More than 170 cultural figures, including Salman Rushdie, John Akomfrah and Pankaj Mishra, have signed an open letter expressing their dismay at the departure of Barbican Arts Director Devyani Saltzman.
Saltzman, who became director of arts and participation at the Barbican in February 2024, is leaving the organization amid significant leadership changes just weeks after its new CEO joined.
Saltzman was recently named one of the 40 most influential women working in the arts in the UK and has been described as the driving force behind the organisation. Her departure comes months after she unveiled a five-year creative vision for the Barbican.
“We are writing as a group of global majority creative and cultural leaders and friends to express our deep disappointment and concern over the decision to cut short the tenure of Devyani Saltzman,” the letter said.
“Ms Saltzman has been appointed as a great artistic leader with a mandate to shape the Barbican’s artistic vision and deepen its relationship with communities. Her departure, after a short period in the post and to coincide with the arrival of a new chief executive, raises serious questions about the institution’s commitment to sustaining a world-class majority.”
Saltzman will leave the firm in May, and there are no plans to replace her. Over the past 18 months she has become the public face of the Barbican, revealing her vision in numerous interviews.
She has been vocal about the need for London’s cultural institutions to have leadership that reflects the diverse city in which they live. “We’re actually in a new wave of next-generation leadership that’s going to change the model,” she said in 2024.
The Barbican said it could not comment on individual staff matters. But the signatories to the letter, which also includes Grammy-nominated sitarist and composer Anoushka Shankar, musician and producer Nitin Sawhney, American playwright David Adjmi and Indian novelist Kiran Desai, said it was “not a simple HR issue”.
“This is a major public cultural institution, held in trust and funding for the people of this city and country. A decision affecting its most senior artistic character, and one of the few leaders of South Asian and ethnically diverse heritage in its history, has sector-wide and community-wide implications,” they said.
Other signatories include Pakistani-British novelist Kamila Shamsi, Armenian-Canadian film-maker Atom Egoyan, British curator Mark Seeley and former British Council arts director Skinder Hundal. Having worked with them in and around the Barbican for many decades.
They have asked the Barbican board and the City of London Corporation to publicly clarify whether the role has been officially removed, the processes that led to the decision and how artistic leadership at the Barbican is now configured.
They also asked for data to be published on the diversity of the Barbican’s senior leadership and governance.
In a response seen by the Guardian, the Barbican’s chair, William Russell, reiterated that he could not comment on a confidential matter involving a staff member, and he linked to the centre’s press release honoring Saltzman’s contribution.
The past five years have seen many changes in the leadership of the Barbican. In 2021, Nicholas Kenyon resigned as managing director after 14 years after staff told the Guardian that the Barbican was “institutionally racist”. He was followed by former BBC arts correspondent Will Gompertz, who left after two years in the job.
Saltzman joined Mishra after the Barbican backed out of hosting a speech about the Holocaust and Israel’s alleged genocide in Gaza.
The Barbican has been contacted for comment.
