A leadership programme for cultural leaders, delivered by The Space
The problem this programme is designed to solve
Digital change isn’t really a technology problem. It’s a leadership challenge.
Most cultural leaders know their organisation needs to work differently in a digital world. Few of you have had the space, support, or peer community to work out what that actually means for you and how to make it happen.
This programme is focused on that gap. It offers something most cultural leaders rarely get: dedicated time, expert guidance, and a small group of peers working through similar challenges. It is structured into a six-month learning journey designed to evolve how you think and act as a leader.
What this is
Leading Change in a Digital Age is a six-month leadership development programme, running from September 2026 to February 2027, for ten chief executives, executive directors, and artistic directors of small to mid-scale cultural organisations in England. The programme is free for successful applicants and represents a time commitment of about four to five hours per month. It is mainly delivered on Zoom, with two in-person sessions in London: one at the start and one at the end of the programme.
This isn’t a series of webinars and it isn’t a digital skills course. It’s a structured, cohort-based programme, designed to change how you think and act as a leader navigating digital change. It offers expert mentoring and guidance, peer discussion and accountability, plus dedicated time to do the thinking that’s rarely possible amidst the demands of your day job.
Every place on the programme represents an investment of more than £4,000 by The Space, using funding from Arts Council England. This cover facilitation, expert mentoring, programme design, evaluation, and in-person sessions. There is no fee for participants.
We’ve refined the programme’s structure and content based on independent evaluation undertaken with our 2025 pilot cohort. This found that 100% of participants valued the time they took to participate in the programme.
Who’s it for
This programme is for leaders who:
- Run a cultural organisation with at least ten FTEs
- Have the freedom and authority to make strategic decisions
- Feel the pressure of digital change but lack the dedicated time or peer support to work out what this requires of you as a leader
- Are willing to commit to the programme, including some work between group sessions
You absolutely don’t need to be a digital expert. We are looking for reflective leaders who are willing to be curious and think differently.
What you’ll get
Over six months, you’ll work through a structured learning journey from diagnosing your current situation to building sustainable practice. Sessions are delivered by Zoom, unless stated otherwise. These include:
Onboarding session (1.5 hours): meet others in your cohort and hear about the programme structure and approach.
One-to-one call with programme facilitators (1 hour): so we can understand your context and priorities for the programme and make sure you’re matched well for mentoring.
Opening day (Monday 12 October 2026, 11am to 4pm, in London): build connection with your cohort, understand each others’ opportunities and challenges, establish a shared language, and agree a learning contract together.
Four online modules (2 hours each, every four weeks), structured sessions on diagnosing your organisation’s digital conditions; strategy and prioritisation; leading people through change; and making digital practice coherent and sustainable. Each module includes pre-work, a method or approach to test back in your organisation, and a buddy check-in.
Mentoring, four confidential one-to-one sessions with a mentor matched to a specific challenge or project you’re working on. Participants from our pilot consistently described mentoring as the most immediately valuable element — particularly when connected to a live piece of work.
Buddy system, you’ll be paired with another cohort member for five informal 30-minute check-ins across the programme, structured around the between-session tasks.
Closing day (Monday 15 February 2027, 11am to 4pm, in London), structured reflection, honest assessment of what’s changed, and planning for what comes next.
The total time commitment over the six months is around 28 hours – approximately four to five hours a month.
Module overview
Module 1: Diagnosing your digital conditions – helping you to understand where your organisation is right now, not where you think it should be. That diagnosis will then be used to make better decisions about where to focus.
Module 2: Strategy, focus, and designing change – exploring how to make clear and deliberate choices, linking digital priorities to your mission, and deciding what not to do. We’ll share ideas for prioritisation that work under real constraints.
Module 3: People and making change, looking at ways to lead people through uncertainty including building buy-in without burning people out; and delegation, ownership, and accountability when digital work stretches teams.
Module 4: Making digital change coherent and sustainable, identifying the changes needed to embed digital work consistently and sustainably. We’ll look at how digital shows up (or doesn’t) in the daily rhythms, decisions, and handovers in your organisation. We’ll look at hidden work and fragility and how you can ensure you’re making pragmatic choices that support your creative, operational, and audience-facing work without adding unnecessary complexity.
What this programme expects of you
Peer learning is central to the design of this programme, which means your engagement directly affects what others get out of it.
We therefore ask participants to:
- Attend a minimum of 6 of the 7 group sessions, including the two in-person days
- Complete brief pre-session reading and short between-session tasks
- Participate in buddy check-ins
If your attendance falls below the expected level, we’ll need to discuss this with you. We’re aware that people’s circumstances can change and we’re open to a conversation about this. We also want to be upfront about the commitment the programme needs, because we know it matters for an effective peer-learning environment.
How to apply
We’re looking for ten leaders from a range of organisation types, artforms, and regions across England.
We’ll prioritise leaders with some experience of structured learning: people who know how to reflect, take feedback, and apply practical concepts back into their work. Prior participation in a similar programme is a positive indicator but not essential. We’re also looking for leaders of organisations with genuine capacity to engage with change.
Applications are open to Executive Directors, Creative Directors, Chief Executives, and equivalent roles in organisations that are eligible for Arts Council England funding and have at least ten FTE employees.
Deadline for applications: 12pm (midday), Monday 8 June 2026
- Decisions made by: 17 June 2026
- Programme starts: 22 September 2026 (initial onboarding call)
- Programme ends: 15 February 2027 (closing day in London).
To apply, please fill in our short application form. Link below.
Questions? Please email: [email protected]
Apply hereHow useful was this resource?
You may also be interested in
Working with influencers can help you reach new audiences, tell your story in new ways, and build lasting engagement — without needing a huge marketing budget.
Thinking about refreshing your digital content? Her's some advice to optimise your digital platforms and better connect with your audiences.
Online abuse is a catch-all term that covers a range of digital actions and behaviours. What are they?
Join our Mailing List:
Follow us on social media:
