CURATION +

I am a curator, public art consultant and writer based in the UK with an extensive track record of curating modern and contemporary art exhibitions, working with artists and collections, multi-disciplinary art programmes and public art commissions. My curatorial practice is place-based and I deliver exhibitions, artist commissions and bespoke programmes that are site-specific, context-specific, sensitive to audiences, social fabric, commissioning environment and client.  I have a track record of initiating, setting up and creating content for projects and programmes that address strategic gaps in the arts ecology including New Art West Midlands exhibitions, 2013-2018; Art Market Project, 2014-2016 and Midwest: Artists’ Support Agency, 2003-2008, an artists’ network as catalyst for creative thought for artist-led culture.

My research includes the role of the civic artist and arts centres, curated public realm, artists’ networks and their visibility, artist-led culture, New Genre Public Art, devolution and regional inequalities in arts provision. My MPhil Cultural Inquiry, University of Birmingham, 2011 thesis ‘The Art Exchange: An Investigation of the Economy of Art’ concerns art world economics. My research about public art commissioning models, placemaking, curated public realm, co-creation and audience attitudes to public art was supported by a Develop Your Creative Practice | DYCP ACE award (2024).

I have a significant track record of consultancy and developing projects on a local and international level.  I co-curated the Scotland & Venice presentation at the 51st Venice Biennale, 2005 and I previously worked with Centre for Contemporary Arts |CCA, Glasgow and Public Art Commissions Agency | PACA, Birmingham.  I am an Associate Curator (freelance) for Midlands Arts Centre | MAC, Birmingham since 2019 curating major group exhibitions with new artists’ commissions, The Butterfly Effect (2021) and Worlds Away: Art, Nature and Wellbeing (2023).