It was an honour to be asked by the British Council's Director of Arts in China, Rehana Mughal to participate in the discussion about the future of museums on IMD. I was joined by Esme Ward, Director of Manchester Museums and Helen Jones of the Science Museum Group. The event was broadcast by Sina Weibo … Continue reading International Museums Day: British Council Sina Weibo Event in China
International Museums Day is on 18 May 2020 and in celebration of the theme equality and diversity, I curated an online exhibition on the topic - Diversity, Inclusion and Innovation - for ArtUK's new Curations platform. A selection of works from the exhibition below. ICOM UK is hosting a series of activities in partnership with … Continue reading International Museums Day 2020: Diversity and Inclusion
I was invited to give closing remarks at The Messy Edge which was part of the Brighton Digital Festival in October. The Messy Edge highlights the perspectives and voices of those who are marginalised in the digital revolution. Bill Thompson, who leads R&D at the BBC, framed the day by highlighting the messy edges, not only … Continue reading The Messy Edge at Brighton Digital Festival
I have written frequently about technology and innovation in the arts over the years and as of last week this topic has become my full time job. I joined Arts Council England (ACE) as its first Director, Arts Technology and Innovation. In this role, I'll have the pleasure of working with arts organisations to help embed … Continue reading New Horizons: Arts Technology and Innovation
The Frankfurt Book Fair is commonly referred to as the biggest book fair in the world. While I don't know if that's actually true, I can confirm it is BIG. Clearly the publishing industry is trying to spread its wings and explore the interconnections between literature, other forms of culture and creativity and digital technology. … Continue reading The Arts+ Future of Culture Festival: Highlights & Reflections
Mind you, I only had one day to look around. Here's what caught my eye: (1) Joey Yaque, (2) Ai Weiwei, (3) Robert Longo, (4) Thomas Saraceno, (5) Michael Rakowitz, (6) Sanford Biggers, (7) Olfur Eliasson, (8) Tony Oursler, (9) Robert Longo, (10) Titus Kasher, (11) Rathin Barman, (12) Oliver Lanc.
I visited the two main sites of the Berlin Biennale 10 this weekend: KW Institute of Contemporary Art and Academie der Kunst. The first artist I encountered was Firelei Baez and her work does not disappoint: she overlays historic maps, architectural drawing and statistical charts with vibrant images which uncover issues of colonialism, forced migration, and … Continue reading A First Look at the Berlin Biennale 2018
The following commentary originally appeared in ICOM UK weekly news The tragic events of Charlottesville, instigated by the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, highlights the important role we as museums and heritage professionals play in preserving, interpreting and displaying public history. Myself and Edmund Connolly, Head of Communications for … Continue reading Continuing the Conversation: Statues, Monuments and Difficult Histories
The New York Times opinion page featured a piece called Why the Met Should Appoint a Female Director in response to the resignation of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s current Director Thomas Campbell. Based on pure probability, I agree: women make up the majority of the workforce in museums both in the US and UK. … Continue reading Curators vs. Managers: Succession Planning in Museums
The fact that the only candidate rejected for the Channel 4 board was a black woman (the other four candidates were white men) has sparked outrage across the cultural sector. A number of high profile cultural sector leaders including Bonnie Greer, Tessa Jowell and Liz Forgan signed a letter requesting an explanation for the decision. … Continue reading Diversity in the Arts: Why Numbers Count
