WHO ARE WE?

Ben Street is an art historian, writer and lecturer. He is the author of catalogue essays for numerous museum exhibitions across the UK and Europe and a contributing critic for Art Review, Apollo and Art Quarterly magazines. Ben was a contributing writer for the Phaidon books ‘Body of Art’ and ‘Flying Too Close To The Sun’ and is the author of ‘Art Unfolded: A History of Art in Four Colours’.

Elizabeth Perrotte is a specialist in modern and contemporary art and has designed art education programmes for museums, galleries and university accredited postgraduate degree courses. She has worked at the National Gallery, Tate St. Ives and the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Elizabeth’s doctoral research was shaped by postcolonial studies, focussing on the work of modern British artists such as Jacob Epstein.

Colin Wiggins was Special Projects Curator at the National Gallery until 2016. Before taking up this post in 2011 he worked in the Gallery’s Education Department where he had special responsibility for the Associate Artist scheme, working with artists such as Paula Rego, Peter Blake, Ana Maria Pacheco and Michael Landy. He has also curated exhibitions at the National Gallery of, amongst others, Frank Auerbach, Anthony Caro, RB Kitaj, Ed and Nancy Kienholz and Bridget Riley. He has lectured widely in the United States and Europe and is a practising printmaker, with work in various collections including the Los Angeles County Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Having read Natural Sciences and History of Art at Cambridge, Dr Stemp went on to complete a PhD in Sculpture in Ferrara in the 15th Century before studying acting at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts. Richard works as a Freelance Lecturer, and has taught at most of the major art museums in London. He has written and presented two series for Channel 4, Art in the National Gallery and Tate Modern, and his books include The Secret Language of the Renaissance and Directions in Art: Painting, one in a series about contemporary art for children.

Georgina Adam has spent more than 30 years writing about the art market and the arts in general. She was editor of the Art Market section of The Art Newspaper 2000-2008, then editor at large. She writes a weekly column on Saturday for the Financial Times. In addition to her specialisation in the art market, Adam is particularly interested in emerging cultural centres.

Georgina is author of “Big Bucks, The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st century” published by Lund Humphries in June 2014 and "The Dark Side of the Boom", published in 2018.

Lecturer: Linda Smith MA is an art historian with a particular knowledge of British art and the art of the 20thC. Her MA is from Birkbeck, specialising in Postmodernism. Linda is an accredited Arts Society lecturer and an experienced Lecturer/Gallery Guide at both Tate Britain and Tate Modern, where she has worked for the past 17 years.

Melanie was Jewellery Editor and is currently Luxury Editor on 1843 Magazine, the lifestyle sister publication to the Economist. She has worked there for 10 years and also for The Times, The Guardian and The Independent for a decade before this. She collects vintage jewellery in her spare time.

Kate Gordon is the founder and CEO of London Art Studies. Having produced arts programming for CNN and Carlton, Kate launched London Art Studies in 2011 (after heading up Sotheby’s Public Programmes Department), which provides educational courses on art, moving to online programming in June 2018. Educated at St Paul’s Girls' School, Amherst College USA and University of Moscow, she has worked in the art world for over 20 years. Kate co-founded the Association of Women in the Arts (AWITA), and writes a regular column about the art world for London’s Evening Standard newspaper. After chairing the fundraising group ‘Foreign Sisters’ in 2017 and 2018, Kate remains a Senior Arts Advisor to Cancer Research UK and is also on the board of the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital Art and Design Advisory Group. She has served as a member of the Tate Patrons Executive Committee (2014-2018); in 2020 Kate was named as Chair of the Serpentine Patrons and currently serves as a Trustee of The Art Academy and of Art History Link-Up.

Gillian Bayston joined London Art Studies in January 2014. Educated in Ireland and Scotland, Gillian has a Master's degree in the History of Art from the University of St. Andrews. With over fifteen years' experience of working in the art world, Gillian has worked at Christie's (New York), Sotheby's (London) and Sotheby's Institute of Art (London), where she was Public Programmes Manager for seven years. Gillian has a wealth of expertise in organising and delivering high quality short courses both in the UK and overseas including, the UAE, Turkey, the USA and across Europe.

As a creative, fast thinking , visual problem solver Lindsay has spent over twenty years as a commissioning picture editor working on national newspapers and magazines including The Economist’s, Intelligent Life, The Times, The Guardian and The Financial Times. The subject matter has been wide -ranging from the technical to the esoteric. Lindsay is a skilled and innovative commissioner and director of photography, maintaining a great rapport with both award winning photographers and emerging talent.

She also enjoys the “treasure hunt“ of picture research to uncover the very best picture to fit the job

Originally from Paris, Marjotte graduated with a BA in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art and joined LAS as Researcher and Production Associate after finishing her MA at Oxford University. Marjotte’s previous roles at the Guggenheim Collection in Venice and at the BBC enabled her to combine her love for art and video production, which is at the core of her role at LAS. Marjotte is also a teacher for Art History Link Up and lectures regularly. She is starting a PhD at Oxford University, focusing on seventeenth-century South American colonial art.

Cherry graduated from The Courtauld Institute of Art in 2018 with a BA in History of Art. She then stayed on to complete her MA, specialising in Dutch art from the 16th and 17th centuries, for which she received a Distinction. Cherry is passionate about making the arts accessible to all, presenting at the Courtauld’s ‘The Future of Art History in Education’ debate in 2016. In her spare time, Cherry is an Art Columnist for The Mackayan magazine.

Justin is a freelance film maker who works closely with London Art Studies to help create our educational films. Drawing on over 15 years experience in broadcast, film, and corporate work Justin takes on projects from conception to completion with clients, from scripting and storyboarding through lighting, filming and into the edit. Justin has worked on productions for the BBC, Channel 4, The Institute for Strategic Dialogue and Google.org among many others. With another project always on the horizon he also like to find some time to get out on his bike (But not without a few GoPros attached!) You can see more of Justin’s work at www.logicvideo.co.uk

Joao is a photographer / filmmaker with a degree in Film, Video and Multimedia Communication and experience in a multitude of roles. The primary focus of his career involves image acquisition (photography, cinematography) and post-production (editing, colour grading). He's currently working as a freelancer based in Surrey, UK.

Film and documentary director with an eye for finding significance, heart and humour in every day situations. Will has worked on a diverse range of inspirational projects for major broadcasters in the UK and Germany. While making documentaries he has had the pleasure to meet and step into the lives of some incredible people who have opened up to him to tell their amazing stories. Will’s work can be seen at www.floatingfocus.com

Hannah joined London Art Studies in November 2017. Before joining London Art Studies, she worked for the Association of Women in the Arts (AWITA) where she continues to work part-time. Hannah studied History of Art at University College London and has now started a masters degree in the same subject at the University of Oxford, focusing on the role of women in Early Modern Europe.

Todun joined London Art Studies as a Social Media intern in the Spring of 2022. Before joining London Art Studies, she worked in various Marketing and Social Media roles where she was responsible for driving engagement and growth on a selection of online platforms. Todun studied Chinese and Business at the University of Liverpool and is working towards a career in television. In her spare time, Todun enjoys visiting her favourite exhibitions around London.