Talk:David Jubb

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Request to update outdated biography – COI disclosure

Hello. I am David Jubb, the subject of this article, so I have a conflict of interest and would appreciate an uninvolved editor reviewing these proposed changes.

The article is significantly out of date. In particular, the lead currently describes me as the "current" Artistic Director and CEO of Battersea Arts Centre. I left BAC in 2019 and was succeeded by Tarek Iskander.

I have drafted a revised version which corrects that information and updates the article to cover my work at BAC and my subsequent work with the Sortition Foundation and Citizens In Power. I have relied on independent or authoritative published sources rather than my own publications or websites.

At minimum, I would be grateful if the inaccurate current-role information in the lead could be corrected. I am also happy for editors to shorten, rephrase or omit material from the larger proposed update where appropriate for neutrality; though I have sought to adopt a neutral tone drawn from the published source material of journalists and other authoritative reports.

Proposed replacement text:

David Jubb (born 1969) is a British theatre producer and cultural leader. He was Artistic Director and CEO of Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) from 2004 to 2019. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Djtj2026 (talk • contribs)

Comment: I've changed the edit request template to the {{Edit COI}} template to reflect your conflict of interest. I am bad at usernames (talk · contribs) 06:53, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

Early life and career

Jubb was born in 1969 and was educated at Bedford Modern School, Bretton Hall College, the University of Bristol and the Central School of Speech and Drama.

He was Director of the Lion & Unicorn Theatre at the Central School of Speech and Drama from 1998 to 1999 and joined Battersea Arts Centre as Development Producer in 1999. Working with artistic director Tom Morris, he was involved in developing BAC's Scratch programme, in which artists present work in development and use feedback to shape subsequent versions.

From 2001 to 2004 Jubb was Director of Your Imagination, producing independent artists including Ridiculusmus, Kazuko Hohki and Toby Jones.

Battersea Arts Centre

Jubb became Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Battersea Arts Centre in 2004. From 2008 to 2012 he shared the artistic directorship with David Micklem. He announced his departure in 2018 and left in 2019 after 15 years as artistic director. He was succeeded as Artistic Director and Chief Executive by Tarek Iskander.

Scratch and artistic development

Scratch became a central methodology at BAC during Jubb's leadership. Work was shared at an early stage with audiences and then developed through successive iterations. The approach was subsequently applied beyond individual productions to organisational development and the redevelopment of BAC's building.

Productions developed or produced at BAC during Jubb's tenure included Punchdrunk's The Masque of the Red Death and Kae Tempest's Brand New Ancients. The latter won the 2013 Ted Hughes Award for innovation in poetry.

BAC also supported the development of the BAC Beatbox Academy, a weekly programme led by hip-hop theatre practitioner Conrad Murray and established in 2008. The Academy subsequently created Frankenstein: How to Make a Monster, a beatbox and hip-hop theatre production devised by its young performers. Reviewing the production in 2018, Susannah Clapp gave it five stars and described it as the centre's latest major creative development. The production later returned to BAC's restored Grand Hall and was adapted for BBC Four.

Arts critic Lyn Gardner later described Jubb's tenure as demonstrating ways in which cultural institutions could distribute resources and opportunities beyond conventional organisational boundaries.

National theatre and touring

BAC developed the Collaborative Touring Network, bringing together venues and organisations in different parts of the UK to develop and tour contemporary performance.

In 2015 BAC and The Guardian launched A Nation's Theatre, a year-long project presenting and discussing theatre made across the UK. The project grew out of BAC's work with independent producers outside London and combined performances at BAC with debates and a series of articles in The Guardian. By 2016 the programme involved 60 companies and around 350 artists working across the UK.

Participation, access and heritage

During Jubb's tenure BAC developed programmes concerned with participation, access and the distribution of cultural decision-making.

The Agency, developed in the UK with Contact and People's Palace Projects from a model originating in Brazil, supported young people to devise and develop projects responding to needs in their communities. Evidence submitted by BAC to a parliamentary inquiry described the programme as shifting participating cultural organisations from a provider model towards working with communities as co-creators.

In 2015 BAC and Wandsworth Museum began a merger which resulted in BAC becoming custodian of Wandsworth's social-history collection of around 11,000 objects and creating the BAC Moving Museum.

BAC also established Creative Museums, an Arts Council England-supported programme in which museums and heritage organisations experimented with Scratch and other approaches to organisational change.

In partnership with the Bush Theatre and Artistic Directors of the Future, BAC established Up Next, a programme intended to broaden representation in artistic leadership. Participants working at BAC included Tarek Iskander, Saad Eddine Said and Lekan Lawal.

BAC also worked with Touretteshero to develop a "Relaxed Venue" approach, extending principles associated with relaxed performances across the venue's wider operations and audience experience.

Television and co-creation

In 2015 BAC worked with BBC Arts and Arts Council England to produce Live From Television Centre, a live BBC Four programme presenting work by independent theatre-makers including Gecko, Common Wealth, Touretteshero and Richard DeDomenici. The Guardian described the broadcast as an experiment demonstrating the potential of combining independent theatre practice with television.

The project was followed by Performance Live, a BBC Arts and Arts Council England partnership with BAC as strand producer, commissioning artists and arts organisations to create work for television. The series included work by Kae Tempest, Akala, Touretteshero, Hofesh Shechter, Slung Low, Tamasha and other artists and companies. Jubb was credited as an executive producer on the first programme in the strand, featuring Kae Tempest.

In the later part of Jubb's tenure BAC also established Co-Creating Change, a national network for organisations developing approaches to co-creation and socially engaged practice. The programme was supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and continued after Jubb left BAC.

Battersea Town Hall redevelopment and 2015 fire

During Jubb's leadership BAC undertook a long-term restoration and redevelopment of the Grade II*-listed former Battersea Town Hall with architects Haworth Tompkins. Historic England has described the asset transfer arrangements as enabling the major redevelopment of the heritage building. The architectural process drew on BAC's Scratch methodology, with spaces tested through artistic use before permanent interventions were made.

On 13 March 2015 a major fire destroyed much of BAC's Grand Hall. Performances resumed in the undamaged front of the building the following evening, and Jubb continued to lead BAC through the subsequent rebuilding and restoration.

The restored Grand Hall retained visible traces of the fire as part of Haworth Tompkins' design and reopened in 2018.

The redevelopment received a RIBA National Award and RIBA London Client of the Year Award in 2019, and Battersea Arts Centre was named Theatre Building of the Year at The Stage Awards.

Work after Battersea Arts Centre

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jubb created and presented Culture Plan B, a podcast series focusing on independent artists and communities and discussing how arts funding and cultural institutions might change. Reviewing the podcast in The Observer, Susannah Clapp described it as a "combative look at the arts" and highlighted Jubb's interview with BAC Beatbox Academy director Conrad Murray.

Citizen-led decision-making

In 2020 Jubb became a director of the Sortition Foundation, an organisation which promotes the use of randomly selected, demographically representative groups in public decision-making.

He later co-founded Citizens In Power with Saad Eddine Said. The organisation develops citizen-led forms of cultural and civic decision-making, including citizens' assemblies, citizens' juries and other forms of participatory governance.

In the West of England, Citizens In Power worked with Trinity Community Arts and St Paul's Carnival on Citizens for Culture, a regional citizens' assembly concerned with cultural policy. Randomly selected residents participated in the assembly, which produced a cultural plan for the region. More than half of the members chose to continue as a Citizens for Culture panel participating in implementation.

The panel was given £100,000 by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to pilot ideas and test approaches emerging from the citizens' cultural plan.

Citizens In Power has also developed a national network for organisations experimenting with citizen-led decision-making in culture, and has worked with cultural organisations and communities in several parts of England.

Other roles and recognition

Jubb was Chair of Kneehigh Theatre from 2008 to 2013 and inaugural Chair of the London Theatre Consortium. He was a member of the inaugural Advisory Council of the Creative Industries Federation, later incorporated into Creative UK, and participated in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's inquiry into the civic role of arts organisations. He was also a member of Arts Council England's external reference group for its ten-year strategy.

In 2019 Jubb received the Off West End Awards' Special Achievement Award for his role in reopening Battersea Arts Centre's Grand Hall after the 2015 fire.

He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Roehampton.