John Tusa

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John Tusa
Tusa in 2010
Born (1936-03-02) 2 March 1936 (age 88)

Sir John Tusa (born 2 March 1936) is a British arts administrator, and radio and television journalist. He is co-chairman of the

Barbican Arts Centre
.

Early life

Born in

its factory in East Tilbury, Essex. Two days before the German occupation of Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939, Tusa senior flew out of Czechoslovakia on a Bata company plane, via Poland, Yugoslavia and France. He then became general manager of the Bata factory and its associated village in East Tilbury, living in the nearby village of Horndon-on-the-Hill where his son grew up.[2]

Tusa junior was educated at St Faith's School, Cambridge, Gresham's School, Holt, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained a first class degree in History.[3]

Career

In 1960, Tusa joined the

Hong Kong handover
on 30 June 1997.

From 1995 until 2007, he was managing director of the

Clore Leadership Programme. In February 2010 he became honorary chairman of theartsdesk.com. In 2014, he became co-chairman of the European Union Youth Orchestra
.

Since leaving his BBC World Service post in 1993, Tusa has been critical of some BBC policies. He deprecated the focus and management style of (former) director general

John Birt and has been vociferous about subsequent decisions to pare down World Service activities in Europe, including the Czech section.[4]

From 2000 until 2005, Tusa interviewed 55 major figures in the arts for BBC Radio 3. From October 2009, until the end of the year, Tusa presented a 91-part series on BBC Radio 4. Day By Day used original archive news material to track events on a daily basis from 1989, including the fall of the Berlin Wall.

John Tusa's Engaged with the Arts: Writings from the Frontline was published in 2007.[5] It explores ways that the arts can be encouraged within a cultural and political climate in which funding is constantly under threat. He wrote two books jointly with his historian wife Ann Tusa: The Nuremberg Trial (1983) and The Berlin Blockade (1988).[6] His writings on the arts include Art Matters, On Creativity, and The Janus Aspect: Artists in the C20. Tusa married Ann Hilary Dowson in 1960; she died in November 2021. The couple had two sons.[6]

Honours

  • Tusa received an honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1993[7]
  • Tusa was awarded a knighthood in the Queen's birthday honours list in June 2003.
  • Tusa was awarded an Honorary Silver Medal of Jan Masaryk in September 2018.[8][9]

Books

Co-author – with Ann Tusa:

  • The Nuremberg Trial; Macmillan 1983
  • The Berlin Blockade; Hodder and Stoughton 1988.

References

  1. ^ Bata (shoe) company history website which includes biographical paragraph on Tusa whose father was a senior Bata employee
  2. ^ Lecture by John Tusa Archived 8 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "John Tusa". BBC News. 29 January 2004.
  4. ^ "Czech Business Weekly". Archived from the original on 25 November 2005. Retrieved 6 March 2006.
  5. ISBN 978-1-84511-424-4
  6. ^ a b "Ann Tusa obituary". The Times. 23 November 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  7. ^ "Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh: Honorary Graduates". www1.hw.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  8. ^ "Resumes of recipients of the Silver Medal of Jan Masaryk" (PDF).
  9. ^ "Stříbrná medaile Jana Masaryka".
Media offices
Preceded by
Austen Kark
1985–1986
 Director of External Broadcasting, BBC
1986–1993 		Succeeded by
Sam Younger
1993–1998
Academic offices
Preceded by
Sir David Williams
 President of Wolfson College, Cambridge
January—October 1993 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chairman of the University of the Arts London
2007–2013 		Succeeded by
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