Saved events

Support us

Barbican Centre Trust

Photo of Barbican concrete architecture

A fundamental tenet of the Barbican Centre’s philosophy is that we want to offer the widest possible access to culture, giving everyone the opportunity to encounter and enjoy creativity.

We’re a not-for-profit. To keep our programme accessible to everyone, and to invest in the artists we work with, we need to raise more than 65% of our income through ticket sales, commercial activities and fundraising every year.

The Barbican Centre Trust is the Barbican Centre’s charitable and fundraising arm, and we work to grow our community of individual donors, corporate sponsors, and grant makers. Their support enables us to continue investing in our arts and learning programme. Led by the Chair, our Trustees lead the way in making introductions and strengthening connections with individuals, corporates and trusts who can help us achieve the Barbican’s ambitious vision.  

The Barbican Centre Trust is a charity registered in England and Wales (no 294282).

Trustee biographies

Farmida Bi CBE is Chair of the Barbican Centre Trust, and Chair of Norton Rose Fulbright, Europe, Middle East and Asia. She has more than 25 years of experience advising on capital markets and Islamic finance transactions, and is also European Head of Islamic Finance. Farmida champions diversity and social mobility within Norton Rose Fulbright and in wider society, currently serving as Chair of the Patchwork Foundation, which promotes the integration of disadvantaged and minority communities into public life. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2020 for services to the law and charity.

Robert Glick OBE is Vice Chair of the Barbican Centre Trust, and Vice President, Head of International Public Affairs at American Express, having held various senior positions in corporate communications and public health. A graduate of the University of Cambridge, the London School of Economics and Emory University (USA), he serves currently as Chair of Save the Children’s Global Malnutrition Initiative, Trustee of Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Founding Chair of the Adult Literacy Trust, and Trustee of Open For Business. His previous non-executive roles include as Trustee of the Victoria & Albert Museum and Chair of the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Stephanie Camu is a founding partner of the independent artist management consultancy Southern & Partners specialising in offering strategic advice on a broad range of matters and fostering the widest possible exposure for their work and developing their legacy. For over 20 years she has worked closely with artists, organising and curating solo and group exhibitions in commercial galleries, international institutions, and heritage sites. Stephanie has been a trustee of Artangel for eight years, and before moving into the arts, she worked in senior management positions in the television industry for the news and current affairs networks CNN and CNBC in London.

Tony Chambers is Founder and Creative Director of design and lifestyle consultancy TC & Friends. He is also Co-Chair of Brainstorm Design, Fortune magazine’s annual design and business conference held in Singapore.
 
From 2003 – 2018 Tony served as Brand & Content Director, Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director of Wallpaper* magazine, for which he still contributes. He has also served as Art Director of British GQ and Art Editor of The Sunday Times Magazine.
 
Over his career so far, Tony has worked with creative luminaries such as Jean Nouvel, Philippe Starck, Louise Bourgeois, Karl Lagerfeld, Hedi Slimane, Christian Marclay, Thomas Heatherwick and Zaha Hadid.
 

Cas Donald has been involved in arts advocacy and philanthropy for over twenty years following a career in mineral broking. She has supported and sat on various boards including The Royal Court Development Board, Headlong Touring Theatre, The Battersea Arts Centre, as well as Theatre 503. She has also supported new directors’ programmes at the Royal Court and the National Theatre and speaks at the National Theatre’s Directors’ Course on Philanthropy. For 20 years she was a Trustee of The Kipungani Schools’ Trust in Kenya, responsible for building 17 schools and educating over 30,000 children

Starting out with BA Hons in both art and business, David Kapur has established a unique career and network combining entrepreneurialism with creativity. Excelling in commercial development, product creation and trend spotting within film and cinema. David’s cv includes co-founding both elevenfiftyfive & ourscreen. David had key roles in developing the iconic Orange Wednesday & Secret Cinema as well as creating industry-wide Virgin Media.

Ann Kenrick has just retired after five years as the first female Master/CEO transforming the Charterhouse, for which she received the Freedom of the City. She has been awarded both an OBE and Frances Ordre National du Mérite for her innovative work as Secretary General of policy forum, the Franco-British Council. Her passion for promoting urban cycling led to her becoming Chair of the London Cycling Campaign, contributing to a 25% increase in London cyclists by introducing segregated cycle paths. Her early career included ten years in Marketing at IBM.

Kendall Langford is a Trustee of the Barbican Centre Trust, she is one of the original founding members of Patron Capital Partners and acts as General Counsel and Senior Partner. Since Patron was established in 1999, it has raised a series of private equity funds dedicated to real estate related investments. 

Kendall is also actively involved in trying to address the gender imbalance in the finance industry.

Prior to Patron, Kendall worked at Cargill Inc., and prior to that she was a banking lawyer at Clifford Chance.

Kendall received a first class honours degree in law. She has four children, resides in England and is fluent in French and Spanish.
 

Alderman Sir William Russell was elected Alderman for the Ward of Bread Street in March 2013, and took office as the 692nd Lord Mayor of the City of London on 8th November 2019. Due to the extraordinary circumstances arising from the global health pandemic COVID-19, served two consecutive years in office, becoming the first Lord Mayor to do so since 1861.Sir William has over thirty years’ experience in the financial and business City including holding senior positions in the national and international banking sector. He also has a number of charitable interests: he has served as Chair of the Development Board of the Royal Court Theatre; as a Board Member of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and is also on the Council of the Royal Theatrical Support Trust. He is immediate past Chair of Prostate Cancer UK and past Deputy Chair of Place2Be, a children’s mental health charity. He has served as a member of the Barbican Centre Board since July 2019.

Tom has been Chair of the Barbican Board since 2020. He is an elected Councillor at the City of London Corporation, the founder and owner of the Barbican Centre. Professionally, Tom is Director of Corporate Affairs at the technology company and bank The Bank of London, a new global institution disrupting banking and payments. His career has seen Tom hold senior roles at Lloyds Banking Group, Amazon, and the BBC.

Claire Spencer joined the Barbican in May 2022 as the first-ever CEO. Claire was previously at the Arts Centre Melbourne where she successfully led a thriving cultural centre, re-positioned the organisation to be a key player in the district’s creative economy and steered it through the Covid-19 pandemic. In the 2020 Australia Day honours list she was conferred a Member of the Order of Australia for her work in the performing arts. Claire has been a champion of women in leadership and a supporter of organisations and projects that provide scholarships and mentoring support to those from marginalised or disadvantaged backgrounds. A Chartered Accountant and Theology graduate, she is married with three children. 

Sian Westerman is a Senior Adviser at Rothschild & Co in the Global Advisory Division based in London, and a non-executive Director of Fenwick Limited. She is a Non-Executive Director of the British Fashion Council and was President of the BFC’s Business and Investment Pillar and Co-chair of the BFC Fashion Trust from 2016 to 2020. She is a Trustee of the Royal Academy of Arts and a member of the Development Committee of the Eton John Aids Foundation. She has had a number of other roles in the arts including being on the Advocates Board of the Royal Court Theatre and serving two full terms on the Board of English National Ballet and Chairing their Development Committee.

Our current supporters

The City of London Corporation

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch)

Kiran Nadar Museum of Art

SHM Foundation

Terra Foundation for American Art

Tia Collection

Trevor Fenwick and Jane Hindley

Marcus Margulies

Goodman Gallery

Romilly Walton Masters Award

Jack Shainman Gallery

The Rudge Shipley Charitable Trust

James and Louise Arnell

Farmida Bi

Jo and Tom Bloxham MBE

Philippe and Stephanie Camu

Cas Donald

Alex and Elena Gerko

Trevor Fenwick and Jane Hindley

Professor Dame Henrietta L. Moore

Sir Howard Panter and Dame Rosemary Squire

Sian and Matthew Westerman

Anonymous (1)

Martin and Celestina Hughes

Natrium Capital Limited

Viscount Strathallan

Abdullah B.S. Al-Saud

Sam and Rosie Berwick

Tim and Catherine Cox

Julian Hale and Helen Likierman

Soo Hitchin

Jens Riegelsberger

Sir William and Lady Hilary Russell

Romilly Walton Masters Award

Anonymous (1)                                

Jesse Armstrong

Matt Astill

Sam and Rosie Berwick

Nicholas Berwin

Lynn Biggs

Professor Geraldine Brodie

Tony Chambers

Tim and Caroline Clark

Dr Gianetta Corley

Erica and Neil Cosburn

Ernest Fasanya and Jenny Stevens

Davide Giordano

Robert Glick OBE

Barbara Gwinnell

Brian Harasek

Richard Hardie

Malcolm Herring

Hollick Family Foundation

Sajid Hussein

David Kapur

Colin Kirkpatrick

Kendall Langford

Neil and Tracy Lawson-May

Robert McHenry and

Sally Lloyd-Bostock

Tracey, Eloise and Max Mayerson

Wendy Mead

Sir Paul Morgan

Professor Dame Linda Partridge and Mr Michael Morgan

Mark Page

Cressida Pollock

Oliver Pauley

Ben and Christina Perry

Keith Salway

Nicola Sawford and Michael Hadi

Carlos and Devy Schonfeld

Richard and Elizabeth Setchim

Mary Tapissier and family

Philip and Irene Toll Gage Foundation

Steven Tredget

Richard Williams

Robert Willicombe

Simon Witty

Irem Yerdelen

Sonya Zuckerman

Anonymous (7)

Campari

Google Arts & Culture

Searchlight Pictures

Sotheby’s

Taittinger

Vestiaire Collective

Audible

Bank of America

Bloomberg

BMO

Bolt Burdon Kemp

Linklaters LLP

Norton Rose Fulbright

Osborne Clarke

Pinsent Masons

Slaughter and May

Standard Chartered

UBS

Acción Cultural Española (AC/E)

The African Arts Trust

The Ampersand Foundation

Art Fund

Bagri Foundation

CHK Foundation

Cockayne – Grants for the Arts

Company of Arts Scholars

Charitable Trust

Fluxus Art Projects

Helen Frankenthaler Foundation

High Commission of Canada in The United Kingdom

Institut français du Royaume-Uni

Korean Cultural Centre UK

Kusuma Trust UK

London Community Foundation

Mactaggart Third Fund

Maria Björnson Memorial Fund

U.S. Embassy London

Logo for Fundraising Regulator