The Cultural Leadership Programme has today unveiled its first-ever list of ‘Women to Watch’; featuring 50 female leaders, directors, producers and curators from across the UK.
The list follows the 99th International Women’s day, which globally celebrates women and their rights, and highlights women will be leading the way in design, libraries, literature, museums, heritage, music, performing and visual arts, the historic environment and creative businesses; redressing the gender balance at senior leadership levels in the cultural and creative sector.
The list also celebrates the diversity of women in the sector, highlighting talent from a variety of backgrounds, from independent consultants to business directors; aiming to inspire future generations to be equally dynamic and ambitious.
The list includes five women in dance; six in music; five in design, branding and digital media; five in theatre; eight in literature and libraries and four in museums and heritage.
The Cultural Leadership Programme (CLP) received a large number of high-quality nominations across the UK. The final 50 were chosen by a number of successful women from diverse industries including broadcaster Jenni Murray OBE; Jenny Sealey, artistic director of Graeae and Dame Liz Forgan, chair of Arts Council England.
Commenting on the list, Jenni Murray, said: “The final 50 women were chosen after a great deal of consideration by the judging panel and represent some of our most ambitious and talented cultural leaders.
Some of the chosen include: Sophie Thomas - founder of sustainable design agency Thomas.Matthews; Seonaid Daly - producer of the Glasgow Film Festival; Lucy Worsle - appointed as chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces at 28; Sally Goldsworthy - director of Discover, the Children's Story Making Centre in East London; Ruth Gould - a leader and host of DaDaFest, one of the biggest deaf and disability arts festivals in the UK; Juliana Farha - entrepreneur of social media and classical music, through her website Dilettante Music and Julie Tait - a leading player in the street arts sector, heading up Lakes Alive festival.
Murray added; “While celebrating the achievements of outstanding individuals, it’s also important to see these women as a collective force and as representatives of women’s potential to reach the top of their game within any sector.”
You can view the full list of Women to Watch here.
