Chairs Past and Present

Current Chair

Philip Holyman 2022 - Present

Phil is a Black Country-raised and now Birmingham-based writer, who has been a Feeney Trustee since 2017. He is currently redrafting his first novel, Ballardville.

He is also the Co-Director of Little Earthquake, a theatre company that he has run with Gareth Nicholls since 2005.

Little Earthquake is an Associate Company at Midlands Arts Centre, where recent work includes The Dog With Two Dads, an LGBTQ+ affirmative show for families commissioned for MAC’s 60th anniversary season, and Rocket Fuel, an immersive dining experience based on Neil Armstrong’s in-flight menu, created with Kaye Winwood as part of MoonFest, Little Earthquake’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.

Since 2012, he has been a book in the living library for Mette Edvardsen’s Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine, trying to commit J G Ballard’s Crash to memory and reciting for readers in Birmingham, London, Brussels, Oslo and Helsinki (so far).

Retired Chairpeople

J R Holliday (1907 - 1927)
JR Holliday was an active and generous member of the Art Gallery committee for many years, and is largely responsible for the large collection of works by David Cox, and Burrne-Jones. In 1903 he, with friends on the Committee, presented the Gallery with 260 drawings by Rossetti, and 226 by Burne Jones. Later in 1906 he and friends added a collection of 300 drawings by Millais, Madox Brown, and Sandys, and in 1907 they presented 105 drawings by David Cox.

John Henry Lloyd (1927 - 1944)
Director, Stewarts & Lloyds, JP, Member Birmingham Town Council, Lord Mayor 1901, Alderman, Pro-Vice Chancellor University of Birmingham, Chairman General Hospital.

George Bryson (1944 - 1945)
Proprietor Geo. Bryson & Son, JP, Chairman Birmingham Blue Coat School, Holder of various Church of England appointments – Birmingham Diocesan and Central Boards of Finance, Member of Church Assembly.

Tom Hamilton Baynes OBE (1945 - 1970)
Chartered Accountant, Partner Chalmers Impey & Co, JP, Chairman Birmingham Justices 1964-69, Life Governor University of Birmingham, Chairman of Council Malvern Girls College.

Stephen Lloyd (1970 - 1990)
Director, Guest, Keen & Nettlefold, Member Birmingham City Council, Alderman, Chairman CBSO Management Committee, Chairman Birmingham Diocesan Board of Finance, Vice President Queen’s College, Birmingham.

Pat Welch (1990 - 2005)
Director, Welconstruct Co, Methodist Local Preacher, Vice President Methodist Conference 1979-80, High Sheriff West Midlands 1987-88, Vice Chairman Selly Oak Colleges, Vice President Queen’s College, Birmingham.

James Lloyd MBE (2005 - 2010)
Chartered Accountant, Director Hoskins & Horton, National Officer The British Red Cross Society, Governor The Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, Trustee and Bailiff Lench’s Trust, Trustee several other Birmingham and local charities.

John Richard Lloyd Smith (2010 - 2013)
Managing Director of Walter Smith butcher for most of working life. Still has a Pedigree Limousin Herd and the award winning Chase Farm shop in Sutton. Mac Board Member and ex Chair, ex BBC Regional Advisory Chair. Lifetime love of sociology, alto flute player, keen salmon and trout fisherman, enjoys the arts.

Charles Roderick King-Farlow (2013 - 2016)
Charles was for over 30 years a partner of Pinsents. His company law clients included John Feeney’s newspaper, the Birmingham Post. A member of the Council of the CBSO (1970s) and on the 1978 selection committee who chose Simon Rattle. Trustee of the Art Gallery's 1970 appeals for the Cornbury Park Bellini and Warwick Canalettos. Member of the Committee of the Friends of the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (1970s and 1980s), Midlands Arts Centre chair (1985-89).  Board member Birmingham Opera Company (1987-2010).  Trustee of City of Birmingham Orchestral Endowment Fund for some 30 years and in 2000 a trustee of the appeal for the Symphony Hall organ. Chair of the Clent Hills Advisory Committee for the National Trust (2000-09).  Retirement occupations include skiing, walking, fly-fishing and piano lessons.

Sally Katrina Luton (2016 – 2019 )
Sally Luton moved to Birmingham in 1986 to join West Midlands Arts, where she became Chief Executive and, following a restructuring of the arts funding system, Executive Director of Arts Council West Midlands until 2010.  She served on the Boards of Birmingham City University, Maverick Television and Watershed. Current Directorships include Creative Advantage Fund, a venture capital fund supporting the creative industries; c & t, a theatre in education company that works internationally through the creative application of digital technologies; and The Elmley Foundation, a grant-giving Trust supporting the arts in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Retirement interests include learning to play the guitar and gardening.

Kate Organ (2019 - 2022 )
Kate has worked in the public cultural and charitable sector all her career, initially as an actor and director in theatre, arts in education and community arts and then as a programmer of theatre, dance and literature. As a member of the arts funding system, from 1996 - 2003, she was Drama Officer and Director of Performing and Combined Arts at West Midlands Arts/Arts Council England.

She has worked as a freelance consultant for many arts and charitable organisations, including a decade as Arts Adviser to the Baring Foundation. She currently sits on the Advisory Council of the Churchill Fellowship Trust and is herself a Churchill Fellow, having researched the role of the Arts in Japan and in particular in an ageing society. She is a practising coach and facilitator.

John Alexander Inglis (Executor of John Feeney’s Will dated 22 June 1903)

Richard Bernard Peyton (Executor of John Feeney’s Will dated 22 June 1903)

John Robert Smyth (Executor of John Feeney’s Will dated 22 June 1903)

Christina Elizabeth Feeney (18 April 1907 - deceased 12 June 1928)

Peregrine Mulvogue Feeney (18 April 1907 - deceased 24 June 1913)

Sir Thomas Frederick Chavasse (18 April 1907 - deceased 17 February 1913)

Charles Wriothesly Digby (18 April 1907 - deceased 9 February 1908)

James Richardson Holliday (18 April 1907 - deceased 22 July 1927)

George Hookham (18 April 1907 - retired 20 September 1923)

Washington Van Wart Kell (18 April 1907 - deceased 26 December 1927)

George Hamilton Kenrick (18 April 1907 - deceased 28 May 1939)

John Henry Lloyd (18 April 1907 - deceased. 18 January 1944

John Throgmorton Middlemore (18 April 1907 - deceased 24 June 1924)

Frederick Sydney Robinson (18 April 1907 - deceased 15 March 1928)

Hugh Arthur Nins Smith (18 April 1907 - retired 9 May 1929)

Arthur Neville Chamberlain 20 September 1923 - deceased 8 November 1940)

William Adlington Cadbury (20 September 1923 - retired 10 December 1946)

George Alexander Bryson (20 September 1923 - deceased 1 July 45)

Dory Emily Mary (Walker 9 May 1929 - retired 10 December 1946)

Edwin Francis Reynolds (9 May 1929 - deceased 118 January 1948)

Edith Madge Barling (9 May 1929 - retired 8 May 1952)

Henry Basil Darby (9 May 1929 - deceased 8 February 1961)

Thomas Austin Hamilton Baynes (13 August 1941 - retired 27 April 1972)

Stephen James Lloyd (13 August 1941 - retired 14 December 1990) 

Eric Lawrence Rabone (28 August 1943 - retired 29 December 1955)

Rachel Estelle Albright Giles (10 December 1946 - retired 10 May 1951)

Stansfield Thomas Walker (10 December 1946 - retired 31 December 1986)

John Cadbury (10 December 1946 - 18 June 1985)

Anthony Langdale Wilson (9 May 1957 - deceased 24 October 1970)

Hugh Kenrick (9 May 1957 - deceased 30 September 2001)

Adrian Benjamin Barman (2 September 1963 - 31 December 1986) 

Eric Edward Mole (2 September 1963 - 14 December 1990)

Maisie Kathleen Smith (27 April 1972 - 16 May 2002) 

Ralph Samuel Osborn Stevens (27 April 1972 - 16 May 2002) 

Charles Roderick King-Farlow ( 27 April 1972 - retired 24 May 2016)

Alan Douglas Vernon Hickman (31 December 1986 - 14 December 1990)

Derek Montague Percy Lea (31 December 1986 - 20 June 2012) 

Jeremy John Martineau (31 December 1986 - 21 November 1996)) 

Merryn Ford LLoyd (14 December 1990 - 15 May 2020) 

Norma Treasure Garwood (21 November 1996 - 16 May 2002) 

Hugh Bampfield Carslake (21 November 1996 - 12th May 2023) 

Susan Rosalind Wright (16th May 2002 - 20 June 2012)

Michael Sorton Darby (16th May 2002 - 22 May 2014) 

William James Edward Southall (7th January 2010 - 21 May 2019)

Anouk Perinpanayagram (7th January 2010 - 21 May 2019) 

Sally Katrin Luton (23 May 2012 - 12th May 2023) 

Andrew Michael Spittle (21 May 2015 - 12th May 2023)