In our A to Z of the Chiswick House archives, volunteer archivist Cluny Wells has been exploring some of the fascinating history hidden within Chiswick House & Gardens.
Xanthe Arvanitakis, Director of Chiswick House and Gardens Trust since 2020, just had to be the subject of the letter X in our A to Z from the Archives. As someone of Greek parentage she provides a direct link with the Classical world of which Lord Burlington was so enamoured.
The meaning of the word Xanthe in Ancient Greek was the golden yellow of Autumnal trees, and in Greek mythology Xanthe is one of the Oceanids (sea nymphs) a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.
Xanthe’s Early Life: Xanthe’s Greek father left Greece, and after meeting her mother, settled in Central London, moving to leafy Barnes in the early 1970s, soon after Xanthe was born. She was followed by a brother and sister both of whom still live in Central London. The family would spend their Summer holidays visiting their Greek relatives – sounds like an idyllic childhood!
Education: Schooling was in a local primary school and by secondary age was still nearby, just over the bridge in Hammersmith. After school came Manchester University where Xanthe gained a BA In Economics whilst studying a range of subjects from Maths to Anthropology. In fact, one of Xanthe’s Professors was very influential during her time at Manchester through encouraging her to go on an anthropological trip to Ecuador staying for a short time with a community living in the Amazon Rainforest. This led to her pursuing her passion for Anthropology by taking a Masters at SOAS in London.
A Further Inspiration to Xanthe growing up was her mother – who having studied architecture, set up her own small practice – quite rare for a woman at that time – which led to working on listed buildings in Central London. On weekends the children were encouraged to be involved with the processes of their mother’s architectural practice by “holding up tape measures whilst she measured up”.
The family holidays in Greece were an added inspiration to Xanthe when those holidays included a visit to an ancient archaeological site – often a dusty and hot one. She seems certain that her times viewing wonderful ancient buildings in her formative years inspired her later love of buildings. Xanthe also inherited her interest in gardening and enjoyment of walking along the Kew to Chiswick – a scenic riverside – to “blow the cobwebs away”, from her mother.
Career before Chiswick: Early on Xanthe worked for an international marketing company, before moving into the cultural world. Her first position in the cultural sector was as the Director of Commercial & Operations leading a million pound transformation project within the Sir John Soane Museum. This led on to the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich where she worked as the Interim Director of Visitor Experience, Marketing and Commercial Services. In this role she was responsible for launching the new Visitor Experience through the re-opening of the Painted Hall, and following an £8.4m award winning conservation initiative. So Xanthe had quite a breadth of work experience and success to bring to Chiswick, which were useful given the situation she faced in Spring 2020.
The most pressing challenge which faced Xanthe when she started work at Chiswick, was “the impact of Covid which wiped out the Trust’s reserves whilst working with the Trustees to develop a vision for the future.” Locating the Conservation Management Plan seemed to also play an important role at that time.
Future Plans for Chiswick: the plans are bold and exciting. The first phase, the construction of the artist studios has been completed. Xanthe is really looking forward to the first Open Studios and Community Day on Saturday 30th August. The next steps are to fundraise for the new Learning Hub and Kitchen Garden Hub – both a necessary part of the new schools’ programme and to develop opportunities for existing and new community partners and volunteers. Plans further afield are the restoration and transformation of the derelict garden into a community garden, and then onto the Conservatory restoration.
At the same time the Trust continues to raise the funds to invest in our gardens to care for our trees, enhance the biodiversity and experience for all the visitors to the gardens.
The best part of working at Chiswick: Xanthe describes it as the best job and she loves it – she can cycle to work, she is surrounded by nature, and she gets to work with a passionate dedicated and fun team. She has regular meetings with the Trust’s wonderful community partners and volunteers. She enjoys hearing kids’ laughter as they are getting the best out of working in the Kitchen Garden.
Her achievements, both personal and professional: she felt this was a hard question. She decided that on balance her greatest personal achievement has been “her adorable almost adult kids”. As far as her professional achievements she hoped that in all her places of work she has helped her teams to reach their full potential, ensured there was a clear strategic vision and sustainable future.
Current interests and hobbies: Xanthe still has an interest in people, cultural issues and place. She enjoys listening to relevant podcasts, and at present is listening to ‘Empire’. Running and caring for her small garden are high on her list of hobbies.
Finally – she is happiest when? She has many plates spinning at the same time!
In Conclusion Xanthe has displayed such a wealth of different experiences she can draw on both personally and professionally, from her early life to the present day which have all combined to make her the leader she is today – the Director of the Chiswick House and Gardens Trust!
Sources: all autobiographical information was gleaned from Xanthe herself.
With many thanks to Xanthe for her time spent sharing with the Chiswick A to Z.
