About the Board

The WMCA Cultural Leadership Board was established in 2019 as an advisory board consisting of members from the arts & cultural sector across the WMCA area.

There are currently 21 Board members, representing different parts of the cultural sector across the WMCA geographical area:

Nikki Bi   Raidene Carter   Pamela Cole-Hudson   Indi Deol   Parminder Dosanjh   Doreen Foster   Ian Francis   Adrian Jackson   Jerrel Jackson   Cheryl Jones   Ayub Khan MBE  Andrew Lovett   Timothy Maycock   Julia Negus   Karen Newman   Laura Nyahuye   Gina Patel    Aftab Rahman   Simeon Shtebunaev   Martin Sutherland (CLB Chair)   Ammo Talwar   Carol King

 

Vision statement

“The WMCA Cultural Leadership Board (CLB) places culture at the heart of sustainable growth in the region, enhancing quality of life for its diverse communities.”

Mission statement

The Board will look for strategic opportunities to test the transformative role of culture across WMCA’s policy areas, including transport and housing, skills, digital, the environment, wellbeing and inclusive communities.

It is committed to building an innovative and entrepreneurial cultural sector, with leadership that reflects the diversity of our region, and supporting a world-class cultural offer that is accessible to all.”

For more information, you can download our Information Pack.

The board will meet quarterly, or more often if needed. Download the approved minutes of the board meetings below:

1st Board Meeting – 21 February 2020

2nd Board Meeting – 27 March 2020

3rd Board Meeting - 23 July 2020

4th Board Meeting - 24 September 2020

5th Board Meeting – 27 November 2020

6th Board Meeting – 22 February 2021

7th Board Meeting - 25 May 2021

8th Board Meeting - 16 August 2021

9th Board Meeting - 26 November 2021

The Cultural Leadership Board is already working to support the development of the cultural sector, as well as advising WMCA on Covid-19 related issues and supporting plans for recovery.

The board is also working together with the West Midlands Cultural Response Unit.

Read the Cultural Leadership Board Equality and Diversity Audit Data. This forms part of our commitment to ‘More than a Moment’ pledge, to which the board has signed up to in principle.

As part of this pledge, we have also worked together to create a culture sector specific Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) resource, a anti-racism statment and a ‘jargon buster’.

Martin Sutherland, Chief of WMCA's Leadership Board and Chief Executive of Coventry City of Culture Trust

“The WMCA Cultural Leadership Board held its first meeting in February 2020, just a month before the first national lockdown. While the pandemic has been difficult for us all, we have found strength in collaboration and focusing on shared goals as a sector. We have been working with the WMCA, the WMCA Cultural Officers Group and other regional stakeholders to develop initiatives that will help our sector to recover and to ensure all our residents can get the benefits that arts & culture can deliver.” We have worked on a number of initiatives, including announcing our support for the West Midlands Cultural Response Unit and launching the West Midlands Cultural Sector Research and Cultural & Creative Social Enterprise Developed Programme. All of these initiatives have been aimed at supporting our exceptional cultural sector, as well as improving the health, wealth and happiness of our citizens.”