We’re the UK’s largest centre for the arts, and a charity that is proud to bring millions of people together on London’s South Bank. Our mission is to make a difference to the lives of artists, audiences and communities through the variety of our programming and spaces. We care for an 11-acre site on London’s South Bank, which includes the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, Hayward Gallery, 15 restaurants and bars and 11-acres of Thames riverside, as well as being home to the National Poetry Library and to six Resident Orchestras.
Southbank Centre is committed to accessibility to the Arts and we run an extensive and unique range of free programming within and outside the venues. The site supports 11m visitors a year, 3m ticket buyers and drives revenues of £58m. 55% of our 3,300 events a year are free to access and over 8,000 artists perform on our stages.
At Southbank Centre we believe in:
- Creating welcoming spaces
- Making wonderful experiences together
- Sparking new thinking
The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. The Festival’s principles of inclusion and access – that the Arts should be for everybody – still drives our artistic vision at the Southbank Centre.
Amongst our annual events are the London Literature Festival, the annual Meltdown festival of contemporary music, our new classical music festival, Multitudes – and we also host a number of important global events for the creative industries, including the Bafta Film, TV and Games Awards and the BFI’s London Film Festival.
The Centre is committed to the support of artists and runs a number of talent and skills development programmes, including Inspire for schools. Creative engagement across the board is key to our learning and social impact commitments.
Our Vision, Mission and Strategic Priorities
Our Vision: For Southbank Centre to be the world’s most exciting centre for the arts
Our Mission: Making a difference to the lives of artists, audiences and communities through the variety of our programming and spaces
Our Strategic Pillars and Commitments:
- Creative Spaces – We develop the Southbank Centre estate as a local and global cultural destination.
- Creative Engine – We are an engine of creativity – bringing artists and people together, inventing the future of culture and supporting wellbeing through the arts.
- Creative Enablers – We foster a resilient, diverse and skilled workforce and work to maintain current, and generate new streams of, income for the organisation.
Board and Executive
Southbank Centre Board is the governing body or non-executive Board of Southbank Centre and currently consists of 13 members, or ‘Governors’.
Governors are Members and Directors of Southbank Centre’s governing body, Southbank Centre Limited, and by extension trustees of the charity. They are therefore expected to fulfil the legal duties of company directors and charity trustees.
The Role of Southbank Centre Board is:
- To ensure the Company’s and the Charity’s compliance with the Deed of Trust establishing the Charity and all statutory requirements and the Company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association.
- To consider the most appropriate use of Southbank Centre’s property assets in the support of its artistic objectives.
- To review the funding and solvency of the Southbank Centre Retirement Plan and to appoint its Trustees.
- To share Board opinions with the Executive, but permitting the Executive freedom to manage Southbank Centre within agreed policies, plans and targets (individual Governors may be invited to offer advice to the Executive on subjects where they have expertise, but the operational decisions in such instances remain with the Executive).
- To solicit support for Southbank Centre, both financial and non-financial, identifying and encouraging political, opinion- forming, corporate and private interests.
We particularly welcome applications from global majority candidates, women, people with disabilities and other groups underrepresented on boards. The Board as a whole should include a balance of age and gender, and reflect the diverse cultures we serve.
The Executive
The Southbank Centre Board is supported by an Executive leadership team, which is led by the Chief Executive, Elaine Bedell OBE.
Elaine leads an Executive Leadership Team which includes an Artistic Director, Chief Operating Officer and Directors of Audiences, Development, and People and Culture.