Gerald Lidstone BA MA ATC Dr h. c. FRGS

Staff details

Position Director of the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE)
Email g.lidstone (@gold.ac.uk)
Gerald Lidstone BA MA ATC Dr h. c. FRGS

He is founder of Institute for Creative & Cultural Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths, University of London and founder of the MA Arts Administration & Cultural Policy and co-founder of two other MAs.

Originally working as a scenographer/production manager and lighting designer he developed extensive design and touring experience in Eastern Europe and the USA.

For the British Council and other agencies, he has also taught diverse Arts & Cultural Management courses in over 20 countries. This included twelve years part time for the Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism in Viet Nam establishing Arts Management education in Hanoi University of Culture, funded by the Ford Foundation.

He was also the director of a four-year British Know-How Fund (Foreign Office) project establishing arts management education in Slovakia. An outcome being the publication of the first book on arts management in Slovak, and the subsequent British Council project Closer to the Museum.

Academic qualifications

  • Dr. h. c. ( Doctor Honoris causa) Hanoi University of Culture, Viet Nam 2009
  • Dr. h. c. ( Doctor Honoris causa) Vysoka Skola Muzickych Umeni v Bratislave , Slovakia 2004
  • University of Essex - MA English Literature (Drama) 1985
  • Goldsmiths' College, University of London - Postgraduate Art Teachers Certificate 1975
  • Leeds School of Art - BA Hons 3 Dimensional Design & Fine Art Performance 1972
  • Watford College of Art - Foundation Art Course 1971

Teaching and Supervision

Research interests

A number of years ago he evaluated the NESTA Creative Pioneers Academy and wrote a report on the potential of cultural organisations in Odessa, Ukraine. Building on experience gained in Eastern Europe examining and analysing arts and cultural policy in the post-communist context he co-authored the first book on arts management in Slovak. This led to a British Council project, Closer to the Museum, one of the first of its kind supporting Slovak museums. This in turn has led to a 12 year project for the Ministry of Culture Sport and Tourism in Viet Nam funded extensively by the Ford Foundation to develop an infrastructure for arts, heritage and cultural management education to adapt to the new policy of social, economic and political reform under the rubric of ‘doi moi’ (renovation), aimed at transforming the old command economy in culture into a market-based one. This resulted in two publications for the Viet Nam government and Ford.

In the UK he was responsible for four years for the annual report of the West End box office data research project, for the Society of London Theatre (SOLT). He has recently completed a major research evaluation a dance projects at Sadler’s Wells and for the first three years the National Youth Dance Company for ACE. Concurrently he was the UK partner for two EU projects, ADESTE on Audience Development and CREA.M concerned with blended mentoring for cultural managers.

He now leads three new projects in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan for the British Council two on creative industries and one on museums.

Publications and research outputs

Book Section

Lidstone, Gerald. 2013. Rethinking Education. In: Giannalia Beyens; Miguel Ramos; Enrik Zipane and Truus Ophuysen, eds. Empowering Individuals with the Appropriate Educational Tools,Skills and Competencies, for their Active Cultural, Political and Economic Participation in Society in Europe and Beyond. Brusseles: Access to the Culture Platform, pp. 8-21. ISBN 9789090284378

Lidstone, Gerald N.. 2008. Yes, No, Maybe. In: Martina Bendikova, ed. Medzikulturny dialog a migracia. Bratislava: Europska Komisa Zastupenie EK na Slovensku, pp. 125-138. ISBN 9788071657354

Lidstone, Gerald N.. 2004. Education and the Arts: Evaluating Arts Education Programmes. In: J. Cowling, ed. For Art's Sake? Society and the Arts in the 21st Century. London: ippr, pp. 41-63. ISBN 1860302335

Conference or Workshop Item

Lidstone, Gerald N.. 2010. 'The policy and practice of learning entrepreneurial skills and future ‘qualities of mind’'. In: Unesco & the Government of the Republic of Korea World Conference on Arts Education. Seoul, Korea, Republic of.

Project

Lidstone, Gerald N. and Doling, T.. 2005. Curriculum Development in the Management of Arts and Culture in Viet Nam in a market economy context.

Lidstone, Gerald N. and Stewart, David M.. 2002. Society of London Theatre Report.

Report

Lidstone, Gerald N.. 2017. ADESTE Evaluation Framework. Project Report. Goldsmiths, University of London, London.

Lidstone, Gerald N.. 2016. National Youth Dance Company 2012 – 2015: Three Year Evaluation. Technical Report. Goldsmiths, University of London, London.

Lidstone, Gerald N. and Costello, David. 2014. NESTA [National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts] Evaluation - Creative Pioneer Programme, Pilot year. Other. London

Lidstone, Gerald N. and Schmitz, Anna. 2007. Odessa Report - Ukraine. Project Report. British Council.

Lidstone, Gerald N.; Schmitz, A. and Costello, D.. 2006. NESTA Creative Pioneers Evaluation. Project Report. NESTA, London.

Lidstone, Gerald N. and Morris, Gerri. 2002. A Review of the Structure of the Theatre Company of Cyprus THoC [ the National Theatre]. Working Paper.

Further profile content

Media engagements

2014: The Conversation: Our arts organisations are in a dance of death
Funding cuts have forced organisations into a perilous struggle for survival

2013: How do we develop innovative arts administrators? Gerald Lidstone asks the Big Question
As Director of the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship, Gerald Lidstone find the most exciting thing about his research to be about working with diverse groups of people.

Grants and awards

2009: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Viet Nam, National Culture Medal

Fellow of Royal Geographical Society

1997: Pearce Prize for Teaching Goldsmiths College

1993: Time Out award for theatre production Soundings London New Plays Festival