Arts Council England Names Dawn Airey as Chair After Strategy Overhaul
Arts Council England has appointed media executive Dawn Airey as its next chair, bringing in a leader whose career has been built far from the museum sector. Airey will succeed Nicholas Serota on August 1, 2026, and serve a four-year term at a moment when the organization is reshaping both its public image and its funding priorities.
The appointment follows an independent review and a sharp reassessment of ACE’s flagship strategy, Let’s Create, which was criticized in the Hodge report for being overly bureaucratic. In response, the organization has introduced a new Strategic Framework built around three principles: “support excellence, deliver for everybody and reach everywhere.”
That language points to a broader effort to make the body’s work feel less opaque and more responsive. In a statement, Airey said the council now has “a clear new mandate,” one shaped by the review and aimed at supporting, nurturing and protecting the arts “transparently, with speed and with a fairer distribution of spend.”
Airey’s résumé is rooted in commercial media and digital content. She has held senior leadership roles at Channel 5, Sky, ITV and Yahoo! for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and served as chief executive of Getty Images from 2015 to 2018. In 2023, she was appointed Chancellor of Edge Hill University in Lancashire. She also holds non-executive positions across television, theatre and sport, including as chair of the National Youth Theatre and the Barclays Football Association Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship.
The chair of Arts Council England works two days a week and receives £60,000 per year. Ministers were assisted in the recruitment process by an advisory assessment panel.
Airey’s appointment arrives at a sensitive point for arts funding in England, where questions of access, regional balance and institutional accountability continue to shape debate. Her background suggests ACE is betting on managerial breadth and communications experience as much as cultural pedigree — a sign that the organization wants not only to fund the arts, but to explain its choices more convincingly.
