Director-General of the BBC for the same reason. He was announced as having accepted the position of chairman with the Victoria and Albert Museum on 18 June 2007, but stepped down from the post a month later, recognising a conflict of interest with his position at the University of the Arts London. In 2013, it was announced that Tusa would be leaving his post at University of the Arts London from August that year, and that Sir John Sorrell would be the new chairman. From January 2009 to 2014, Tusa was chair 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. 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. 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). 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. Honours Tusa received an honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1993 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. Books Conversations with the World; BBC Books 1990 A World in Your Ear; Broadside Books 1992 Art Matters; Methuen 1999 On Creativity; Methuen 2003 The Janus Aspect; Methuen 2005 Engaged with the Arts; IB Tauris 2007 Pain in the Arts; IB Tauris 2014 Making a Noise: Getting