Professor Roni Brown

Roni is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) at University of the Arts London (UAL), previously Head of UAL’s London College of Fashion. Roni holds the title Professor of Visual and Educational Cultures.

Roni’s role at UAL is to support the development and co-ordination of creative education across all six UAL Colleges, implementing the University’s vision, “the World Needs Creativity”. Roni’s portfolio includes responsibility for Teaching and Learning, Further Education, Access and Outreach, International Development, Library and Student Support Services and the University Central Planning Unit.

Roni has worked in Higher Education for over 25 years holding senior positions at the University for the Creative Arts, University of Chichester and University of the Arts London. She has a PhD in the History of Architecture and Design and has work published in the fields of design history, pedagogy and quality assurance in creative arts higher education.

Roni has been a Trustee of the Open College of the Arts and Deputy Chair of Artswork, the South East Bridge Organisation of Arts Council England. Roni is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts.

Sukhy Johal MBE

Sukhy has over 30 years of leadership and governance experience, driving transformational programmes across the public, third and higher education sectors.

He is currently the Director of the Centre for Culture and Creativity at the University of Lincoln acting as a dynamic agent for change in the region.

Sukhy started his career as a volunteer with Apna Arts at the age of 16, and as its Chair steered the organisation’s transformation in becoming the New Art Exchange, the UK’s leading culturally diverse Contemporary arts gallery. Following 12 years in local government, as Executive Director of Culture East Midlands, the region’s Cultural Consortium, Sukhy led the development of the sector, devising innovative regional policy, establishing transformative programmes and integrating culture into wider place and economic development.

He continues to passionately advocate and champion the social and catalytic power of culture.

Andrew Miller MBE

Transforming perceptions throughout his 35 year career in the creative industries, Andrew is recognised as one of the UK’s most influential disability advocates with extensive experience of the arts, film and broadcast sectors.

Starting out in broadcasting, Andrew belongs to the first generation of disabled presenters of British television and went on to produce and direct tv arts documentaries. Subsequently becoming the first wheelchair user to run a major UK arts venue, he is now a prolific cultural commentator and his consultancy supports major new cultural infrastructure such as the University of Oxford Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities and Coventry City of Culture.

Andrew is a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company, a trustee of BAFTA and his

previous non-executive roles include The Arts Council of Wales, Welsh National Opera and The Space. He is Chair of the BFI Disability Screen Advisory Group and in 2020 co-founded the UK Disability Arts Alliance #WeShallNotBeRemoved, where he developed the Seven Inclusive Principles which helped shape the cultural sector’s pandemic recovery. Between 2018-21 Andrew was the UK Government’s first Disability Champion for Arts & Culture, establishing the role as a powerful campaigning platform for greater inclusion. He chairs Arts Council England’s Disability Advisory Group.

Elisabeth Murdoch

Elisabeth Murdoch is an entrepreneur and philanthropist in the creative industries. In October 2019, Elisabeth joined forces with Stacey Snider and Jane Featherstone to found SISTER, a global content company which develops, produces and invests in visionary storytellers. Elisabeth is also founder and Chair of Locksmith Animation and a strategic minority shareholder in Youngest Media, 110% Content & belofx.

In 2001, Elisabeth founded Shine, which she managed and grew, first as Chief Executive and latterly as Chairman, into one of the world’s leading production companies over her 14-year tenure.

Elisabeth set up the Freelands Foundation in 2015 with the ambition to give everyone in the UK, regardless of background or location, access to art education, to raise their aspirations and empower them to transform their life opportunities.

Elisabeth is a non-Executive Director of Tribeca Enterprise. She was a Tate Trustee between 2008 and 2016 and Chairman of the Tate Modern Advisory Council between 2009 and 2016.​

Kate Willard OBE

Kate Willard OBE is Chair of the Thames Estuary Growth Board and the Government appointed Thames Estuary Envoy. She is Chair of Teesside International Airport and a Commissioner with the National Infrastructure Commission.

Council Members of Arts Council England are not remunerated. Area Chairs of Arts Council England are remunerated at £6,400 per annum. All five terms were initially extended by 9 months, they have subsequently been reappointed for terms as outlined above.

These reappointments have been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Professor Roni Brown, Sukhy Johal, Andrew Miller, Elisabeth Murdoch, and Kate Willard have declared no such activity.

Hugh Bullock

Hugh Bullock was Chairman of Gerald Eve LLP until 2020 with a career in real estate over 35 years. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute. He currently serves as a Member of the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster, as a Trustee of the Imperial War Museums (including as Chair of the Estates Advisory Committee) and as a Trustee of the William Robinson Gravetye Charity. Other activities include supporting the University of Crete.

His former external appointments include:  Member of the Mayor of London’s Homes for Londoners Board; Advisor to the Westminster Property Association; Member of the Cambridge University Land Economy Advisory Board; Member of the Board of Trustees of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA); Member of the Property Advisory Group of The Passage; Commissioner on the Mayor of London’s West End Commission; Chairman of London First’s Planning and Development Advisory Forum; Member of the Mayor of London’s London Electricity High-Level Working Group; Member of the London Regional Council of the CBI; and Visiting Lecturer to the University of Reading.

Lt General Andrew Figgures CB CBE

Lt General Andrew Figgures was educated at Loughborough Grammar School, Welbeck College and St Catharine’s College Cambridge where he read Engineering. He was commissioned from Sandhurst into the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. He has served in Germany and the United Kingdom and on operations in Northern Ireland, the Former Republic of Yugoslavia and Iraq in 2003-4 where he was Senior British Military Representative and deputy to the US Commander. He has been on the directing staff at the Royal Military College of Science responsible for the instruction of  Surveillance, Target Acquisition, Aerial Vehicles’ Guided Weapons and Emerging Technology.

In 2004 he became Technical Director of the Defence Procurement Agency and Defence Logistic Organisation, Master-General of the Ordnance and a member of the Army Board. On promotion to Lieutenant General in 2006 he became Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff responsible for the Defence Equipment Plan for all three services.

In 2010 on leaving the Army he was appointed to the position of Chief Executive of the British Transport Police Authority with the responsibility for policing the railways in Great Britain until 2016. General Figgures chairs IWM’s Audit Committee.

Mark Urban

Mark Urban is the Diplomatic Editor and occasional presenter of the BBC’s Newsnight programme for whom he has covered many of the key international events of the past 30 years. He is also a prolific military historian, writing about conflicts involving the British Army from the 18th Century to the present day. He served on the board of the Royal Armouries 2012-2018. Mark held a short service limited commission (1979) and territorial commission in the Royal Tank Regiment (1980-1983).

Trustees of the Imperial War Museum are not remunerated. All three terms were initially extended by 7 months, they have subsequently been reappointed for terms of 3 years and 5 months.

These reappointments have been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election.

Hugh Bullock, Andrew Figgures and Mark Urban have declared no such political activity.

Members of the Windrush generation joined HRH Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at London Waterloo Station today (22 June 2022) to witness the unveiling of the National Windrush Monument.

Designed by renowned Jamaican artist Basil Watson and delivered with £1 million funding from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Monument symbolises the courage, commitment and resilience of the thousands of men, women and children who travelled to the UK to start new lives from 1948 to 1971.

It acknowledges and celebrates the Windrush generation’s outstanding contribution and has been created as a permanent place of reflection, to foster greater understanding of the generation’s talent, hard work and continuing contribution to British society.

The three figures – a man, woman, and child – dressed in their “Sunday best” are climbing a mountain of suitcases together, demonstrating the inseparable bond of the Windrush pioneers and their descendants, and the hopes and aspirations of their generation as they arrive to start new lives in the UK.

The Windrush generation has come to be defined as those people who emigrated from the Caribbean to Britain between the arrival of the MV Empire Windrush on 22 June 1948 and the Immigration Act 1971.

Following public engagement in 2021, in which Basil Watson’s design resonated the most, he was commissioned to create the Monument by the Windrush Commemoration Committee (WCC), chaired by Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE DL. Basil worked collaboratively with a team at Pangolin Editions in Stroud, Gloucester to complete the monument.

The Monument’s location, London Waterloo station, was chosen due to its significance in the Windrush story as thousands of people who arrived from the Caribbean passed through the station on their way to start their new lives across the country.

The Monument was delivered by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities with the support of the Windrush Commemoration Committee, and UP Projects.

The Monument’s unveiling was live streamed across the country including at Birmingham New Street Station and the National Railway Museum in York and will also be watched by communities across the country.

Thirty Five different projects across England are also celebrating the day providing community events and activities funded by share of £500,000 from the Windrush Day Grant Scheme.

2022 is the fourth annual National Windrush Day and this year’s projects will focus on bringing communities together – across different ages and ethnic backgrounds – to commemorate, celebrate and educate their local area about the contribution of the Windrush generation and their descendants across the country.

For more information on the about the Windrush story and the memorial please visit a new website which will go live on 22 June.

National Windrush Monument

In June 2018, Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Floella Benjamin was commissioned by the Prime Minister to chair the Windrush Commemoration Committee, which provides advice on how best to create a permanent, fitting tribute to the Windrush generation and their descendants.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (previously Ministry Housing, Communities and Local Government) announced a £1 million budget towards a Windrush monument to be constructed within London Waterloo Station in 2019.

The Monument’s location, London Waterloo Station, was chosen due to its significance in the Windrush story. Millions of people pass through Waterloo station every year and when they see the Monument, they will be reminded of the incredible impact that the Windrush generation has had on the UK and our British history.

Public art consultants, UP Projects were appointed to manage the selection process of the artist to design and make the monument and ensure that the views of the Caribbean community in the UK were sought on what would represent a meaningful legacy.

After an extensive search with the support of over 250 international and British cultural leaders, curators and leaders in the Caribbean community, 16 national and international artists were longlisted, with a final 4 chosen to be shortlisted. Each of these artists was of Caribbean heritage. Following the shortlisting, 6 weeks of public engagement took place between July and August 2021. This phase sought to engage with the public to ascertain their thoughts on the shortlisted artists: Jeannette Ehlers, Valda Jackson, Basil Watson and Thomas J Price.

In Oct 2021 internationally renowned artist Basil Watson was announced as the artist chosen to design the National Windrush Monument.

UP Projects has worked closely with the WCC and DLUHC since 2020 to support the artist commissioning process and monument fabrication, their team includes Curatorial Advisor Karen Alexander, Curator and Caribbean Community Engagement Consultant Melanie Abrahams, and Caribbean Networks Consultant Svetlana Leu, bringing both professional expertise and lived experience to this complex subject.

The monument has also been made possible by the support of a number of additional partners including Ramboll, APS Group, Live Group, Abi Wright, Juicy Media and DAC Beachcroft.

The dedication text that accompanies the monument at London Waterloo Station was designed by Abi Wright, British graphic designer of Caribbean heritage. For the title graphics, Abi has used a sans serif font designed by black British graphic designer Greg Bunbury called Empire Windrush, a typeface inspired by the iconic lettering on the HMT Empire Windrush passenger ship, paying tribute to the Windrush arrivals through a typeface that is as unique as the passengers who stepped off the boat over 70 years ago.

Windrush Day Grant Scheme:

• 35 projects across England have been given a share of £500,000 funding from the Department for Levelling Up, Communities and Local Government to help commemorate Windrush Day 2022 which marks the outstanding contribution of the Windrush generation and their descendants.

• Windrush Day marks the anniversary of the arrival of MV Empire Windrush at the Port of Tilbury, near London, on 21 June 1948. However, passengers disembarked a day later 22 June 1948 – hence why this has come to be known as Windrush Day.

• The arrival of the Empire Windrush nearly 74 years ago marked a seminal moment in Britain’s history and has come to represent the rich diversity of this nation.

• Those who arrived on the Empire Windrush, their descendants and those who followed them have made and continue to make an enormous contribution to Britain, not just in the vital work of rebuilding the country and public services following WWII but in enriching our shared social, economic, cultural, and religious life.

• This year’s projects will focus on bringing communities together – across different ages and ethnic backgrounds – to commemorate, celebrate and educate their local area about the contribution of the Windrush generation and their descendants across the country.

The Grant Scheme is overseen by the Windrush Community Funds and Schemes sub-group made up of community and government representatives. The group provides advice to Government and helps to ensure that winning bids meet the objectives and requirements

This National Windrush Day (22 June) sees the unveiling of two public sculptures in Hackney to honour the Windrush generation, alongside a series of celebratory events outside Hackney Town Hall free to the public. The figures by London-based artist Thomas J Price, will depict representations of the Windrush generation and their descendants.

The artworks complete the Council’s Hackney Windrush Artwork Commission, established in partnership with Create London in 2019 with support from Art Fund and Freelands Foundation, which last year saw the unveiling of the UK’s first permanent public sculptures honouring the Windrush generation, by celebrated artist Veronica Ryan OBE.

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