Learning from museum and business experts

Oxford University Museums and experts from the Saïd Business School are teaming up for the third instalment of their highly successful Oxford Cultural Leaders programme, which will take place from 26 to 31 March 2017.

The programme has been developed as a response to the clear message from governments across the world that cultural organisations need to look beyond the state for their income, demonstrating their commercial acumen and ability to deliver successful new business models.

Oxford Cultural Leaders addresses the need for cultural organisations to reinvent themselves as businesses, albeit not-for-profit, with entrepreneurial ways of thinking and behaving, by developing a cadre of leaders who are able to skilfully and confidently tackle these challenges.

'Future leaders in the cultural sector will need to develop the confidence to think about their organisations as sustainable entities,' says Tracy Camilleri, Director of the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme at the Saïd Business School. 'This will require new skills and approaches – some learned from different sectors and disciplines. The Oxford Cultural Leaders Programme in my view provides a powerful platform for the development of this shared future.'

'Having access to expertise from across the cultural and business sectors has enabled Oxford to develop a programme that is unique within the museum and cultural sectors internationally,' says Lucy Shaw, Director the Oxford Cultural Leaders programme. 'The first two programmes successfully brought together dynamic leaders in an environment which encourages experimentation and innovation.'

Anette Østerby, Head of Visual Arts at the Danish Arts Council, has previously attended the programme. She says: 'What surprised me most was the programme's ability to suspend the participants’ status issues and positioning and create a trusting, open, generous and sharing environment between us. It allowed us to work really well together, and this did generate some incredible moments of co-creation.'

The programme faculty comprises of cultural sector leaders and business school experts including the Directors of Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum and Ashmolean Museum, the Executive Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Director General of the Imperial War Museum.

Participants will stay at Oxford’s Pembroke College. The deadline for applications is 5pm on 4 January 2017. More information about the programme and how to apply is available on the website.