Theatre News

Dame Liz Forgan to be replaced as Arts Council chair in 2013

| London's West End |

23 March 2012

Dame Liz Forgan will not be reappointed as chair of Arts Council England when her term ends in January 2013, it has been announced by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Forgan, who is the first woman to head ACE, has been in post since 1 February 2009 when she was appointed for a four-year period.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “Dame Liz Forgan has been an outstanding Arts Council chair, who has
made a huge contribution to the arts in this country. I am very
grateful to her for all her hard work, advice and support, and wish her
every success in her future endeavours.

“The next chair of the Arts Council will have to steer the organisation
and the sector through another challenging period, in particular in
increasing the amount of private giving to the arts, and encouraging the
sector to make the most of technological changes. I am confident that
we will find the right person for the job, and confident that our arts
and culture will remain the envy of the world.”

The DCMS will start the recruitment process for the new chair after Easter. The current chair is provided with remuneration of £40,000 per annum for a time commitment of approximately 60 days per year.

The Arts Council has undergone serious restructuring during Forgan’s tenure due to controversial government funding cuts, seeing its budget slashed from an annual grant of £449 million to £349 million by 2014. This will lead to a loss of more than 100 companies from its current portfolio of 850 regularly funded organisations (RFOs) by 2015.