The Barbican’s arts director leaves months after revealing the centre’s creative vision Barbican

Deviani Saltzman will leave the Barbican as the arts organization undergoes another significant change in leadership just weeks after its new chief executive comes on board.

The sudden departure of Saltzman, who became director of arts and engagement at the Barbican in February 2024, comes months after she unveiled a five-year creative vision for the venue.

Saltzman was recently named one of the 40 most influential women working in the arts in the UK, and has been described as “the driving force behind the organisation”.

The Barbican declined to confirm the exit, with a spokesman telling the Guardian that it “will not be able to comment on matters relating to individual employment”.

It is unclear when Saltzman will leave the organization and there are no plans to replace her.

The departure will leave a void at the top of the Barbican. Saltzman’s role has included organizing the center’s arts program and community engagement, and in the past 18 months she has become a public face for the center, offering her vision in several interviews.

She was frank about the need for London’s cultural institutions to have leadership that reflects the diversity of the city in which she lives. In 2024, she said, “We are actually in a new wave of next-generation leadership that will hopefully change the paradigm.”

The organization has undergone several changes over the past five years. In 2021, Nicholas Kenyon resigned after 14 years as managing director after staff told The Guardian that the Barbican Hotel was “institutionally racist”. He was followed by former BBC arts correspondent Will Gompertz, who left to join Sir John Soane’s Museum after only two years in the role.

Saltzman was one of seven senior leaders appointed after Barbican replaced the managing director model. They all report to CEO, Abigail Pogson, who started last month.

Saltzman joined during a row caused by the Barbican’s retraction from hosting a lecture by Pankaj Mishra on the Holocaust and allegations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The decision led to several artists withdrawing their works from exhibition at the venue.

One of her first acts was to talk to Mishra, and she was seen as a figure who helped repair trust between the organization and sections of the artistic community.

Pogson, who joins from the Glasshouse International Music Center in Gateshead, is overseeing the first major refurbishment in the venue’s history, including closing the theatre, music and exhibition venue for 12 months. From June 2028. The first phase of the project will cost £231 million and the total bill is estimated at £451 million.

Opened in 1982, the Barbican Arts Center is a unique cultural institution. The center’s cultural offering was originally designed primarily for 4,000 residents in apartments built around the site. Today, more than 1.5 million people visit it annually, making it one of the most popular cultural attractions in the UK.