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At this year’s A&B NI Cultural Governance Conference, supported by award-winning accountancy and business advisory firm HM Chartered Accountants, we are exploring fresh ways of thinking about governance—and how leadership in the boardroom and beyond, can become more inclusive, dynamic, and community-led.

With this, we are delighted to be joined by Saad Eddine Said, from New Art Exchange who has been exploring governance models that redistribute power, broaden access, and enrich programming. In this blog piece on Reframing Leadership, Saad explores these themes, and the journey New Art Exchange has been through and continuing to develop.

For years the conversation in our sector has circled around governance. Boards, policies, structures, compliance. The machinery that keeps institutions alive. These things matter because they define how decisions are made, who holds authority, and how accountability is maintained. But change, growth and transformation cannot stop there. They must also reach leadership. Governance and leadership are two sides of the same coin: governance provides the structure that holds the institution together, and leadership brings that structure to life with purpose. One without the other is incomplete.

We live in a moment where cultural institutions face a storm of challenges. Finances are fragile, public trust is in decline, and the gap between mission and process continues to widen. Good governance can steady an institution, while leadership ensures it stays relevant, connected, and resilient. If we want to build institutions that last, we need to reframe leadership and governance together, recognising their shared role in sustaining change.

That means asking ourselves difficult questions. Are our boards fit for the future? Are our executive teams too tightly holding on to control? Are citizens and communities treated as participants, or are they trusted as leaders? The answers to these questions shape not only the survival of our institutions, but their legitimacy and growth.

For too long, leadership in culture has been imagined in narrow terms: a director, a chair, a set of senior figures around a table making decisions on behalf of everyone else. That model is tired. It is unrepresentative. And it no longer works in a society that demands participation, accountability, and shared responsibility.

Leadership must be reimagined as something we do with others, not over them. It must be dynamic, collective, and grounded in values. It must bring together the knowledge of executives, the oversight of trustees, and the lived experience of citizens.

 At New Art Exchange we began to explore a philosophy of leadership based on three interconnected pillars:

• Citizen leadership delivering legitimacy through the voices of those most affected by decisions.
• Executive leadership enabling conditions for shared leadership to thrive.
• Oversight leadership ensuring stability, accountability, and long-term sustainability. These pillars are not static.

 They move in relation to one another. They hold tension, create dialogue, and prevent power from resting in a single place. Together they form the foundation for institutions that are both accountable and alive. This is not theory alone but practice: when leadership is concentrated in one pillar, institutions become brittle. When it is shared across three, they grow stronger, more resilient, and more relevant.

If we accept that leadership must be reframed in this way, then we must also ask how to make it real. Philosophy is essential, but practice requires structure. That is where the idea of a blueprint becomes essential.

 A blueprint for change must do three things. It must map the storm we face with clarity. Without recognising the pressures of finance, trust, and legitimacy, we cannot hope to build institutions that endure. It must offer a pathway. Not just abstract principles, but a clear sequence of steps to move from symbolic gestures to structural change. And it must embed accountability. Change cannot be left to goodwill alone but supported by frameworks that ensure leadership remains shared, transparent, and sustainable.

Such a blueprint must be adaptable. It must work for institutions of different sizes, contexts, and histories. It must speak to local realities while offering a vision that can travel globally. Above all, it must be grounded in practice: not an academic exercise, but something tested, lived, and proven.

 The work of reframing leadership is not easy. It demands courage from those in power. It demands trust from institutions in their communities. And it demands patience, because structural change takes time. But it cannot be left to eternity. Institutions cannot wait another generation for this shift to happen. The moment to act is now. Because the future of culture should not be decided by the few but it needs to be shaped by the many.

To hear more about Saad, their  work on leadership and governance- join us at our Cultural Governance Conference on 23^rd October to gain more insights, hear from our other speakers and get the opportunity to network and connect with others!