From Mexico to Goldsmiths: Rethinking leadership
Primary page content
At a time when the challenges facing cultural institutions are complex and deeply felt, we believe leadership must do more than seek growth for its own sake.
Ten outstanding participants—chosen from over 400 applicants—joined us for a week of reflection, connection, and reimagining leadership for the 21st century.
Shouldn’t leadership be about taking time to reflect, connect, and commit to change that matters?
That belief found expression through a partnership with the British Council, as we welcomed ten cultural changemakers from across Mexico for a week-long residency.
These ten outstanding participants were selected from a competitive pool of over 400 applicants, representing a diverse cross-section of Mexico’s cultural and creative sectors.
What emerged was a shared journey of learning, care, and reimagining what leadership could look like rooted in sustainability, equity, and purpose.
A different model of growth
Hosted by Goldsmiths, the programme focuses not on “grow, grow, grow,” but on building sustainable, responsible practices grounded in community impact.
The visiting leaders—directors, founders, public servants, and artists—came seeking new ways to lead amidst complexity. They left with renewed energy, practical tools, and a deeper understanding of governance, equity, and care.
Participants took in a number of Creative Leadership Programme sessions at Goldsmiths, exploring values-led leadership through shared experience.
As Siân Prime, Academic Lead for Enterprise at Goldsmiths explains:
“At Goldsmiths, we believe creative leadership is about more than strategy and growth—it’s about courage, care and the capacity to lead through complexity."
This programme offers cultural leaders a rare space where they can pause and reimagine what sustainable, values-led leadership can look like in their own communities. We don’t teach a one-size-fits-all model—we co-create an experience rooted in justice, purpose and imagination."
Siân Prime, Academic Lead for Enterprise
The River of Learning
One of the most powerful moments of the residency came on day two, following a session on embodied leadership led by Jenny Sealey, Adrian De La Court with Siân Prime then led exercises which enabled participants to feel and show where they stood on lines of risk, purpose and financial returns.
Allowing participants to show, not speak to these crucial elements brought a new truth to the group. This led to in-depth conversation facilitated by Nicola Turner on how to move this instinctive position to new, healthier sustainable ways of leading.
Participants were then asked to create their own sign name – which led to descriptions of themselves as cenotes, waterfalls, connecters, and other symbols of resilience, renewal and interconnectedness. One wrote:
“What felt like isolated trees are, in fact, part of a larger, connected ecosystem.”
A cenote—a natural freshwater sinkhole—symbolises depth, clarity, renewal, and the hidden currents beneath our conscious minds.
Cenotes, unique to the Yucatán Peninsula, are freshwater sinkholes formed by the collapse of limestone bedrock, revealing hidden pools below. Sacred to the Maya, they represent life, depth, and spiritual connection.
For one participant, the programme was just that—a reflective space beneath the surface of daily life:
“Like a cenote, this week offered stillness and clarity. I found the source again.”
Another reflected:
“I now walk away not only with tools and connections, but with a renewed sense of purpose rooted in love, fairness, and shared imagination.”
This metaphor wasn’t incidental. It mirrored the programme’s deeper values: that true leadership isn’t linear or extractive—it flows, adapts, and nourishes.
Participants in the ‘River of Learning’ embodied their positions on risk, purpose, and values—making the invisible visible through movement and space.
From Fragmentation to Connection
Many participants described the creative sector in Mexico as fragmented—yet full of untapped potential. Over the week, sessions led by Goldsmiths faculty and UK cultural changemakers helped explore inclusive governance models, strategic storytelling, and climate-conscious innovation.
Social justice at the centre
Goldsmiths’ distinctive approach—placing social justice, equity, and accessibility at the heart of leadership—shaped every element of the week. Sessions covered Indigenous leadership, data ethics, decolonial policy, and sustainable cultural practices.
Participants left not only with ideas, but with intention.
A living network
Beyond learning, the programme built a vibrant international network. Participants are already planning collaborations, city visits, and even screenings of each other’s work. This is leadership as ecosystem—not hierarchy.
A Goldsmiths signature
This programme is one of many ways Goldsmiths is rethinking what creative leadership looks like in the 21st century.
Not fast growth—but fair growth. Not rigid plans—but flowing systems. Not command and control—but courage and care.
Participants respond to a creative provocation as part of an embodied leadership exercise at Goldsmiths.
As the global challenges we face grow more complex, we need leaders who can imagine, listen, and lead differently.
That’s the kind of leadership Goldsmiths is proud to cultivate—across borders, sectors, and communities.
Learn more about Goldsmiths' Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE) and its global programmes.
For more information on how we collaborate with, and support businesses and their leaders, go to our Business and Partnerships page.