Join Us as Chair of Golden Thread Gallery
Golden Thread Gallery is seeking an inspirational and strategic Chair to lead our Board of Trustees and champion our vision to the world. In this vital governance role, you will hold ultimate responsibility for directing the charity’s affairs, ensuring financial solvency, robust governance, and the impactful delivery of our public benefit outcomes.
We are looking for a visionary leader with senior-level stakeholder engagement and advocacy skills who can leverage their networks to extend our reach. Working closely with the Board and Senior Management Team, you will act as a powerful ambassador for the gallery, maintaining our relationships with key stakeholders the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council, driving long-term financial sustainability, and strengthening our fundraising efforts to secure our future growth.
Our Board and Chair are all voluntary, unpaid roles.
About the Gallery
GTG plays a unique and vital role in the visual arts ecosystem for the city. We offer a programme comparable to our national competitors, but we also act as a learning hub. We work with artists and arts professionals here to develop opportunities and careers and help put Belfast on the map. Traditionally, Belfast has been a city of artist-run galleries, but GTG is very much audience-led, with a co-creation ethos. We strive to create a programme that is artistically robust, but that offers multiple points of engagement and participation for non-art audiences. Our new Chair must be passionate about the power of art to inspire, provoke, create space, build community cohesion, and enhance health and wellbeing.
The gallery has adopted the Capability Brown inspired idea of a 100-year plan and legacy. Big changes do not happen overnight. The outcomes that we want to achieve will roll out over many years and the ripple effects of these will be felt in decades to come. While funding cycles are only ever one, two or three years, we know that it takes longer than that to make significant change. We instead embed working towards our outcomes into being part of who we are.
The gallery has big plans for the future, and we are looking forward to working with our new Chairperson to lead us into even greater impact and success in our new era.
Application Process
Please download the full Application Pack here: GTG Chair of the Board application pack
To apply for the position of Chairperson you must submit a CV and letter of application, along with referees and a statement of eligibility. When completing your letter of application, you should effectively demonstrate your ability to meet each criterion. Please describe, by means of examples, tasks and action that you have undertaken that are relevant to each of the criteria. Please note – we will rely on only the information you provide on your application to assess whether you have the experience required at the appropriate level.
Completed applications must be received by Golden Thread Gallery no later than 12 noon, Friday 21 August 2026.
Interviews are anticipated to be on 16th, 17th, 18th September.
We may use this recruitment process to compile a reserve list of suitable candidates for Board members which may arise in the next 12 months.
Golden Thread Gallery is committed to interview all persons with a disability who meet the essential criteria and all reasonable adjustments will be made to assist in completing the letter of application, attending an interview, or any reasonable adjustments that would need to be made to the role or working environment if your application is successful.
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