Ferry van Dijk has over 17 years of cultural governance experience at three London-based arts organisations.

His special interests are social impact, capital projects and governance structures.

Maya Productions

Ferry recently joined the board of Maya Productions, an organisation founded in 1994 by Sita Ramamurthy and Christopher Preston to develop and produce scripted new drama reflecting cultural diversity. It makes diverse theatre to create change and brings together organisations and individuals who passionately want their work to enable social change and racial justice in the arts. Its aims are:

Maya Production’s latest project in development is Súper Chefs by Betsy Picart. Join Manny and his familia as they cook, sing, and dance – and share the secret ingredient to having superpowers! This new interactive family musical aimed at children 3-6 invites the audience to explore food, family, and gender roles with a Latin American family in London. See taster:

Forma Arts

Forma Arts is a contemporary art commissioning agency and production company based in London and is part of the Art Council England (ACE)’s National Portfolio since its inception in 2002.

FVD Consulting and its founder Ferry van Dijk were involved with Forma Arts over a seven-year period since 2014.

From 2014-2019 Ferry was the Chair of the Board of Trustees and in 2016 and 2018 he had to rebuild the organisation and hire a new senior team because of the sudden departures of the Artistic Director on both occasions. In these periods he worked extensively with Arts Council England to protect the organisation’s core funding.

In 2019 he was the interim deputy director to assist the then incoming (and current) artistic director in rebuilding the organisation and to develop a new business plan aimed at making the organisation more resilient and less dependent on ACE funding.

This included a successful bid and lease negotiations to operate a new community facing cultural space in Southwark, where FVD Consulting is based, and fundraising for associated capital works (total funds raised ca. £500,000). Key again was the focus on existing (this time mostly intangible) assets but also having capitalised on an opportunity to move into a public facing space in Southwark.

Later in 2019 Ferry rejoined the Board as Treasurer from which he resigned in 2021.

Hoxton Hall

Before Form Arts, Ferry chaired the Board of Trustees of Hoxton Hall, a charity dedicated to inspiring confidence in underprivileged youth through the arts.

In 2004, the charity experienced an existential crisis when 80% of funding was cut and 12 (out of 13) FT staff were made redundant. The then board was micro-managing the organisation which had an uncertain future for several years.

Ferry brought a sense of direction, professionalism and confidence to the organisation and moved the Board towards a more strategic role and made it more diverse (o.a. we invited a young service user representative at Board level). He managed a change process enabling the organization to grow including investing in human capabilities at both Board and executive staff levels.

Through focusing on monetizing its existing assets (creative training of young people, a historic building and ownership of next-door creative workspaces), the organization developed from £150,000 to £1.3 million annual turnover.

It gained a status as a reliable partner to deliver positive and life changing outcomes for underprivileged youth in both Hackney and Islington. Hoxton Hall also acquired £3 millions of external funding (Big Lottery/Heritage Lottery Fund) for essential capital works to the Grade II*-listed building.

In 2009, Ferry was awarded the annual Board Member Award by Arts and Business.

Image Credits

Súper Chefs

Image courtesy of Maya Productions. Photography by tbc.

FormaHQ

Image courtesy Forma Arts & Media. Photograph by Brotherton/Lock.

Hoxton Hall

Kbthompson at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons