Professor the Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey OBE

Baroness Young is a freelance Arts and Heritage Consultant.

Current projects undertaken include:

• Strategic planning for the Arts Council England
• Heritage Lottery Fund – resource guide for the commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade
• Advisor on diversity to the Museum of London

Baroness Young’s career as an academic has been notable for her rapid rise from lecturer to professor, and for the extent of peer recognition of her achievements. She has published over 25 articles and essays, encompassing academic literature and articles in national newspapers. During her time at Middlesex University, she was seconded to work as Project Director at the Archives and Museum of Black Heritage, a Heritage Lottery Funded Initiative. She has also made numerous other contributions to books and at conferences. She has been a member of several Quality Assurance Agency subject reviews as a specialist assessor, and was a member of a Research Assessment Exercise Panel.

Prior to her academic career Professor Young was an actor, performing in various repertory theatres and appearing in numerous television programmes. She subsequently moved into arts development, promoting black arts and culture, advising the Arts Council on numerous occasions on cultural diversity issues. She has also advised the BBC on diversity and representation on and off screen. Her book, Fear of the Dark: Race, Gender and Sexuality in Cinema was published in 1995.

As Head of Culture at the Greater London Authority from 2001- 2004, she developed a number of strategic initiatives alongside the Mayor of London, building relationships with external agencies in order to deliver a range of programmes to enhance culture in London.

After working at the Greater London Authority she worked with METAL as an associate consultant. METAL is a centre for all practitioners of the arts where artistic experimentation and research take place.

Public appointments and committee responsibilities include membership of English Heritage’s Blue Plaques Committee, membership of the board of the Royal National Theatre, the South Bank Centre, and the board of Governors of Middlesex University. She was formerly Chair of the Arts Council’s Cultural Diversity Panel, and has been on the board of Resource, the Council of Museums, Archives and Libraries, and a commissioner on the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. She has chaired the judging panel of the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Lola Young was awarded an OBE in 2001 and appointed a life peer in the House of Lords in 2004.

Source: http://www.womenspeakers.co.uk/