Report finds benefits from leaders adopting transparency

Arts institutions that embrace organisational transparency are seeing tangible positive outcomes including new audiences, a report exploring leadership in the sector has found.

Produced by executive search and leadership consultants Saxton Bampfylde, the Take 5 report shares the experiences of 29 senior leaders across the arts and creative industries – both UK and international – running national, regional and global organisations.

Contributors, including Tate director Maria Bagshaw, Royal Ballet and Opera chief executive Alex Beard and Birmingham Museums co-CEO Zak Mensah, were interviewed over six months from July 2024 to January 2025 on subjects including leadership, the financial landscape and diversity.

Given “significant shifts” in audience demographics, the report notes institutions that “embrace organisational transparency” and “celebrate their teams” experience “tangible positive outcomes”. It calls for more equitable and visible decision-making processes to be integrated as a “fundamental element” of leadership and organisational culture.

The study found arts leaders are placing greater emphasis on broader employee involvement and embedding a commitment to engagement across staff teams, especially when developing audiences and addressing accessibility. One participant reported “a genuine passion” from staff creates “open and welcoming environments” that make audiences more likely to return and re-engage.

Bringing comfort to a lonely position

Reflecting on sector challenges over the last five years, the report says “a deeper need for open and collaborative discussion, both internally and externally [is] evident”, with interviewees saying a greater sense of shared responsibility could bring “increased comfort” to an “often lonely position”.

“You need to be showing how you are actively responding to the challenges of the world, rather than wishing they would go away,” said one interviewee. Another noted a greater expectation of integrity and openness from leadership: “We owe honesty to co-workers, about our organisations and to individuals, highlighting successes and shortcomings, and be honest about those in ourselves as leaders.”

The report suggests an “open and collaborative approach” has instigated a general shift in leadership style as “the old school way of doing things is no longer viable”.

“The tradition of command and control does not resonate today, nor will it in the future. There are new leaders coming in, but also new generations of employees, artists and audiences. More vocal, sometimes more challenging, but certainly more expectant of being heard and included in some capacity of decision making,” it says.

Financial transparency

Examining financial pressures and growing scrutiny of corporate sponsors, the report also calls for greater transparency with staff and the public when entering into partnerships, as well as “a clear recognition of the vital place funders have in the arts ecosystem”.

“We must be careful that we don’t make all partners seem bad or justify these relationships all the time. We need them. It must be the right partnership, but it’s incumbent on us to work that out,” said one contributor.

All interviewees agreed that in recent years they prioritised “a greater emphasis on commercial activities”, which for some had been a steep learning curve. But all said they felt the need to invest a lot of personal and professional time in doing so.

Many thought income generation and finance should not be the preserve of senior leadership alone, with some suggesting a broader commercial understanding across teams had made “a positive difference, bringing greater autonomy as well as innovative thinking”.

All organisations that shared their experiences said they have expanded their business development or engagement teams, which in itself demanded a “clear explanation given the restrictions in hiring across other areas”.

Transparency with staff teams about financial impacts, such as the increased National Insurance contributions, and how these have affected the bottom line, was also raised as important.

“During an extraordinary five-year period, the arts and creative industries have faced global challenges including Covid-19, economic crises, social movements, AI emergence and technological integration,” the report says. “The sector has demonstrated remarkable adaptability through exceptional leadership that transformed challenges into opportunities.”