Job news: Barbican to be run by BBC reject
NewsIt has been announced that Will Gompertz and Sandeep Dwesar will share leadership of the Barbican Centre when managing director Nicholas Kenyon leaves prematurely at the end of the summer. The appointment is on an interim basis.
Gompz,55, was parachuted into the BBC from the Tate, where he had been head of media. Although he lacked journalism exeperience and perspective, he was made BBC News arts editor, one of several dubious appointments under the feckless Tony Hall. In that role, he did very little for long periods. When he showed up it was with soft, unremarkable reporting.
Last month, with exquisite timing, Gompz flipped over to the Barbican as Director of Arts and Learning, a role that had not previously existed. When Kenyon went, he got rapid promotion up the greasy pole.
There seems to have been no proper search process to replace Kenyon. They just bumped up two insiders.
So how did the BBC reject him?
I tend to agree — if he elected to change jobs, that is hardly rejection (which implies dismissal).
Not a huge fan of Gompertz. He covered a very wide range of arts for the BBC including music and film. His comments usually not particularly insightful. Much better, in my opinion, on paintings ,where he seemed to have more expertise as a critic. Didn’t much care for his writing style on the BBC website which often contained paragraphs consisting just of one or two sentences.