Guidance

UK City of Culture 2025 expert advisory panel

Updated 4 January 2022

1. UK City of Culture

UK City of Culture is a UK-wide programme, developed in collaboration with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The competition is run by the Department for Digital, Culture and Sport (DCMS), inviting places across the UK to set out their vision for culture-led regeneration and takes place every four years.

The 2025 UK City of Culture competition follows the success of previous winning cities: Coventry 2021, Hull in 2017 and Derry-Londonderry in 2013.

2. Role of the expert advisory panel

The purpose of the expert advisory panel is to assess the UK City of Culture 2025 expression of interest and full bids against the published core criteria, and provide independent expertise and objective advice to the DCMS Secretary of State at both the long- and shortlist stages. In convening this panel the intention is to benefit from a wide range of experience across the UK and internationally in investing in culture to achieve multiple cultural, social and economic outcomes. This will ensure the most successful UK City of Culture 2025 and provide support and constructive feedback to all bidders for the title. The panel will also undertake visits to successful shortlisted places in 2022 and act as a critical friend to the winning city.

2.1 Panel members

• Sir Phil Redmond (Chair) was knighted for services to broadcasting and the arts in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours. Creator of ground-breaking drama series including Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks, Phil is an advocate and ambassador for the culture and the creative industries. A member of the Liverpool Culture Company Board since 2006, he became Deputy Chair in 2007 and also Creative Director. Phil became Chair of National Museums Liverpool in 2008 and initiated the establishment of the Institute of Cultural Capital, a joint project between the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, which he also chaired. The UK City of Culture programme was inspired and driven by him during his term as Creative Director of Liverpool European Capital of Culture in 2008.

• Claire McColgan (Deputy Chair) is Director of Culture Liverpool, responsible for Major Events, Liverpool Film Office, Cruise Liverpool, Tourism, City Halls and Cultural Policy - she received an MBE for services to the arts in 2009 and was responsible for developing and producing the successful participation programme (Creative Communities). Claire has led the legacy program in Liverpool supporting and funding 35 cultural organisations. She sits on the City Region’s Cultural Partnership and the Visitor Economy Board and is a Town Centre commissioner for the City Region. Claire is a respected and frequently sought national and international advisor and speaker on best practice in Culture and is an experienced executive producer of award winning events. She is currently leading on the recovery for Liverpool which includes Without Walls and the government’s Events Research Programme.

•Lynne Best (representative for Northern Ireland) is Director of The Fourth Pillar, a company established to support creators and champion the creative industries. She was previously Head of Communications for the music licensing company PPL and Director at Well Red Music and Media, which provided corporate communications and policy advice to a range of global media and music companies. She has also held the role of Head of PR at BPI, the UK’s representative body for record labels and music technology companies and organiser of The BRIT Awards and Mercury Prize. Prior to working in music, she started her career at the European Parliament in Brussels following the completion of her degree in Strasbourg, France. She is Vice Chair of the Oh Yeah Music Centre in Belfast and Chair of the Board of the Americana Music Association UK. She is also on the Advisory Panel of the all-Ireland mental health initiative, Minding Creative Minds.

• Nick Capaldi (representative for Wales) was Chief Executive of the Arts Council of Wales from 2008 to 2021. A graduate of Manchester’s Chetham’s Music School, the Royal College of Music and City University in London, he enjoyed an early career as a professional pianist giving concert performances as well as broadcasting on radio and television. His varied musical career included everything from teaching to hotel pianist, adult education to session player. Prior to his appointment in Wales, Nick was Executive Director of Arts Council England South West, and before that Chief Executive of South West Arts. He was also a Board member of Culture South West, and Chair of the Bristol Cultural Development Partnership (a pioneering public/private regeneration initiative). As Chair of Arts 2000 he led a national organisation that commissioned over 1,000 creative projects across England designed to celebrate the role of the artist. He has also spent time working in festivals and orchestral management. Nick was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by City University London in 2016. He is a Governor of Cardiff Metropolitan University and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

• Roberta Doyle (representative for Scotland) is a UK culture sector communications and marketing specialist, having held senior director-level roles within Scotland’s largest cultural organisations, including as Director of External Affairs with the National Theatre of Scotland, the same role for Scottish Opera and the post of Director of Public Affairs with the National Galleries of Scotland. She is a graduate in Business Administration from the University of Strathclyde and has strategic senior management experience in the theatre and dance sectors with Scottish Ballet, the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow and with Glasgow City Council’s Department of Performing Arts and Venues. Roberta is also a board member of Scottish Opera and the Donald Dewar Awards and has previously served on boards, committees and working groups including those of Glasgow School of Art and the Tron Theatre, the British Council’s Cultural Diplomacy Group and the Scottish Arts Council’s Implementation Steering Group for the creation of the National Theatre of Scotland. In addition, she has delivered international projects in audience and visitor/facing issues with the Abbey Theatre/National Theatre of Ireland, the Romaeuropa Festival and the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Roberta lectures and gives keynote addresses and papers widely, in the UK and abroad, on strategic issues relating to cultural industry management and policy and performing and visual arts audiences. She has been a tutor and mentor on many culture industry courses and seminars worldwide and was Chair of the Arts Jury of the Royal Television Society Scotland’s Annual Awards in both 2020 and 2019.

• Martyn Henderson (representative for England) is the Chief Executive Officer for the Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA), the regulator for spectator safety at league football grounds. Over the past decade, Martyn has led a number of projects, programmes and campaigns within the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport. Most recently, he was Director for the Events Research Programme, which pioneered the safe opening of mass cultural and sporting events. Prior to joining the SGSA, Martyn was Project Director for the Great Exhibition of the North – a celebration of art, culture and innovation of the North of England held in 2018, and the Northern Cultural Regeneration Fund, which is funding projects in Bradford, Blackpool and the Lake District. During this period, Martyn also led the UK City of Culture programme, supporting Hull 2017 and running the competition which saw Coventry appointed as UK City of Culture for 2021. His previous roles also include establishing a £300 museum storage programme and working for several years on gender and disability equality.

• Andrew Barnett leads the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in the UK from where he has helped to establish a number of initiatives and collaborations with the aim of addressing complex causes ranging from loneliness to engaging the public in ocean conservation and climate change mitigation. He initiated the Inquiry into the Civic Role of Arts Organisations and is passionate both about promoting the ‘civic role’ that they can play in their communities and the role of citizens in decision-making at local and national levels. He was until recently the senior independent member of Healthwatch England, the statutory national consumer champion in health and social care, and has served in a variety of non-executive roles over more than twenty years. He currently chairs the board of trustees of the Church Urban Fund which promotes faith-based social action and community cohesion across England. He previously served as chair of DV8 Physical Theatre and of Space Studios in London. Andrew previously held executive roles at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, UK Sport, HSBC, and the Arts Council of England. He was awarded an OBE in the 2021 New Year’s Honours List for his contribution to social change.

• Rebecca Matthews is Director of ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, one of Northern Europe’s largest art museums presenting prominent national and international artists each year, as well as exhibitions from its collection. Prior to this, she was Managing Director of Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Denmark’s museum of contemporary international glass; and from 2018-2021 Director of Goodenough College, an educational charity and postgraduate College in London. From 2013- 2018 Rebecca was Chief Executive of Denmark’s European Capital of Culture, Aarhus 2017, expanding across 19 municipalities in Central Denmark, and recognized as growing tourism, investment, audiences, and profile of the region and country. Rebecca has spent much of her career in the arts, higher education and in cultural relations and diplomacy internationally, where she has held senior positions at the Australia Council for the Arts, Sydney Opera House and as Country Director Australia, Country Director Wales and Director New York & Global Partnerships for the British Council. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; sits on the Boards of Visit Aarhus, the Arts Advisory Panel of Concert Hall Aarhus and, from 2019-2021, was a Trustee of The Royal Albert Hall, London. She was appointed Ridderkorset (Danish Knight’s Cross), Order of the Dannebrog, by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II in the 2017 Honours for services to Denmark and Danish society, arts and culture.

• Aideen McGinley was a member of the DCMS expert advisory panel in the previous two UK City of Culture competitions and, as CEO of Ilex urban regeneration company, played a lead role in the successful inaugural UK City of Culture bid for Derry~Londonderry 2013. She was advisor on the joint bid for Belfast, Derry~Londonderry for European Capital of Culture and established and chaired the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture Board. She has 40 years experience of public service in local and central government in Northern Ireland, formerly Permanent Secretary of Department for Culture and Permanent Secretary of the Department of Employment and Learning and was National Trustee for the BBC. She is Trustee and Deputy Chair of Carnegie UK Trust, Trustee of the National Trust, Chair of Fermanagh Trust and a member of the advisory committee in Northern Ireland on Historic Royal Palaces among a range of other appointments. An experienced practitioner of partnership working with multiple stakeholders and expert on whole systems approaches, she is an advocate for the transformational power of culture and creativity as a force for good. Among other awards she has received an OBE and honorary degree from the University of Ulster.

• Tateo Nakajima is an Arup Fellow and an internationally recognized leader in design and planning of cultural venues and developments, with a particular focus on the acoustics, theatre functionality and audience experience of concert halls and theatres for opera and ballet, extending to the broader issues related to the role of culture in shaping experience in the built environment. Tateo has led projects around the world, working on many high profile architecture and design practices, and with prominent artists and musical ensembles. He has had overall design and management responsibility for consulting input to projects ranging from concert halls and opera houses to pop entertainment venues, museums, immersive experiences, and arts, culture and entertainment districts in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Tateo is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Institute of Acoustics.

• Jamie Njoku-Goodwin is the Chief Executive of UK Music, the collective voice of the UK music industry. Jamie is an experienced campaigner, a communications specialist and a former political adviser who has held senior roles at the highest levels of Government. He previously worked as a special adviser at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and at the Department of Health and Social Care. Jamie holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music from the University of Nottingham and a Masters in International Relations. He is a trustee of Britten Pears Arts and a member of the Council of the Royal College of Music, and sits on the board of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the advisory board of English National Opera, and the Creative Industries Council.

For further information please contact ukcityofculture2025-competition@dcms.gov.uk