Diversity in the Public Realm Commission members
Following an open recruitment process, 14 people have been selected to form the Commission and work to improve diversity in the capital’s public realm, including statues, street names, memorials and building names.
The members include a range of leaders from the arts, architecture, community engagement and business sectors.
Co-Chair – Dr Debbie Weekes-Bernard
Debbie Weekes-Bernard became Deputy Mayor for Social Integration, Social Mobility and Community Engagement in November 2018.
Debbie works to improve Londoners’ life chances and to boost social integration and community voice across the Mayor’s programmes. She leads the promotion of equalities and active citizenship across London, and makes sure City Hall actively seeks to tackle poverty for Londoners across all groups.
Co Chair – Justine Simons OBE
Justine Simons is Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries. She was Head of Culture for the Mayor of London for over a decade and has played a central role in the cultural revitalisation of London. Justine was awarded an OBE in the 2015 Queen’s New Year honours list for Services to Culture in London. She believes culture is central to London’s success as a global city and has the power to transform lives and places
Riz Ahmed
Riz Ahmed is an award-winning actor, writer, producer, musician, and director. Named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in 2017, themes of inclusion and representation run throughout Riz's work as a creator and activist, from his roles in films such as SOUND OF METAL and MOGUL MOWGLI, and his essay in Nikesh Shukla's The Good Immigrant, to his 2017 address to Parliament on diversity in the creative industries. Whether he's using his power as a producer to bring refugee narratives to our screens, writing about the inequalities of the Covid pandemic as contributing editor of British Vogue, or exploring Britishness through his critically-acclaimed music release The Long Goodbye, Riz is driven by a mission to stretch culture, reimagine our narratives and landscapes of belonging, and include rather than divide.
David Bryan MBA FRSA
David Bryan is the Director of Xtend (UK) Ltd, a management consultancy. He has worked in academia, lecturing on Management Studies, at Goldsmith College; post-graduate social work at London South Bank University; and Arts Leadership at Birkbeck College. He is currently the Chair of 3 arts organisations, Brixton House, Battersea Arts Centre and Voluntary Arts (UK)., and a Director of The Dunraven (School) Educational Trust.
Aindrea Emelife
Aindrea Emelife is a 27-year-old art historian, writer, independent curator, author and presenter from London, who uses the sum of these many efforts to showcase diverse perspectives, global art and increasing public understanding of enjoyment of art; its histories and its contemporaries. In between preparing for curating her first large-scale institutional exhibition, Aindrea writes extensively for various publications including the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Vanity Fair, BBC and The Independent and is attached to a few upcoming television projects. Aindrea is currently writing two books: A Little History of Protest Art which will be released by Tate in 2022 and Art Can Change The World: A Manifesto, also released 2022.
Pedro Gil
Pedro Gil is a registered Architect, founder and director of Studio Gil Ltd, an academic, and a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Expert Advisory Group, Architects for Change (AfC), the steering group that advises RIBA on matters relating to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. He combines architectural practice with academia in his role as a Senior Teaching Fellow at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL.
Jack Guinness
Jack Guinness is a Contributing Editor at British GQ magazine and founder of LGBTQ+ history and culture community The Queer Bible. The Queer Bible book will be published in June with contributions from Lady Phyll, Munroe Bergdorf, Mae Martin, Elton John, Graham Norton, Tan France and many more. Each essay is accompanied by an original illustration. The podcast is coming later this year with guests including Sir Ian McKellen, Russell T Davies, and Paris Lees. Jack is passionate about sharing marginalised narratives and stories and amplifying the diverse voices in our community.
Gillian Jackson
Gillian Jackson is Director of Engagement at homeless charity, members club and heritage site House of St Barnabas. She is also a member of numerous advisory boards including Culture 24, Nonsuch Theatre, Lambeth Youth Violence Forum and Brixton Design Trail. She has always had a passion for arts and culture, having started cultivating festivals and exhibitions since she was a teenager, and has a professional and personal interest in social justice, social mobility and community engagement.
Reverend Professor Keith Magee
Keith Magee, trained as an economist and in theology, is a public intellectual and social justice scholar. He is Senior Fellow in Culture and Justice at the University College London where he is the principal investigator for Black Britain and Beyond. He is Chair and Professor of Social Justice at Newcastle University.
Lynette Nabbosa
Lynette Nabbosa is a Business Academic and Founder of a community organisation called Elimu, which supports Black youth with education, careers and financial literacy. After working as a Senior Lecturer in Business Management, Lynette developed an entrepreneurial learning model which aims to reduce the amount of young people not in education, employment or training. She is currently studying for her Doctorate, through which she is evaluating the outcomes of this model.
Sandy Nairne CBE
Sandy Nairne is a writer and curator. He was Director of the National Portrait Gallery for twelve years, and previously worked at Tate and at the Arts Council. He is Chair of the Fabric Advisory Committee at St Paul's Cathedral and currently serves on a number of boards and committees.
Eleanor Pinfield
Since 2014, Eleanor has been Head of Art on the Underground, bringing world-class art to millions of people every day. Under her leadership, Art on the Underground has programmed ambitious work in highly varied public contexts, challenging what public art can be, from rapid response commissions to permanent artworks. Eleanor is a member of the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, sits on the Pitzhanger Gallery Exhibitions Committee and was a member of the Crossrail Art Programme Advisory Group.
Jasvir Singh OBE
Jasvir has been a prolific community activist over the last two decades, working primarily in empowering and lobbying for minorities in the UK. He’s a family law barrister and a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day. He’s a trustee and patron of several regional and national charities, and he is the Co-Founder of South Asian Heritage Month, an annual national awareness month which celebrates and commemorates South Asian arts, culture, history and identity.
Binki Taylor
Binki Taylor is a partner in the Brixton Project, a participatory place-making organisation who seek to build resilience and ownership at the heart of community – using the public realm as a creative canvas to express identity, spirit, culture and heritage in ways that are relevant and authentic.
Zoe Whitley
Dr. Zoé Whitley is, since March 2020, director of Chisenhale Gallery, a leading non-profit space in London's East End which produces and commissions new works of art with emerging British and international artists. In 2020, Zoé curated Frieze London's special themed section, Possessions, exploring spirituality and contemporary art, and co-curated Elijah Pierce's America at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. Previous exhibitions to her credit include Cathy Wilkes’ British Pavilion presentation at the Venice Biennale in 2019 and co-curating the award-winning Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power.