Jon Sharples (Chair)
Jon Sharples is an art and intellectual property lawyer with Canvas Art Law and is also Chief Operating Officer of the Poetry School. Between 2013 and 2019, Jon was Chair of the Simmons & Simmons Art Network and was responsible for the firm's celebrated collection of contemporary art, displayed across offices in 15 countries. Jon is on the board of artist-led project space and studio provider Block 336, the advisory board of the Block Universe festival of performance art, and was also recently on the board of the Liverpool Biennial.
Michelle Grabner is an artist, writer, and a curator based in Wisconsin. She is the Crown Family Professor of Art and the Senior Chair of the Painting and Drawing Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she has taught since 1996. In addition, Grabner has also held teaching appointments at The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Cranbrook Academy of Art; Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts—Bard College; Yale University School of Art; and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine.
Grabner co-curated the 2014 Whitney Biennial and the 2016 Portland Biennial. She was the Artistic Director for the inaugural 2018 exhibition, FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art. In 2021 Grabner and Theaster Gates co-curated Sculpture Milwaukee.
Grabner is a National Academician in the esteemed National Academy of Design and her work is represented by James Cohan in New York City and the Green Gallery, in Milwaukee; among other galleries. The Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland have each hosted large-scale survey exhibitions of Grabner’s work. Her writing is regularly published in X-tra and Artforum. In 2010 Grabner co-edited THE STUDIO READER, published by the University of Chicago Press.
Vivien Lovell is a visual arts curator experienced in commissioning permanent and temporary art in the public realm. She founded Modus Operandi in 1999, having been Founder-Director of Public Art Commissions Agency (1987-99). She integrates art as a key element of architectural schemes and brokers interdisciplinary collaborations. Key projects include St Martin-in-the-Fields, BBC Broadcasting House, Liverpool Housing Action Trust, St John’s College Oxford, Westgate Oxford, Marunouchi Art Project, Tokyo, amongst many others.
Bill Price is a director at WSP and a structural engineer by background. He worked on the Shard at London Bridge from the earliest stages of design development to completion in 2015. He is now working on several masterplans involving transport infrastructure as well as the Cube at Paddington Square. Over the years, Bill has worked with many artists and sculptors assisting with engineering design, fabrication, safety, transportation and site installation. Bill is a trustee of the Royal Society of Sculptors and provides support to the board as well as artists if required. In addition, Bill is a trustee of the Rose Theatre in Kingston, supporting original drama and family shows as well as a wide range of community engagement.
Sinta Tantra is a British artist of Balinese descent. Tantra spent her childhood in Indonesia, America and the UK where she studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Royal Academy Schools. Known for her colourful geometric paintings and site-specific murals, many in the public realm, Tantra’s work explores ‘painting on an architectural scale’. The first recipient of the Bridget Riley Drawing Fellowship at the British School at Rome, previous commissions include The Contemporary Art Society, Folkestone Triennial, Karaachi Biennale and Canary Wharf London. Tantra’s paintings are part of the Government Art Collection, the Benetton Foundation collection and other private international collections.
