Arts companies are recruiting corporate gurus

There has been a string of appointments by major arts organisations adding corporate figures to their governing bodies.

Sydney Dance Company’s Isabella Crain, Liam Green and Chloe Young during a rehearsal at Sydney’s Dawes Point. Picture: John Feder

The National Gallery of Australia has appointed former Macquarie chief executive Nicholas Moore and philanthropist ­Judith Neilson to its board, the latest in a string of appointments by major arts organisations adding corporate figures to their governing bodies.

The former banker is politically well connected — having most recently acted for the Morrison government during the Virgin Australia administration and ­advising the NSW government during the pandemic — and replaced senior corporate lawyer Zeke Soloman.

Another prominent philanthropist, Nicola Forrest, on Monday stepped down as chairwoman of Perth’s Black Swan State Theatre Company.

Mr Moore and Ms Neilson join a board that includes former Liberal president Richard Alston and Seven chief executive Ryan Stokes, the gallery’s chairman.

Mr Stokes said the NGA had “always been the pre-eminent arts collecting institution in the country” and Mr Moore and Ms Neilson “both have a keen interest in supporting arts and culture”.

The NGA is not the only arts organisation full of high-flyers.

The Sydney Theatre Company is chaired by former Commonwealth Bank chief executive boss Ian Narev and includes two billionaire philanthropists — Anita Belgiorno-­Nettis and Gretel Packer — among its directors.

The Sydney Dance Company, chaired by Brett Clegg, has Ms Neilson’s daughter, Paris, on its board along with Macquarie director Jillian Broadbent.

Another director, designer Carla Zampatti, died earlier this year and has yet to be replaced. Zampatti, Mr Clegg said, was “as close to ideal as a board member” because of her business acumen and “intrinsic sense of the creative expression of the art form itself”.

“There needs to be a delicate balance on an arts board, a need to strike a mix between the head and the heart,” Mr Clegg said.

“It’s self-evident that it is an important consideration to have senior representatives of the corporate world and other such fields, given they bring significant governance skills but also highly relevant networks including into government and beyond.

“Equally, it is essential to have other dimensions represented on the board, most notably the philanthropic and those who bring expertise around arts administration and creative industries.”

Janet Holmes a Court, now the Art Gallery of Western Australia chairwoman, has sat on a string of boards including the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Black Swan Theatre. (The ACO counts figures including Guido Belgiorno-Nettis, former Australia Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout and Myer family scion Sidney Myer as directors.)

Ms Holmes a Court said she didn’t “think it was a good idea if all the arts boards get stacked with people who have just one skill set, which is that they’re wealthy”.

“We … think about what skills we bring to the board and see if we have a good balance and if there are vacancies, we would aim to fill those, but I don’t think it’s a good idea every board is filled up with people who have maybe just fin­ancial skills or just government connections,” she said. “We need people with a broad range of skills … people who are happy for these organisations to take risks and to not just repeat the things that are successful in the past.”