: 15 May 2022 – 14 May 2026.
Andrew Miller, MBE
National Council Member
Transforming perceptions throughout his 35 year career in the creative industries, Andrew is recognised as one of the UK’s most influential disability advocates with extensive experience of the arts, film and tv sectors. Starting out in broadcasting, Andrew belongs to the first generation of disabled presenters on British television and went on to produce and direct tv arts documentaries.
Later becoming the first wheelchair-user to run a major arts venue, he also established the role of UK Government Disability Champion for Culture, he co-founded the UK Disability Arts Alliance #WeShallNotBeRemoved and was founding chair of the influential BFI Disability Screen Advisory Group. Previous board positions have included The Arts Council of Wales, The Space and Welsh National Opera.
Today Andrew works with leading cultural brands to improve access and to create new opportunities for disabled people. His current portfolio of roles includes: UK Arts Access Champion supporting the delivery of All In - the national arts access scheme for disabled audiences; he is a member of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority co-creation council and the Museums Strategic Disability Network; he is Creative Director of Trinity College Oxford and a trustee of the Royal Shakespeare Company and BAFTA - where he is chair of Young BAFTA.
At Arts Council England, Andrew chairs the Disability Advisory Group.
Date of appointment: 01 December 2017 - 30 November 2025
Today Andrew works with leading cultural brands to improve access and to create new opportunities for disabled people. His current portfolio of roles includes: UK Arts Access Champion supporting the delivery of All In - the national arts access scheme for disabled audiences; he is a member of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority co-creation council and the Museums Strategic Disability Network; he is Creative Director of Trinity College Oxford and a trustee of the Royal Shakespeare Company and BAFTA - where he is chair of Young BAFTA.
At Arts Council England, Andrew chairs the Disability Advisory Group.
Date of appointment: 01 December 2017 - 30 November 2025
Annabel Turpin
National Council member and North Area Chair
Annabel Turpin is Chief Executive of Storyhouse in Chester, one of the country’s largest arts centres, incorporating theatres, a cinema and the city’s library, and welcoming more than 800,000 visitors a year.
She is also Co-Director of the 140-strong Future Arts Centres national network, championing the role of arts centres in driving social, economic and cultural change.
In her previous role, as CEO and Artistic Director of ARC in Stockton on Tees, Annabel established the venue as a leading North East arts organisation with national and international influence, including for its Pay What You Decide pricing and arts freelancers’ policies. She founded Venues North, developing best practice through a network of venues supporting artists making new work, and produced and toured new theatre work nationally and internationally.
Prior to her 15 years at ARC, she was Director of Norden Farm Centre for the Arts in Maidenhead from 2002-2008.
She is a long-term advocate of purposeful strategic collaboration, and horizontal and vertical sector partnerships. She played a significant role in securing £20million+ investment in local creative industries as Deputy Chair and Strategic Lead for Creative Place for the Tees Valley Combined Authority’s Business Board. She has previously held a number of board positions including North East Culture Partnership, North East Screen Industries Partnership, Sunderland Culture and Tangled Feet.
Her advisory roles include as a consultant, facilitator and speaker to venues, theatre companies, national and international cultural bodies.
Term of appointment: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2027.
Twitter/X: @annabelturpin
www.storyhouse.com
https://futureartscentres.org.uk/
In her previous role, as CEO and Artistic Director of ARC in Stockton on Tees, Annabel established the venue as a leading North East arts organisation with national and international influence, including for its Pay What You Decide pricing and arts freelancers’ policies. She founded Venues North, developing best practice through a network of venues supporting artists making new work, and produced and toured new theatre work nationally and internationally.
Prior to her 15 years at ARC, she was Director of Norden Farm Centre for the Arts in Maidenhead from 2002-2008.
She is a long-term advocate of purposeful strategic collaboration, and horizontal and vertical sector partnerships. She played a significant role in securing £20million+ investment in local creative industries as Deputy Chair and Strategic Lead for Creative Place for the Tees Valley Combined Authority’s Business Board. She has previously held a number of board positions including North East Culture Partnership, North East Screen Industries Partnership, Sunderland Culture and Tangled Feet.
Her advisory roles include as a consultant, facilitator and speaker to venues, theatre companies, national and international cultural bodies.
Term of appointment: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2027.
Twitter/X: @annabelturpin
www.storyhouse.com
https://futureartscentres.org.uk/
William Bush
National Council Member
During Bill’s 18 years at the Premier League, as Executive Director and now Senior Adviser, he has led areas including intellectual property, public policy, relations with government and the EU, relations with fans, communications and the community programme.
He is currently the Chair of the Alliance for Intellectual Property, Board member of English Touring Opera, Trustee of Civic Future, and Board member of the Football Foundation.
Before joining the Premier League, Bill worked as a Spec
He is currently the Chair of the Alliance for Intellectual Property, Board member of English Touring Opera, Trustee of Civic Future, and Board member of the Football Foundation.
Before joining the Premier League, Bill worked as a Spec
ial Adviser to the Prime Minister (1999-2001) and to Tessa Jowell at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (2001-2005), and was Head of Research for BBC News 1991-1999. Early in his career, as a local government officer he ran the Office of the Leader of the Greater London Council (Ken Livingstone) from 1981-1986.
Bill sits on the Arts Council England Performance and Audit Committee and Remuneration Committee.
Term of appointment: 15 May 2022 – 14 May 2025.
Bill sits on the Arts Council England Performance and Audit Committee and Remuneration Committee.
Term of appointment: 15 May 2022 – 14 May 2025.
David Bryan, CBE
Chair, London Area Council
Founder and Director, Xtend (UK) Ltd.
David Bryan was awarded a CBE for his services to the Arts. He is the Chair of Brixton House, Creative Lives (UK) and Chair of the Arts and Creative Economy Advisory Group for the British Council. He is a member of the Mayor’s Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm.
David is Founder/Director of Xtend (UK) Ltd., an organisation development consultancy, working across the public sector for over 30 years.
David is Founder/Director of Xtend (UK) Ltd., an organisation development consultancy, working across the public sector for over 30 years.
He was a director of a community enterprise (bookshop) in the 1970s and the CEO for an arts enterprise, Brixton Village in the 1980s both pioneering ventures.
He has a long history of work on organisational change, leadership development and diversity in the public, voluntary and arts sector as well as working with international organisations.
He has been a visiting lecturer and course organiser in academia with Kings College, Southbank University, Goldsmith College and City Lit delivering leadership programmes, management course, social studies practice, and literature. He has and MBA from Southbank University.
His early years were spent working with community organisations building capacity. This work led him to be co-opted onto the board of the National Council for Voluntary organisations. Throughout his engagement in community development, he has been a staunch advocate for independent voices, inclusion, social enterprise and civic responsibility.
He was appointed to the National Council under the leadership of Sir Peter Bazalgette and returned after a couple of years as the Chair for the London Area Council, sponsored by the Mayor of London Office.
Term of appointment: 1 January 2023 - 31 December 2026.
He has a long history of work on organisational change, leadership development and diversity in the public, voluntary and arts sector as well as working with international organisations.
He has been a visiting lecturer and course organiser in academia with Kings College, Southbank University, Goldsmith College and City Lit delivering leadership programmes, management course, social studies practice, and literature. He has and MBA from Southbank University.
His early years were spent working with community organisations building capacity. This work led him to be co-opted onto the board of the National Council for Voluntary organisations. Throughout his engagement in community development, he has been a staunch advocate for independent voices, inclusion, social enterprise and civic responsibility.
He was appointed to the National Council under the leadership of Sir Peter Bazalgette and returned after a couple of years as the Chair for the London Area Council, sponsored by the Mayor of London Office.
Term of appointment: 1 January 2023 - 31 December 2026.
Deborah Shaw
National Council Member
Deborah is Chief Executive of The Marlowe, Canterbury - Theatre of the Year in the 2022 Stage Awards (with Battersea Arts Centre).
She has worked as a director, artistic director and producer in regional, national and international theatre for over 25 years, including 8 years as Associate Director with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she directed the World Shakespeare Festival for London2012, commissioning work from across the world and collaborating with 30 UK theatre companies, festiv
She has worked as a director, artistic director and producer in regional, national and international theatre for over 25 years, including 8 years as Associate Director with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she directed the World Shakespeare Festival for London2012, commissioning work from across the world and collaborating with 30 UK theatre companies, festiv
als and venues.
She spent 5 years working in heritage as Creative Director at Historic Royal Palaces, commissioning artistic interventions including the Sky/South Bank Award-winning Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London in 2014- which reached over 5 billion people worldwide - and East Wall, a collaboration with Hofesh Shechter Company, East London Dance and LIFT in 2018, one of the Guardian’s top 10 dance productions of the 21st century.
She read History at Cambridge and holds an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes for services to theatre and was named one of the UK’s ten most influential creatives in Art and Design in the H-100 Awards 2015. She chairs Creative Kent and Medway, co-chairs The Touring Partnership and is a founder-member of the Iraqi Theatre Company in Baghdad.
Term of appointment: 15 May 2022 – 14 May 2025.
She spent 5 years working in heritage as Creative Director at Historic Royal Palaces, commissioning artistic interventions including the Sky/South Bank Award-winning Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London in 2014- which reached over 5 billion people worldwide - and East Wall, a collaboration with Hofesh Shechter Company, East London Dance and LIFT in 2018, one of the Guardian’s top 10 dance productions of the 21st century.
She read History at Cambridge and holds an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes for services to theatre and was named one of the UK’s ten most influential creatives in Art and Design in the H-100 Awards 2015. She chairs Creative Kent and Medway, co-chairs The Touring Partnership and is a founder-member of the Iraqi Theatre Company in Baghdad.
Term of appointment: 15 May 2022 – 14 May 2025.
Elisabeth Murdoch
National Council Member
Elisabeth Murdoch is an entrepreneur and philanthropist in the creative industries. In October 2019, Elisabeth joined forces with Stacey Snider and Jane Featherstone to found SISTER, a global content company which develops, produces and invests in visionary storytellers.
Elisabeth is also founder and Chair of Locksmith Animation and a strategic minority shareholder in 110% Content & belofx.
In 2001, Elisabeth founded Shine, which she managed and grew, first as Chief Executive and latterly as Chairman, into one of the world’s leading production companies over her 14-year tenure.
Elisabeth set up the Freelands Foundation in 2015 with the ambition to give everyone in the UK, regardless of background or location, access to art education, to raise their aspirations and empower them to transform their life opportunities.
Elisabeth is a National Council member of Arts Council England and a non-Executive Director of Tribeca Enterprise. She was a Tate Trustee between 2008 and 2016 and Chairman of the Tate Modern Advisory Council between 2009 and 2016.
Term of appointment: 1 December 2017 - 30 November 2025.
In 2001, Elisabeth founded Shine, which she managed and grew, first as Chief Executive and latterly as Chairman, into one of the world’s leading production companies over her 14-year tenure.
Elisabeth set up the Freelands Foundation in 2015 with the ambition to give everyone in the UK, regardless of background or location, access to art education, to raise their aspirations and empower them to transform their life opportunities.
Elisabeth is a National Council member of Arts Council England and a non-Executive Director of Tribeca Enterprise. She was a Tate Trustee between 2008 and 2016 and Chairman of the Tate Modern Advisory Council between 2009 and 2016.
Term of appointment: 1 December 2017 - 30 November 2025.
Helen Birchenough
South West Area Chair
Trustee of Wiltshire Creative, Non-executive director of Messums Wiltshire
Helen has been involved in the arts and education in Wiltshire for twenty years. She was Chair of both the Salisbury Playhouse and Salisbury International Arts Festival and led the Festival into merger with the theatre and Salisbury Arts Centre to become the new pan-arts organisation that is Wiltshire Creative.
She is a trustee of Wiltshire Creative.
Driven by the power of the arts and education to change lives, Helen is a strong believer in the importance of further education and vocational training. She was Chair of Wiltshire College for five years, leading the College through a period of transformational change.
Helen has also chaired the education panel at Wiltshire Community Foundation, giving grants to young people to access educational resources and services and bursaries to those who could not otherwise go to university. She is also a Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire.
She is a non-executive director of Messums Org, a pioneering multi-purpose gallery and art centre based in a fourteenth century tithe barn in Wiltshire and with spaces in London and the East of England.
Helen sits on the Arts Council England Performance and Audit Committee and Remuneration Committee.
Term of appointment: 05 December 2018 - 04 December 2026.
Driven by the power of the arts and education to change lives, Helen is a strong believer in the importance of further education and vocational training. She was Chair of Wiltshire College for five years, leading the College through a period of transformational change.
Helen has also chaired the education panel at Wiltshire Community Foundation, giving grants to young people to access educational resources and services and bursaries to those who could not otherwise go to university. She is also a Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire.
She is a non-executive director of Messums Org, a pioneering multi-purpose gallery and art centre based in a fourteenth century tithe barn in Wiltshire and with spaces in London and the East of England.
Helen sits on the Arts Council England Performance and Audit Committee and Remuneration Committee.
Term of appointment: 05 December 2018 - 04 December 2026.
Paul Roberts OBE
Chair, Performance and Audit Committee and Chair, Remuneration Committee
After a career involving Director of Education posts in Nottingham and London and the post of Managing Director of the Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government, Paul is now Chair of the Board of Directors for the Innovation Unit.
He has been a trustee at Nottingham Contemporary and Mountview Drama School, Chair of Nottingham Music Education Hub, a member of the ABRSM Music Commission, of the Warwick Commission on Cultural Value as well as the Durham Commission on Creativity and Education.
Paul produced the government report “Nurturing Creativity in Young People” in 2008 and was joint author of “The Virtuous Circle – why creativity and cultural education count”. Paul is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and was awarded an OBE in 2008 for services to Education and the Creative Industries.
He was appointed to the National Council of Arts Council England in December 2017 where he is also chair of the Performance and Audit Committee.
Term of appointment: 1 December 2017 – 30 November 2024
Paul produced the government report “Nurturing Creativity in Young People” in 2008 and was joint author of “The Virtuous Circle – why creativity and cultural education count”. Paul is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and was awarded an OBE in 2008 for services to Education and the Creative Industries.
He was appointed to the National Council of Arts Council England in December 2017 where he is also chair of the Performance and Audit Committee.
Term of appointment: 1 December 2017 – 30 November 2024
Sally Shaw, MBE
South East Area Chair
Director of Firstsite, Colchester
Sally is Director of Firstsite, Colchester where she has been for seven years.
With the team, she has delivered an exceptional turn-around programme realigning Firstsite with a highly creative and relevant purpose targeted at deploying art and culture as a means of addressing critical challenges in the community such as deprivation, food poverty and inequity.
Sally’s focus on ground-up community collaboration combined with exceptional quality contemporary art has led Firstsite to be recognised nationally and internationally for the gallery’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to win Art Fund Museum of the Year in 2021.
Along with major exhibitions by groundbreaking artists such as Sarah Lucas, Grayson Perry, Everton Wright and Elsa James, Firstsite’s agile and creative projects have included free digital art packs for families across the nation during COVID-19 and galvanising the top national museums across the country through the Great Big Art Exhibition. Firstsite’s innovative Holiday Fun programme has now provided more than 21,000 free meals to children and families in need during school holidays and as a result has engaged thousands of children in art and creativity at Firstsite for the first time.
These initiatives saw Sally recognised with an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for Services to the Arts during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Sally has also been invited to be a Fellow of the University of Essex Human Rights and Law Centre and is the University of Essex Honorary Fellow 2023.
Sally is also a member of Arts Council England National Council and Chairs the South East Area Board.
Previously Sally was Head of Programme at Modern Art Oxford, Deputy Head of Culture for the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, Chief Curator for London Underground, Director of Media Art – Bath and Residency Programme Manager at Spike Island, Bristol. She has also established a number of independent projects and programmes including an artist residency programme in an open prison in Gloucestershire.
Term of appointment: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2027
Sally’s focus on ground-up community collaboration combined with exceptional quality contemporary art has led Firstsite to be recognised nationally and internationally for the gallery’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to win Art Fund Museum of the Year in 2021.
Along with major exhibitions by groundbreaking artists such as Sarah Lucas, Grayson Perry, Everton Wright and Elsa James, Firstsite’s agile and creative projects have included free digital art packs for families across the nation during COVID-19 and galvanising the top national museums across the country through the Great Big Art Exhibition. Firstsite’s innovative Holiday Fun programme has now provided more than 21,000 free meals to children and families in need during school holidays and as a result has engaged thousands of children in art and creativity at Firstsite for the first time.
These initiatives saw Sally recognised with an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for Services to the Arts during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Sally has also been invited to be a Fellow of the University of Essex Human Rights and Law Centre and is the University of Essex Honorary Fellow 2023.
Sally is also a member of Arts Council England National Council and Chairs the South East Area Board.
Previously Sally was Head of Programme at Modern Art Oxford, Deputy Head of Culture for the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, Chief Curator for London Underground, Director of Media Art – Bath and Residency Programme Manager at Spike Island, Bristol. She has also established a number of independent projects and programmes including an artist residency programme in an open prison in Gloucestershire.
Term of appointment: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2027
Sukhy Johal , MBE
Midlands Area Chair
Sukhy has over 25 years of experience across the Midlands region in a range of senior roles, with a strong affinity and understanding of the cultural ecology and the wider regional development agenda.
He has breadth of knowledge across the cultural sector, affording him a grounded, holistic and strategic understanding of today’s dynamic and challenging environment.
He has a depth of experience in local government across the full spectrum of cultural services and economic development, having developed both cultural and economic strategies and plans. He is adept at applying his skills, forging strategic relationships across different sectors, and his enterprising mind-set enables him to effect real change as well reframe ambition. He has extensive experience with founding partnerships, organisations, policy and generating substantive funds from investors.
As CEO, of Culture East Midlands, the region’s Cultural Consortium, Sukhy supported the development of the sector and established large scale transformative projects like ‘Igniting Ambition’ the Region’s Cultural Olympiad programme and devising Regional Policy.
He is currently the Director of The Centre for Culture and Creativity at the University of Lincoln, and therefore recognises the growing importance of culture across the Higher Education sector; in terms of research and innovation, as well as their increasingly visible civic leadership role coupled with their primary function in developing the next generation of cultural and creative talent.
Sukhy started his career as a volunteer with Apna Arts at the age of 16, and steered the organisations transformation in becoming the New Art Exchange. He continues to advocate and champion the social and catalytic power of culture, with a particular interest in supporting cultural diversity and social enterprise.
Term of appointment: 1 December 2017 – 30 November 2025
He has a depth of experience in local government across the full spectrum of cultural services and economic development, having developed both cultural and economic strategies and plans. He is adept at applying his skills, forging strategic relationships across different sectors, and his enterprising mind-set enables him to effect real change as well reframe ambition. He has extensive experience with founding partnerships, organisations, policy and generating substantive funds from investors.
As CEO, of Culture East Midlands, the region’s Cultural Consortium, Sukhy supported the development of the sector and established large scale transformative projects like ‘Igniting Ambition’ the Region’s Cultural Olympiad programme and devising Regional Policy.
He is currently the Director of The Centre for Culture and Creativity at the University of Lincoln, and therefore recognises the growing importance of culture across the Higher Education sector; in terms of research and innovation, as well as their increasingly visible civic leadership role coupled with their primary function in developing the next generation of cultural and creative talent.
Sukhy started his career as a volunteer with Apna Arts at the age of 16, and steered the organisations transformation in becoming the New Art Exchange. He continues to advocate and champion the social and catalytic power of culture, with a particular interest in supporting cultural diversity and social enterprise.
Term of appointment: 1 December 2017 – 30 November 2025
Sir Nicholas Serota, CH
Chair
Arts Council England
Nicholas Serota was appointed Chair of Arts Council England in February 2017. He is also a member of the Board of the BBC.
Previously he was Director of Tate between 1988 and 2017. During his directorship, Tate opened Tate St Ives (1993) and Tate Modern (2000, expanded in 2016), redefining the Millbank building as Tate Britain (2000).
Previously he was Director of Tate between 1988 and 2017. During his directorship, Tate opened Tate St Ives (1993) and Tate Modern (2000, expanded in 2016), redefining the Millbank building as Tate Britain (2000).
Tate also broadened its field of interest to include 20th century photography, film, performance and occasionally architecture, as well as collecting from Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The national role of the gallery was further developed with the creation of the Plus Tate network of 35 institutions across Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Nicholas Serota has been a member of the Visual Arts Advisory Committee of the British Council, a Trustee of the Architecture Foundation and a commissioner on the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. He was a member of the Olympic Delivery Authority which was responsible for building the Olympic Park in East London for the London 2012 Summer Olympics.
Nicholas Serota was born in London in 1946. He studied History of Art at the University of Cambridge and the Courtauld Institute. He joined the Arts Council of Great Britain’s Visual Arts Department as a regional art officer in 1970 and then worked as a curator at the Hayward Gallery. In 1973 he was appointed director of the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford where he worked for three years before he became the Director of the Whitechapel Gallery in 1976.
Nicholas Serota was knighted in 1999 and appointed a Companion of Honour in 2013.
Term of appointment: 1 February 2017 – 31 January 2025
Nicholas Serota has been a member of the Visual Arts Advisory Committee of the British Council, a Trustee of the Architecture Foundation and a commissioner on the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. He was a member of the Olympic Delivery Authority which was responsible for building the Olympic Park in East London for the London 2012 Summer Olympics.
Nicholas Serota was born in London in 1946. He studied History of Art at the University of Cambridge and the Courtauld Institute. He joined the Arts Council of Great Britain’s Visual Arts Department as a regional art officer in 1970 and then worked as a curator at the Hayward Gallery. In 1973 he was appointed director of the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford where he worked for three years before he became the Director of the Whitechapel Gallery in 1976.
Nicholas Serota was knighted in 1999 and appointed a Companion of Honour in 2013.
Term of appointment: 1 February 2017 – 31 January 2025
Veronica Wadley
National Council Member
Baroness Fleet is currently Chair of the Advisory Panel for the National Plan for Music Education 2022 and chaired the Expert Panel for the Model Music Curriculum, published in 2021. She was Council Member of Arts Council England and Chair of London Area Council from 2010-2018. From 2012-2016 she was a Senior Advisor to the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.
In 2011 Veronica co-founded the Mayor of London’s Fund for Young Musicians, now the London Music Fund.
In 2011 Veronica co-founded the Mayor of London’s Fund for Young Musicians, now the London Music Fund.
The charity, which she chairs, has funded over 800 scholarships for young musicians from disadvantaged backgrounds and provides opportunities for them to learn from and play alongside professional musicians, composers and conductors. In 2021, the London Music Fund won the Music & Drama Award for the most outstanding music initiative.
She is also a trustee and governor of a number of arts and education organisations including the Royal College of Music, ABRSM and Shoreditch Park Academy. She was previously a trustee of Northern Ballet and governor of the Yehudi Menuhin School.
When Editor of the London Evening Standard from 2002 – 2009, she chaired the Evening Standard Theatre Awards and Evening Standing Film Awards.
Veronica received a CBE in the 2018 Queen’s New Year Honours List for Services to the Arts and was appointed to the House of Lords in July 2020.
Term of appointment: 15 May 2022 – 14 May 2025.
She is also a trustee and governor of a number of arts and education organisations including the Royal College of Music, ABRSM and Shoreditch Park Academy. She was previously a trustee of Northern Ballet and governor of the Yehudi Menuhin School.
When Editor of the London Evening Standard from 2002 – 2009, she chaired the Evening Standard Theatre Awards and Evening Standing Film Awards.
Veronica received a CBE in the 2018 Queen’s New Year Honours List for Services to the Arts and was appointed to the House of Lords in July 2020.
Term of appointment: 15 May 2022 – 14 May 2025.
YolanDa Brown, OBE DL
National Council Member
YolanDa Brown wears many hats, musician, broadcaster, author, philanthropist. She is a double MOBO Award winning artist, her music is a delicious fusion of reggae, jazz and soul.
She is currently composing music for the iconic Sesame Street and an animated series called Bea's Block.
A champion for the importance of music education, YolanDa is a trustee of the PRS Foundation, an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust and London Music Fund and sits on the advisory board of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of East London and was Chair of the charity Youth Music for six years, before stepping down in 2024.
During the pandemic with Sony Music and Twinkl, YolanDa rolled out her bespoke online music lesson plans for teachers, parents and pupils in primary schools nationwide, an estimated 30 000 children have used the resources. In 2018 with James JP Drake, she launched the "Drake YolanDa Award" offering grants to emerging artists.
A broadcaster too working across TV and Radio, including her eponymous series for CBeebies, "YolanDa’s Band Jam", which won the RTSNW award as Best Children’s Programme. Over on the airways, she hosts YolanDa Brown on Saturday on Jazz FM and co hosts ‘Loose Ends’ on BBC Radio 4.
YolanDa loves to drive fast cars around race tracks in her spare time and can even rattle off a Rubik’s Cube in around five minutes (on a good day).
Term of appointment: 15 May 2022 – 14 May 2026
A champion for the importance of music education, YolanDa is a trustee of the PRS Foundation, an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust and London Music Fund and sits on the advisory board of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of East London and was Chair of the charity Youth Music for six years, before stepping down in 2024.
During the pandemic with Sony Music and Twinkl, YolanDa rolled out her bespoke online music lesson plans for teachers, parents and pupils in primary schools nationwide, an estimated 30 000 children have used the resources. In 2018 with James JP Drake, she launched the "Drake YolanDa Award" offering grants to emerging artists.
A broadcaster too working across TV and Radio, including her eponymous series for CBeebies, "YolanDa’s Band Jam", which won the RTSNW award as Best Children’s Programme. Over on the airways, she hosts YolanDa Brown on Saturday on Jazz FM and co hosts ‘Loose Ends’ on BBC Radio 4.
YolanDa loves to drive fast cars around race tracks in her spare time and can even rattle off a Rubik’s Cube in around five minutes (on a good day).
Term of appointment: 15 May 2022 – 14 May 2026
Photo by Adverse Camber's The Old Woman, the Buffalo and the Lion of Manding. Photo: Adverse Camber and Chris Webb Photography
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