David Gelsthorpe
In April 2025 The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust announced its interim chief executive would serve in the role permanently. Rachael North reflects on the first year in the role.
“…What’s past is prologue*.”
Being asked to write about the first year in a role always triggers a sense of angst: have I achieved enough?
I worked at The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust as Director of Museums for just over four years before taking on the role of Interim CEO. During this period, the Trust’s finances came under real pressure. I was aware of the difficult choices a permanent CEO was likely to face but I was absolutely determined to be the one to face them.
Twelve months on, despite the challenges, my enthusiasm for the job and belief in the transformative role of museums has only increased.
For many cultural leaders, the last year has been a rocky ride. The impact of macro- economic factors has left many organisations facing rising costs which continue to outpace income.
I knew there was a way to reignite and reimagine our role as a globally connected museum with an extraordinary collection of over one million objects and five Shakespeare family homes, but first we would need to undertake a significant strategic review.
Completing the review has enabled us to stabilise our financial position, but these are always difficult processes. It’s impossible to over-estimate the impact on colleagues.
Nine months on, we’re working more closely together as a Trust-wide team to plan for the future and imagine new ways to ensure our historic properties and collections are vibrant and accessible for our audiences.
Our focus on performance is also paying dividends thanks to significant changes to both our marketing and ticketing strategies. The success of Hamnet, both at the box office and critically, has also contributed to an increase in visitor numbers.
The film has inspired more people to walk in Anne (or Agnes), William and Hamnet’s footsteps to experience first-hand the love and loss that is at the heart of the Hamnet story. Storytelling and drawing our visitors into experiences which connect them with Shakespeare’s stories underpins our new creative vision.
As readers may have noticed, our new direction has led to the appointment of our first ever Creative Director. Currently Heritage and Engagement Director at Leeds Castle in Kent, Dr Dominique Bouchard will join us in June.
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust appoints first creative director
Storytelling and drawing our visitors into experiences which connect them with Shakespeare’s stories underpins our new creative vision.
We’re entering our most exciting period of the year starting with Shakespeare Week. Over the years this national celebration has touched the lives of over twelve million primary school aged children and their teachers, gifting them a confidence and love of language.
At the end of this month, our Board of Trustees meets to finalise the Trust’s new creative strategy. Our new creative vision and strategy is centered around the Trust’s instrumental role in collaborating with partners in our town and beyond to build a world more curious, creative and connected through Shakespeare.
Shakespeare is absolutely the beating heart of all we do. We’re also leaning into our sense of home. The story of Shakespeare in Stratford speaks to something creative in all of us; it’s a place of inspiration and shared history. We’re keen to play a more active role in the local community, including through our CV37 scheme which offers free entry for local residents to all the Shakespeare family homes.
The contribution we make to our town and indeed our region, culturally and economically, is substantial but we need to work harder to evidence our impact. We have commissioned an in-depth study, alongside our local council, into the broader role of heritage. We must make the case for the tangible and intangible value of heritage and the importance of caring for and conserving the remarkable buildings that help shape the way we think and feel about our places.
One such example is Hall’s Croft, the Jacobean home of Susanna Shakespeare and Dr John Hall. The Trust needs to raise £10 million to conserve and reopen the building to the public.
When you step inside Hall’s Croft, you don’t just sense history – you feel it. Time, weather and other structural pressures – not least an unfortunate incident with a car backing into the front elevation last year – have taken their toll. Without urgent conservation, the building faces escalating risk – and with it, the loss of an irreplaceable piece of our local but also our national story.
Signing off a new creative strategy for the Trust feels an entirely appropriate way to round off my first year as CEO and making the case even more powerfully to funders about what we can do next will form the main plot line for my second.
(* Antonio; The Tempest, Act 2, Scene I; William Shakespeare)
David Gelsthorpe: My First Year as Chief Executive of Collections Trust
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