Oxford Cultural Leaders - applications open for 2020

Applications are now open for Oxford Cultural Leaders 2020, the acclaimed leadership programme for cultural organisations.

Designed and delivered by Oxford University’s Gardens, Libraries & Museums in partnership with the Saïd Business School, Oxford Cultural Leaders (OCL) is a unique programme for directors and senior managers who want to redefine their identity as leaders and reimagine their institutional vision at a time of increasing challenge for the sector.

Five participants at OCL workshop

OCL workshop, Pembroke College, 2018

The programme − which is now in its sixth year − brings together expertise from the cultural and business sectors to encourage participants to explore how cultural organisations can embrace entrepreneurial ways of thinking and behaving and reinvent themselves as not-for-profit hybrid-businesses.

Cultural leaders are having to grapple with a huge range of issues, from funding and political challenges to changing audience expectations. These complex challenges require leaders who are dynamic and responsive, and who are able to steer their institutions successfully through change.

‘I firmly believe that the success of the sector is reliant on a new type of leader − one who embraces change, is entrepreneurial in outlook, who continually looks outwards to learn new things and yet is rooted in a strong sense of values, core purpose and public service,’ says Diane Lees, Director General, Imperial War Museums, and an OCL Faculty member.

Leading without words workshop

OCL Leading without words workshop, 2019

Oxford Cultural Leaders is a week-long residential programme, which brings together a group of approximately 24 leaders from across the world. Participants are encouraged to re-examine their approach to leadership through workshops, lectures, panel discussions and keynote speeches, delivered by cultural sector leaders, business school experts and industry authorities.

Faculty for 2020 includes: Professor Tim Morris (Professor of Management Studies, Saïd Business School), Dr Pegram Harrison (Senior Fellow in Entrepreneurship, Saïd Business School), Dr Nelisha Wickremasinghe (Associate Fellow, Saïd Business School), Jonathan Stebbings (Leadership Consultant, Olivier Mythodrama), Samenua Sesher (Creative, Coach and Culture Management Consultant), Susan McCormack (Director of Public Engagement, Ashmolean Museum) and Lucy Shaw (Programme Director, Oxford Cultural Leaders).

The programme runs from Sunday 22 to Friday 27 March 2020. Participants will stay at Corpus Christi College in the heart of Oxford, close to the museums, cultural venues and university buildings used to deliver the teaching, workshops and the social programme.

To find out more and to apply, visit the Oxford Cultural Leaders webpage.