Our adjudicators
Adjudicators judge the Articulation Prize presentations.
Previous adjudicators have included museum directors, curators, art historians, journalists, authors and artists such as Jacqueline Donachie, Tony Heaton OBE, Humphrey Ocean, and Hetain Patel amongst many others.
Contact us
If you would like to get involved, please get in touch with the Articulation team.
Email: articulation@nationalgallery.org.uk
Instagram: @articulationprize
2024 adjudicators
Meet the panel of adjudicators who will judge the 2024 Articulation Prize:
Jessie Burton
Jessie Burton is the author of The Miniaturist, The Muse, The Confession, and The House of Fortune, The Restless Girls, and Medusa. The Minaturist and The Muse were hardback and paperback Sunday Times no.1 bestsellers, New York Times bestsellers, and Radio 4's Book at Bedtime. The Miniaturist sold over a million copies in a year, was UK Christmas no.1, National Book Awards Book of the Year, Waterstones Book of the Year 2014, and adapted as a two-part miniseries on BBC One. The House of Fortune was a Sunday Times no.1 bestseller. Her novels have been published in 40 languages.
Lewis Dalton Gilbert
Lewis Dalton Gilbert is an independent curator and the creative director at A Vibe Called Tech, a Black-owned creative agency dedicated to approaching creativity through an intersectional lens. Following his BA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design, he coordinated and produced exhibitions and projects for White Cube and Frieze. He is currently the associate curator for the New Art Centre, where he previously served as creative director. In 2021, he curated the Hackney Windrush Art Commissions with Thomas J Price and Veronica Ryan OBE, for which Ryan won the Turner Prize. Recent curatorial projects include Pictures of Us at Gathering London (2023), We Share the Same Sky on Vortic Art (2023), Abstract Colour at Marlborough Gallery (2023) and Peripheral Vision at Anna Schwartz Gallery (2022).
Remi Graves
Remi Graves is a London based poet and drummer. A former Barbican Young Poet, their work has been commissioned by St Paul's Cathedral, Barbican and BBC Radio 4. Remi has led courses at The Poetry School and facilitates in schools and community spaces around London. Their debut pamphlet with your chest was published in 2022 by fourteen poems.
Peter Gregory
Peter has taught across all phases of education - leading subject development and curriculum design as well as undertaking local authority advisory work – and is currently Principal Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University. He regularly teaches and presents research across the UK, Europe and beyond. A Past President of the National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD), World Councillor for the International Society for Education through Art (InSEA) and Chair of the Expert Subject Advisory Group (ESAG) for Art and Design originally set up by DfE to advise schools on the implementation of the National Curriculum.
Dr. Madeleine Harrison
Dr. Madeleine Harrison is a historian of modern and contemporary African American and African diaspora art and visual culture. She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses on these subjects at The Courtauld Institute of Art, where she earned her PhD in 2021. She is writing a book on the economics of style, about Black artists making their livings in the 1920s and 1930s New York art world. She has been awarded grants and fellowships for her research (Terra Foundation and Smithsonian American Art Museum). Her writing recently appeared in the African Modernism in America exhibition catalogue (Yale University Press 2023).
Tony Heaton OBE
Tony Heaton OBE is a sculptor, Chair of Shape Arts, and Consultant/Advisor to many cultural organisations including the British Council and the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries. He is the initiator of NDACA – the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive. His sculptures have been shown in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, have occupied The Liverpool Plinth and have been installed at Channel 4 TV in celebration of the 2012 Paralympics, and outside the school of architecture, Portsmouth University. He was awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to the arts and disability arts movement.
Dr Laura Hopes
Dr Laura Hopes is an artist, researcher and lecturer in Fine Art University of Plymouth. Her research focuses upon the implicit relationship between climate change and colonisation, focusing upon land practices. She explores a methodology built around the idea of the ‘vulnerable practitioner’, drawing from existing and historic modes of knowledge. Through extensive collaboration within the collective Still Moving and with academics and experts in diverse fields, her expanded practice encompasses writing, conversations, film, performance, installation and multi-disciplinary exchange.
Simon Hucker
Simon Hucker is a Senior Specialist in Modern & Contemporary Art at Lyon & Turnbull auctioneers in London. He holds a BA and MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art and has worked in the London art world since the late 1990s, both in commercial galleries and in auction houses, including Sotheby's. He was also formerly Creative Director of the New Art Centre in Salisbury. Simon has written extensively on Modern and Contemporary British art – including a monograph on the sculptor George Kennethson.
Dave Lewis
Dave Lewis is a photographer and lecturer teaching photographic practices across the disciplines of anthropology, fine art and commercial photography. He teaches on the visual anthropology programme at Goldsmiths, University of London, contemporary photography practices at UAL and the photography programme, London South Bank University. His visual practice explores how race, belonging and identity are shaped in complex ways by political and environmental factors. His work has been widely exhibited in a number of venues including The Photographers’ Gallery, London; the National Gallery, London; and at the Venice Biennale.
Harriet Loffler
Harriet Loffler is Curator of The Women’s Art Collection at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. Recently curated exhibitions include 'Maud Sulter: Centre of the Frame' that toured to Touchstones Rochdale and ‘A Spirit Inside’ a touring collaborative exhibition with the Ingram Collection and the Lightbox, Woking. Previous roles include Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery (2009-2018) and working at Frieze. She has an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art and is Chair of the Public Art Advisory group for the North West Cambridge development.
Debbie Meniru
Debbie Meniru is a London-based writer and curator. Her writing leans into emotion, anecdote and humour to explore art as a deeply personal experience that reaches far beyond the walls of the gallery. Her words have been published internationally and her text ‘Fried yam in the museum’ is on the syllabus of the MA Curating programme at the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Debbie has curated The Conch at South London Gallery and outdoor installations by Jyll Bradley and Souad Abdelrasoul at the Hayward Gallery. She is currently Assistant Curator of Interpretation at Tate Modern and Tate Britain.
Priyesh Mistry
Priyesh Mistry is Associate Curator of Modern & Contemporary Projects, the National Gallery, where he manages the Artists in Residency programmes and contemporary commissions. Recent projects include Nalini Malani: My Reality is Different – Contemporary Fellowship with Art Fund, Paula Rego: Crivelli’s Garden, Céline Condorelli: Pentimenti (The Corrections). Previously, he was Assistant Curator, International Art, Tate Modern, specialising on art from South Asia; he co-curated the Hyundai Commission 2019: Kara Walker in the Turbine Hall, the major retrospective on Anni Albers (2018) and the group exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power (2017) as well as numerous collection displays.
Humphrey Ocean
Humphrey Ocean is a painter. For a brief time 1971-3 he played bass with Kilburn and the High Roads and in 2004 he was elected a Royal Academician. His work is included in several collections including British Council, British Museum, V&A, National Portrait Gallery, Government Art Collection and Whitworth, Manchester. He lives and works in London.
Dr Steven Parissien
Dr Steven Parissien is Interim Director at Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury, and Director of Studies for Architectural History at Oxford University. Steven has worked as a senior manager and CEO in the heritage, arts and education sectors for over thirty years, including six years as Deputy Director at Yale University’s Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London and ten years as Director/Chief Executive at Compton Verney Art Gallery & Park. He has written extensively on art, architecture and cultural history. His latest book, Building Britannia: A History of Britain in 25 Buildings, was published in October.
Dr Lara Pucci
Dr Lara Pucci is Assistant Professor in Art History at the University of Nottingham. She studied at the University of Bristol and The Courtauld Institute of Art. Before joining Nottingham, she was British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Manchester and has since held two fellowships at the British School at Rome. A specialist in the art of twentieth-century Italy, she has published on the visual politics of the Fascist regime, the anti-Fascist resistance, and the Italian Communist Party. She is currently writing a book on Fascist conceptions of the Italian landscape.
Dr Laura Sillars
Dr Laura Sillars has worked in the arts and creative industries for over 20 years. She has held roles at Tate, FACT, Site Gallery and MIMA (via a stint in New York and Detroit). She has worked on large-scale city-wide festivals, off site commissions to traditional exhibitions with leading international artists. In 2019, Sillars worked with the University of Teesside to develop a new model of arts education, establishing the School of Arts & Creative Industries with MIMA as its creative heart. As Dean of the School Sillars leads a team of academics to spearhead new research and new ways of learning.
Jon Sleigh
Jon Sleigh (he/him) is a freelance educator and art history writer. He works nationally as a specialist in fine art engagement with a diverse portfolio of arts institutions, museums and heritage sites across the UK. Clients include the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, The National Archives, Historic Royal Palaces, Art Fund and the V&A. Prior to this Jon worked for Birmingham Museums Trust / The Arts Collection in Round One of the acclaimed ACE National Partners Programme. Jon has a passion for challenging and underrepresented narratives in art, encouraging communities to bring their own lived experiences to artworks.
Ben Street
Ben Street is an art historian, author, educator and lecturer. He is the author of "How to Enjoy Art: A Guide for Everyone" (Yale) and the award-winning children's book, "How to be an Art Rebel" (Thames & Hudson). He is also an educational consultant for international museums, and has been an educator and mentor for the National Gallery, Tate, the Royal Academy, Dulwich Picture Gallery, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He is currently a researcher and lecturer at the University of East Anglia, and is a contributing writer for Art Review, Apollo, the Times Literary Supplement and others.
D.Wiafe
D.Wiafe is an artist, educator and the Course Leader of BA (Hons) Commercial Photography at The London College of Communication. His work in brand partnership projects (Converse, Jigsaw, Capture One) has provided platforms for young talent in photography to innovate in branded content, community initiatives and curatorial projects. As the lead of Youth Programming at Photofusion, his work on the Creator's Studio and Young Curators continues to reshape how young photographers develop careers in the creative industries.
The Very Revd Dr Robert Willis KStJ DL
Dean Robert has served for over 50 years in the Church of England, 21 of which in the most senior clergy role of the worldwide Anglican Communion as Dean of Canterbury. His distinguished career, which has been recognised by Archbishops and Popes, has involved work in education, politics, music (he is an accomplished composer and hymn writer) and charitable institutions spanning everything from healthcare to the arts. He has worked extensively overseas, particularly in Africa, the USA and China as well as in Europe, where he has just opened a new pilgrim centre in Santiago de Compostela. An outstanding historian and theologian, he is also one of the finest orators for the Christian Church and is therefore thrilled to be asked back to help adjudicate Articulation 2024.