Open Letter to Barbican regarding Devyani Saltzman

Dear Chair of the Barbican Board and Members of the City of London Corporation,

We are writing as a group of global majority creative and cultural leaders and allies to express our profound disappointment and alarm at the decision to curtail Devyani Saltzman’s tenure as Director for Arts and Participation at the Barbican.

Ms Saltzman was appointed with great fanfare as a senior artistic leader, with a mandate to shape the Barbican’s artistic vision and deepen its relationship with communities. Only months ago, she publicly set out a five‑year creative vision for the centre. Her departure, after a comparatively short time in post and coinciding with the arrival of a new Chief Executive, raises serious questions about the institution’s commitment to sustaining global majority leadership at the highest levels.

The Barbican has stated that it will not comment on “individual staffing matters”. However, this is not an ordinary HR issue. This is a major public cultural institution, funded and held in trust for the people of this city and country. A decision affecting its most senior artistic role, and one of the very few leaders of South Asian and racially diverse heritage in its history, has sector‑wide and community‑wide implications. To characterise such a decision as an internal matter only is inadequate and dismissive.

We are deeply concerned by the absence of transparency. We therefore ask the Board and the City of London Corporation to clarify, publicly and in detail:

● Whether the role of Director of Arts and Participation has been formally deleted, restructured or re‑titled.

● What process of consultation and governance led to this decision, including the role played by the Board.

● How artistic leadership at the Barbican will now be configured, and who will hold authority and accountability for the centre’s creative direction.

This decision cannot be viewed in isolation. The Barbican has, in recent years, faced extensive and credible testimonies from current and former staff that described the organisation as structurally and “inherently” racist, and highlighted the experience of people of colour as being treated as “diversity hires” rather than fully supported leaders. The City of London and the Barbican publicly committed to a programme of anti‑racist change and to improving the diversity of leadership across the organisation.

The apparent removal of a South Asian woman cultural leader from a key artistic leadership role, so soon after her appointment, sits uneasily with these commitments. It sends a troubling message to racially minoritised artists, producers and audiences who saw her appointment as a rare and hopeful sign that leadership might finally begin to reflect the city the Barbican serves. The impact will be felt not only by Ms Saltzman, but by the many communities who looked to her as a symbol of possibility within an institution with a long, difficult history on race.

More broadly, this decision lands in a sector where racially diverse leadership remains chronically under‑represented, particularly in major building‑based institutions. South Asian and other global majority practitioners contribute substantially to the UK’s cultural life, yet hold a tiny fraction of senior posts. Against that backdrop, the loss of a leader of Ms Saltzman’s background and calibre at the Barbican is not a marginal change: it is a significant step backwards.

We therefore call on the Barbican Board and the City of London Corporation to:

1. Provide a full, public explanation of the rationale and process that led to the curtailment of Devyani Saltzman’s role, including the status of the post she held.

2. Publish up‑to‑date data on the diversity of the Barbican’s senior leadership and governance, and set out how this decision affects progress towards your own stated equality and anti‑racism goals.

3. Commission an independent review, led by an external expert with lived experience of racial inequity, into how decisions about senior appointments and exits are being made, and whether there is a pattern of global majority leaders being brought in and then unable to remain in post.

4. Commit that any future senior artistic leadership recruitment will be designed and delivered in genuine partnership with racially minoritised artists, practitioners and communities, with clear lines of accountability for sustaining diverse leadership over the long term.

5. Meet with a delegation of South Asian and global majority cultural leaders, including signatories to this letter, to hear directly how this decision is perceived and what will be required to rebuild trust.

We write this letter out of care for the Barbican as an important public institution. Many of us have worked with, in and around the Barbican over decades, and we know what it could represent at its best. Precisely because of that, we cannot remain silent when a decision of this magnitude appears to undermine hard‑won progress on representation and equity.

If the Barbican and its Board are serious about anti‑racist practice and about transforming their culture, then the treatment of global majority leaders – especially those entrusted with artistic vision and community relationships – is a crucial test. At present, the curtailment of Devyani Saltzman’s role fails that test in the eyes of many of us across the sector.

We urge you to respond to this letter with honesty, transparency and a concrete plan of action. Without this, our confidence in the Barbican as a partner, employer and civic space is profoundly shaken, and we will have to reconsider how we and our communities engage with the institution in the future.

Yours sincerely, To Sign