Rigged system': how Oxbridge and private schools still hold key to arts

Artists, directors and actors have raised the alarm about what they describe as a rigged system preventing working-class talent thriving in their industries after analysis showed almost a third of major arts leaders were privately educated.

- Lanre Bakare Raphael Boyd Nadia Khomami

The creator of Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight, the director Shane Meadows and the Turner prize winner Jesse Darling were among those who spoke out about what was described as a crisis facing the sector.

A Guardian survey of the 50 organisations that receive the most Arts Council funding revealed a disproportionate number of leadership roles were occupied by people who were privately educated and by Oxford or Cambridge graduates.

Almost a third (30%) of artistic directors and other creative leaders were privately educated compared with a national average of 7%.

More than a third (36%) of the organisations' CEOs or other executive directors went to private schools.

The analysis also found 17.5% of artistic directors and more than a quarter (26%) of chief executives went to Oxford or Cambridge, compared with less than 1% of the public.

Andy Haldane, the chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, said he was "shocked by that finding but not especially surprised".

Haldane, a former chief economist at the Bank of England, said: "As one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy, the creative industries will need to do a much better job of nurturing socioeconomic mobility to realise their potential."

The Guardian was able to find information for 76 leadership roles at 49 of the 50 organisations.

Research by the Sutton Trust last year highlighted a stark over-representation in the arts for those from the most affluent backgrounds, which it defined as those from "upper middle-class backgrounds".