The Barbican Centre, the largest performing arts centre in Europe, has announced the appointment of Claire Spencer AM as its inaugural CEO.
Spencer will finish up in her current role as CEO of Arts Centre Melbourne on 14 April before starting her new role in London in May.
‘There’s nowhere on Earth quite like the Barbican, I think, and that was very attractive to me,’ Spencer said of her appointment.
‘These big art centres all have their own nuances and personalities and the Barbican, certainly, is no different. Some of my earliest memories of theatre were actually at the Barbican and the opportunity to go back and be involved in that is quite extraordinary.’
THE NEW ROLE
Owned, funded, and managed by the City of London Corporation, the Barbican is a unique arts centre based in the midst of a housing estate. An iconic brutalist building that first opened its doors in 1982, the Barbican Centre is home to two art galleries, two theatres, three cinemas, a concert hall, a library, and a tropical conservatory.
‘The Barbican is a world class arts and learning organisation … with a quite extraordinary arts program and a very strong connection to community, as well as extraordinary creative learning activity,’ Spencer explained.
‘Typically in a given year – not a COVID year obviously – you would expect to see thousands of artists and performers coming in through stage door and the site itself attended by well over a million people. It’s a really important part of the fabric of that part of London.’
Last year the Barbican was at the centre of a racism storm, as documented in the book Barbican Stories. Barbican management subsequently pledged to introduce diversity targets and publicly stated their commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
Spencer will be the Barbican’s first ever CEO and joins the organisation following the departure of long-serving Managing Director Sir Nicholas Kenyon in September…