Chaos at Barbican Centre as Aussie CEO quits inside two years
NewsYou would be forgiven for thinking that London’s second major arts centre is designed for short-term prisoners.
In the chaos that followed Nick Kenyon’s beheading, Claire Spencer was recruited from Arts Centre Melbourne, specifically for her leadership in addressing ‘diversity issues’.
Now, two years on and with no-one saying why, Claire’s gone. She lasted just 18 months.
The Barbican has meanwhile tranquilized – which is to say it no longer gets much outside attention and the City of London Corporation can manage its comings and goings in soporific press releases, like the one below. We’ll see if we can find out more.
*
Chair of the Barbican Centre Board, Sir William Russell, has paid tribute to Claire Spencer, the arts centre’s Chief Executive Officer, after she decided to step down from the role.
He said:
“In her time here, Claire has made a huge contribution to both the Barbican and to the wider City of London Corporation.
“She was instrumental in helping the Barbican reopen, recover, and reestablish itself following the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“She has consistently championed the Barbican Renewal Programme, taking it from an idea on paper to the on-the-ground delivery of the first works. And she has brought leadership and focus to the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion agenda, recognising that the Barbican’s legacy on this issue required tangible action and commitment to change. I am enormously grateful for everything she has done.
“As a leader, Claire has always been clear sighted and determined to do the absolute best for the Barbican, whilst also being deeply empathetic and inclusive, and most of all great fun.
“I know I speak for many at the Barbican and across the City Corporation, as well as for myself, when I say she will be a much-missed colleague.
“In due course, and following a period of reflection, the Barbican Board will be starting the process to recruit a new CEO, advertising and searching globally for the best candidate.
“Claire will be a hard act to follow, but I have every confidence that this position – leading one of the world’s greatest arts centres in one of the world’s greatest cities – will attract the highest level of talent and interest from around the globe.
“In the meantime, David Farnsworth will continue to act as the Barbican’s Interim CEO, supported by Ali Mirza as Interim Deputy CEO and the rest of the Barbican’s brilliant Director team. I’m very grateful to Simon Latham and other colleagues at the City Bridge Foundation for continuing to cover for David during his absence from the Foundation.”
And if you think that’s anaemic, here’s what Claire posted to her LinkedIn community, the lifeblood of a migrant executive:
I wanted to let you know that I have resigned from my position as CEO of the Barbican Centre.
This has not been a decision I have arrived at lightly.
Joining the Barbican has been one of the great privileges of my career and I have given it my all. Over these last two years, working with the brilliant Barbican Team we have achieved a lot. I believe it is time to hand over to someone with fresh legs (football analogy still stands this week) to lead the Centre into the next phase of its future.
The Barbican is a special place with its own unique history – together with the Barbican Team we have walked through a period of significant change, creating positive momentum of systemic transformation. There are a few things that especially stand out to me.
We created and activated a values-based strategy centred on sustainable development, equity, diversity and inclusion, leading to a different Barbican Centre than the one that emerged after the pandemic – one with the purpose and values to guide it through further transformation in the years ahead.
We also secured the seed funding and support to commence the renewal of the building’s infrastructure. The Barbican will now be able to function long into the future, remain a leading destination for the Arts and open the creative experience for everyone.
We haven’t only secured the physical future of the Barbican – but we have set the path to rebuild trust within our entire ecosystem: the team, the local community, funders, donors, and crucially the audiences and artists who fill our spaces every day.
It has been a privilege to serve at the Barbican Centre. I am proud of all that we have achieved in this time.
My thanks go to the Barbican Board, the City of London Corporation and the many wonderful artists and supporters who work with us.
And my deep thanks to the Barbican Team – who have collaborated with me in this endeavour. Their brilliance and commitment are immeasurable, and I am confident that I leave the Centre in their very capable hands.
Doesn’t sound like chaos to me. Everything here suggests that she has done a good job in changing the culture of the Barbican Centre, amicably resolving previous public turmoil ready for her successor to take up the reigns. The job was recruited to carry out. Your determination to spin every story to create bad feeling and rubbish peoples’ efforts is becoming tedious.
Completely agree with you. Such a shame that what could be a centralised site for industry news, something where we could celebrate and champion the sector, is so often dominated by bad faith, dog-whistle provocative nonsense.
Remaining anonymous here, but as a former employee of ACM I can tell you Claire was extremely talented at self promotion, but completely lacked the forward planning and management skills needed to actually bring about financial success. Unfortunately she was also notorious for bullying those who didn’t agree with her or who tired critiqued her financial decisions (not me personally, but I witnessed her forcing more than one person out through bulling behaviour).
Another note, as someone who works very closely with CEOs and arts boards, there’s not a chance in hell Claire is resigning voluntarily after eighteen months and with no replacement lined up. It’s standard practice for CEOs to be allowed to resign with dignity if the board decides to fire them, because no one wants to generate bad PR or prompt a journalistic investigation. I’ve seen it happen more than once.
She’s achieved a lot and must be exhausted!
Arts management is like “dog years.” One year equals seven.
My off-the-top-of-my-head guess is that, for personal or family reasons, she has decided she no longer wants to be over 16,000 km from home.
Although she lived and worked in Australia for several years, Claire is English and her family is in the UK.
Given the situation in the UK at the moment, she may well feel that she’s better off in Australia.
Sorry, and thank you for the correction.
Clearly out of her depth.
The selection panel need to be named and shamed for such a wrong appointment.
Does she know the new CEO from Oz at the cash strapped on it’s knees 3 Choirs Fest?
But have you provided any evidence that she is out of her depth? It’s a well know phenomenon in OZ & quite possibly also in the UK, that when a Political party is on it’s knees, heading for disaster the answer is ‘appoint a woman’! In fact, on reflection, the great US of A comes to mind. It could be, although I admit two cases are not quite enough proof, that in the UK when a musical institution finds itself deep in the mud, the appointment of an Aussie is their final hope?
It is possible that Mr Francis and Miss Spenser have met, but I would like to point out that the Melbourne Arts Centre and the Wollongong Conservatorium are 840 km apart by road. It’s a big country.
Are there actually any decent concerts taking place?
I would like to see statistical evidence of the impact of ‘equity, inclusion and diversity’ on Barbican audiences in her two year tenure.
Pity she didn’t get around to fixing the toilets….
It’s brilliant that everyone is brilliant. So sustainable. And inclusive.
You say there is chaos but give us no concrete details. Let’s have some examples?
i’ll do it- I know a lot about classical music & how the business works.
The Barbican is such a tired venue now, I no longer go there – look at Kings Place which sets the gold standard.