Abid Hussain is Director, Diversity at Arts Council England, the national development agency for arts and culture leading the organisation’s work on Equality, Inclusion and the Creative Case for Diversity. He is an alumnus of both the U.S International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) and the Salzburg Global Seminar responding to themes of art and social change, migration, displaced artists and conflict transformation.

Hussain has led on the development of the Arts Council’s strategic equality and diversity framework since 2014 which included the development and launch of the transformative Elevate and Change Makers programmes which have made a significant contribution to diversifying the arts and cultural landscape in England.

He is involved in the strategic delivery of the Unlimited programme which provides a platform for showcasing the best in disability and D/deaf arts and has commissioned a series of research and toolkits to address the under representation of disabled people and those from different socio economic backgrounds working in the arts and cultural sector.

He has extensive experience of working with cultural institutions, academia, government and third sector agencies across North America, Europe, Asia, South Africa and Australasia and is a contributing author to a number of academic texts and journals on equality, diversity and inclusion.