Arts chiefs back drive for leaders from minorities

Cultural leaders today backed a “fundamental shift” in approach at the Arts Council to promote more people from ethnic minorities in management roles as well as on the stage.

Rufus Norris, director designate of the National Theatre, and Tamara Rojo, artistic director of English National Ballet, joined Arts Council chair Sir Peter Bazalgette as he made a pledge to “give opportunities to everyone” over what was “an issue of national importance”.

At the Diversity and the Creative Case conference at Sadler’s Wells, Sir Peter spoke of the importance of ensuring there were “real role models with real power” in leadership positions.

He said his own experience in television, where he was in charge of shows such as Big Brother, showed him there was a “temptation to push successful minority candidates in front of the camera — and how that can be a substitute for real change in culture”.

There had to be diversity at all levels, he added, and the Arts Council would in future decide who it funds partly on the basis of which organisations deliver on this. He said: “Ultimately there has to be a reckoning.”