Women rise to the top of the bill in arts jobs

A cultural revolution is under way in Britain's leading theatres, galleries, opera companies and arts centres, as the number of female executives has soared. By James Morrison

After centuries of playing second fiddle to narrow cliques of male curators and theatre managers, women are outperforming men to reach the upper echelons of major arts institutions, according to a new government study.

The revolution is being trumpeted by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. It has found that more than 60 per cent of people appointed to posts at chief executive level in the arts over the past three years were women.

The figures, compiled by specialist head-hunters and supplied to the DCMS, will hearten those who feared that the likes of Sally Greene, the charismatic chief executive of London's Old Vic, and Monica Mason, director of the Royal Ballet, were the exception rather than the rule.

Anecdotal research suggests that female arts managers are often viewed as better operators than men. In a world where much of the work of museum and theatre executives revolves around trying to raise sponsorship for exhibitions and productions, women are now widely seen as the best networkers.

The sea change in employment prospects for women in the arts has been welcomed by Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, who last night declared the "glass ceiling" to have been officially breached. She challenged other "macho" professions, such as banking and politics, to follow suit.

"Women are increasingly in charge of some of our biggest and most successful arts organisations," she said. "These organisations have a great track record in getting the best talent that is available."

Ms Jowell's comments came as English National Opera, as if to underline her optimism, confirmed Loretta Tomasi as its new executive and finance director.

Heather Newill, an executive search consultant with the London-based firm Friedlander Sachs, specialises in finding candidates for senior posts in the performing arts. Of the 24 people she has placed at chief executive level in the arts in the past three years, 15 have been women. Among her "finds" are Alice Rawsthorn, director of the Design Museum, and Victoria Pomery, who will head the new Turner Centre in Margate.

Ms Newill attributes the increase in the number of women executives to the gradual shift in management culture away from the blustering master-servant approach of old. As a result, she says, more and more women have succeeded in reaching the most senior posts.

"The model of leadership has changed dramatically over the last 20 years from the hierarchical bully to the leader who uses emotional intelligence and soft skills like charm to get what he or she wants," she said.

However, it is not all good news. According to Ms Newill, the last great refuseniks on gender equality are philharmonic orchestras, which have yet to raise many women to the upper ranks.

While regional theatres and museums are increasingly being run by women, there is still some way to go before this success transfers to the national level. At present, London-based institutions such as the Tate and the National Theatre remain largely the province of a clutch of middle-aged, Oxbridge-educated men.

Amanda Nevill

The new director of the British Film Institute is a former head of the Royal Photographic Society. Nevill (left) joins the BFI from the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford which, under her directorship, became the most visited museum outside London. Nevill is a respected champion of film and television culture.

Monica Mason

Made director of the Royal Ballet last December, "Mon" - as she is known by colleagues - was born in Johannesburg and joined the Royal Ballet in 1958, aged 16. She was a favourite of Kenneth MacMillan, who created several roles for her. She was appointed OBE in 2002. A traditionalist by instinct, she is seen as a staunch Covent Garden loyalist.

Julia Peyton-Jones

"PJ", as she's known in the arts world, has been director at the Serpentine Gallery in central London since 1991. She has made it one of the country's most successful smaller galleries. Royal College of Art-trained Peyton-Jones, 51, is as tireless a party organiser as she is gallery director. This year she was awarded an honorary fellowship by Riba.

Iwona Blazwick

Blazwick took the helm of the cutting-edge Whitechapel Art Gallery, east London, in 2001. Before that she had passed through the ICA and then joined the team who took Tate Modern from concept to reality Blazwick, 47, is also a broadcaster and writer, and has established a strong reputation as an outward-looking "internationalist".

Thelma Holt

"Maverick", "visionary" actress turned producer Holt, 71, is one of the most formidable figures in post-war British theatre. In 1985 she joined the National Theatre and was executive producer at the Peter Hall Company. The motive force behind many of the great RSC successes of the 1980s and 1990s, she was appointed CBE in 1994.

Alice Rawsthorn

Design impresario and journalist Rawsthorn is director of the Design Museum in London. After 15 years on the Financial Times, Rawsthorn, 43, joined the Design Museum in 2001. She still writes for broadsheets and is a regular broadcaster. She is a trustee of the Whitechapel Art Gallery and is a former Turner Prize judge.

Vikki Heywood

The former executive director at the Royal Court, London, had run the London International Festival of Theatre, and was chief executive of the Contact Theatre, Manchester. At the Royal Court, which she joined in 1995, she gained a reputation for producing more than 100 premieres, and oversaw three transfers to Broadway.

Ruth Mackenzie

Mackenzie, 45, is one of three new cutting-edge artistic directors, brought in last year to revitalise the Chichester Festival. A former drama officer for the Arts Council, she was executive director of Nottingham Playhouse from 1990 until 1997, when she became general director of Scottish Opera. She was appointed OBE in 1995.

Katharine Doré

Credited with creating one of the world's most innovative dance companies, Adventures in Motion Pictures, Doré has begun to establish herself as an independent dance producer over the past two years. Her AMP partnership with choreographer Matthew Bourne - they were joint directors - broke up in acrimony three months ago.

Sue Hoyle

In charge of the acclaimed London dance venue The Place since 1998, Hoyle is leaving this summer to become deputy director of the Clore Cultural Leadership Programme, a new initiative to foster management skills in the UK's heritage and culture sector. She will work alongside the programme's director, the former Culture Secretary Chris Smith.

Elaine Padmore

Padmore joined the Royal Opera House in January 2001 as director of opera, after seven years as artistic director at Royal Danish Opera. Padmore, 56, was also artistic director of the Wexford Festival Opera, and is a former head of opera for BBC radio.

Stephanie Sirr

Sirr has been the chief executive of the Nottingham Playhouse - attendances up nearly 25 per cent on 1999, four world premieres - since 2001. Before that, she wasgeneral manager at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool. A drama graduate who has recently completed an MBA, Sirr has become an accomplished fund-raiser and book balancer.

Loretta Tomasi

Tomasi has just been appointed executive and finance director of English National Opera. She was for several years managing director of Really Useful Theatres, Andrew Lloyd Webber's hugely lucrative 13-theatre entertainment group.

Gemma Bodinetz/ Deborah Aydon

Two new appointments on Merseyside: Bodinetz (artistic director) and Aydon (executive director) are to run Liverpool's Everyman and Playhouse theatres. Bodinetz is currently associate director of the Hampstead Theatre, London; Aydon is executive producerof Dublin's Rough Magic Theatre.

Deborah Bull

A dancer with the Royal Ballet since 1981, and from 1992 until 2001 a principal, Derby-born Bull (right) recently moved into writing and broadcasting: she wrote, presented and danced for last year's acclaimed BBC2 series The Dancer's Body. In 1998 she was appointed to the Arts Council of England, and was appointed CBE in 1999.

Kim Evans

Executive director of the Arts Council England since 1999, Evans (above) was for 20 years an arts programme-maker, 10 of them on The South Bank Show and for Channel 4. She was head of arts and music at the BBC from 1993 until 1999. A Fellow of the Royal Television Society, Evans is responsible for national policy on the arts.

Lawton Fitt

A rare convert to fine art and architecture management from the world of international finance, Fitt (above), 50, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and joined Goldman, Sachs & Co in New York in 1979. In 1999 Fitt joined Fortune magazine's list of the most powerful women in American business. She became secretary of the Royal Academy last October.

Jude Kelly

Born in Liverpool in 1954, Kelly (right) was director of Solent People's Theatre in 1976, moving on to run Battersea Arts Centre. In 1986 she joined the RSC, and was made artistic director of the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, in 1988, becoming its chief executive in 1993. She left in 2002, and is now working on the Metal theatre space in London.

Andrea Rose

Head of visual arts at the British Council since 1994, Rose (left) is an extremely influential figure in the promotion of British visual arts abroad. She is also a keen supporter of modern art, and was a trustee of the new Baltic Centre at Gateshead. Her time at the British Council has seen the best in modern art toured around the world.