Dr Fiona Butcher was appointed as Chair of the Board at the AGM on 11 November 2023.
Fiona is the General Counsel and Company Secretary of Trinity College London, an international awarding organisation and educational charity. Before moving in-house, she worked in the fields of EU and competition law, regulation and compliance at a magic circle firm and at three regulators, including as the Legal Director of Ofwat. She holds law degrees from Oxford and Cambridge universities. She is also a Trustee of Royal Museums Greenwich.
Fiona writes:
I am honoured and delighted to be appointed as the new Chair of the Board of this organisation with a rich and intriguing history and an important contemporary purpose of championing the folk arts in England’s diverse cultural landscape.
I am conscious that I join at a time of challenge for the Society. Everyone is experiencing ever-increasing financial pressures, and for us these are exacerbated by the recent cut in ACE funding. The Board is already looking at ways to diversify income and shore up the Society’s long-term viability, and I am keen to support it in that process.
The passionate and conflicting responses to the name-change proposal have also been shared with me. Over time and drawing on my background as a charity lawyer, I will also be keen to support a review of the Society’s governance structure and name, to see if there are ways in which they can be simplified or made more accessible whilst respecting the historic charitable purpose. I think such change is likely to be important to maintaining the Society’s resilience and relevance, facilitating its continuance as a ‘modern heritage’ organisation with a national reach – but remaining true to its core remit.
In my life, I have encountered the folk arts mainly through the visual arts and literature rather than through dance, music and song. Clearly, this is something I must now put right! I am looking forward to deepening my understanding of the communally enjoyed, activity-led folk arts in their many and varied forms, both ancient and current. I hope to meet as many members and stake-holders as possible as I do so, and will be very grateful for your advice and support.
