George Ferguson
An architect not afraid to speak his mind, George Ferguson is a past president of RIBA, at which he particularly championed the cause of good urbanism and place making. He built up his own Bristol based practice in the mid1970s and founded the UK wide group of architects, Acanthus, in 1986.
He has a variety of experience in architectural, masterplanning and regeneration projects including the award winning Bristol Millennium project AT Bristol, winner of the Civic Trust Urban Design Award, the Royal William Yard project in Plymouth, winner of RIBA and other national awards, and his own Tobacco Factory Arts Centre in South Bristol.
A co-founder of the Academy of Urbanism, he writes, broadcasts and lectures extensively on environmental politics, planning and architectural matters. His pamphlet, ‘Races Against Time’ published in 1983 voiced many of the concerns that people are waking up to today. He has honorary degrees from both the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England for his services to planning and architecture, and is amongst other things a member of the Big Lottery Living Landmarks Committee and Trustee of the London based think tank Demos.
His interests include good living (he has a restaurant and brewery), theatre, travel, photography and ‘challenging the establishment’.
Professor Sir Christopher Frayling
Sir Christopher Frayling is Rector of the Royal College of Art, the only wholly postgraduate university of art and design in the world, and also Professor of Cultural History there. In addition, he is Chairman of Arts Council England, the largest funding body for the arts in the UK.
He is the longest-serving Trustee of the V&A, and Chairman of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee, which selects the designs for new coins. He has in the recent past been Chairman of the Design Council, Chairman of the Crafts Study Centre and a Governor of the British Film Institute.
Christopher is well-known as an historian, critic and an award-winning broadcaster, with his work appearing regularly on network radio and television. He has published sixteen books and numerous articles on contemporary art, design, film and the history of ideas. Christopher has been, for as long as he can remember, a passionate campaigner for the importance of the creative industries, and of public investment in the arts.
Nicholas Kenyon CBE
Nicholas Kenyon was born in 1951 and having worked as music critic for The New Yorker and The Times, Music Editor of the Listener and Chief Music Critic of The Observer, he was appointed Controller, BBC Radio 3 in 1992.
He was appointed Director of the BBC Proms from the 1996 season and moved to the new post of Controller, BBC Proms and Millennium Programmes in November 1998. In 2000 he became Controller BBC Proms, Live Events and Television Classical Music.
He is the author of numerous publications, including The BBC Symphony Orchestra: the first fifty years (1981) and The Faber Pocket Guide to Mozart (2005). He was Consultant Editor on The Proms – A New History, published in 2007.
For many years he was a member of the Arts Council’s Music Advisory Panel and the South Bank Centre’s Music Advisory Panel. He is now a member of the Board of English National Opera, and of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, a member of the Board of Management of the Arts and Humanities Research Council [AHRC], and a Trustee of the Dartington Hall Trust.
From October 2007 he has been the Managing Director of the Barbican Centre.
In 2001 he was awarded a CBE for his services to music and millennium broadcasting and he was knighted in the New Year Honours list 2008. He is married with four children and lives in London.
Professor Tim Blanning
Tim Blanning has spent all his working life in the service of the University of Cambridge, where he is now Professor of Modern European History and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College. He has also been a Fellow of the British Academy since 1990.
His previous publications have dealt mainly with the political and cultural history of Europe in the eighteenth century and nineteenth centuries. The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture: Old Regime Europe 1660-1789 (Oxford University Press, 2002) was short-short-listed for the British Academy Book Prize and won the H-NET für Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte prize for the best book published on early modern history in any language in 2003. His volume in the Penguin History of Europe – The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815 – published in April 2007 has been acclaimed by reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic.
He lives in Cambridge with his wife, two children and Dalmatian.