New jobs will be based in Colombia, Turkey, Bangladesh, Egypt, South Africa and France/Romania.

UK cultural relations organisation The British Council is creating six new posts for its arts teams based overseas. The new jobs will serve:

  • The Americas (based in Colombia)
  • Wider Europe (non EU countries, plus Russia and Israel based in Turkey)
  • Wider South Asia (based in Bangladesh)
  • Middle East and North Africa (based in Egypt)
  • Sub Saharan Africa (based in South Africa)
  • EU Europe (job shared between France and Romania)

The British Council said the new jobs will allow expansion of its work promoting UK arts to a global audience (despite the organisation’s overall drop in funding).

The Council already has similar posts in:

  • East Asia (based in Vietnam)
  • China (based in Beijing)
  • India (based in New Delhi)

The new appointments follow the appointment of Graham Sheffield [pictured] as new Director Arts in May 2011. He said: “The British Council’s work across the Arts, English language, education and society contributes to a better understand of the UK around the world. Despite the reduction in our funding I am proud that our cultural and educational programmes are reaching even more people around the world, increasingly with a range of superb British and overseas partners. International collaborations with institutions and artists bring British creativity to the attention of huge audiences and unlock creative and commercial opportunities. These initiatives will provide our arts team with even more strength and depth and we are retaining our strong art form expertise in the UK to ensure that we can continue to work with the sector effectively.”

Separately, as previously reported, the British Council has appointed Briony Hanson as new Director Film.

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