Our Team

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    SUSIE ALLEN

    FOUNDING DIRECTOR

     

    Susie is the Founding Director Artwise. In 2004 she was the Founding Chair of the Royal Academy of Art's first Contemporary Patron Group, was on the Crossrail Art Panel and is currently on the Advisory Panel for The Line - London's first public art walk. 

     

    After completing an MA in fine Art from the Royal College of Art she went on to work at the RCA as a tutor for almost 20 years. During her tenure, she curated many exhibitions for the College, most notably: Exhibition Road - Painters from the Royal College of Art for which she was given the National Art Collections Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts; An American Passion, shown at the RCA and at Glasgow Museums; and 3 Ways for the British Council which toured extensively in the Eastern Bloc countries and in South and West Africa. Susie's concept was the inspiration behind the innovative 'Secret Postcard Art Project', which launched in 1994 and continues today having raised over £1m for the RCA Student Award Fund.

     

    Prior to establishing Artwise she curated The British Art Show (Britain in Vienna) for the Contemporary Art Society and conceived several fundraising projects for the National Art Collections Fund (now the Art Fund), The Rothko Memorial Trust Fund, and Glyndebourne Opera House. 

     

     

     

     

    LAURA CULPAN

    DIRECTOR

     

    Laura has been a Director at Artwise for over 10 years after joining as a Senior Curator in 2004. In 2019 she became a partner in the company along with Susie Allen. Laura is responsible for initiating and delivering highly ambitious, large-scale projects, museum exhibitions and art related events at an international level. 

     

    Graduating with an MA Honours degree in History of Art from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, her experience in the art world prior to Artwise spans both the gallery and museum sector: from 1996 to 2003 she lived in Florence, Italy, where she managed a contemporary art gallery. In 2003 she was appointed Senior Curator for the museum La Galleria Civica d'Arte Contemporanea di Trento, Italy. During her time with the museum she collaborated with many international artists such as: Mario Merz, Tobias Rehberger, Maurizio Cattelan, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Martin Creed and Jim Lambie. Her writing has been published in numerous catalogues and periodicals and in 2003 she was a guest speaker at the 51st Venice Biennale. 

     

    Currently Laura is also a Curatorial Advisor of the sculpture trail The Line and is Advisor and Administrator for the recently re-launched artist-in-residency programme for the Mark Rothko Memorial Trust.

     

     

     

     

    SERENA STARR

    CREATIVE PRODUCER

     

    Serena is a freelance Creative Producer at Artwise. Since 2018 she has worked with Susie and Laura to manage cross-functional teams and multiple stakeholders, facilitating the smooth running of Artwise projects from conception through to completion. Originally from the world of experience design, prior to Artwise she worked for creative agencies designing and delivering experiences for global brands such as Virgin Atlantic, NVIDIA, ARUP, Suncorp and ANZ. After this period, she completed an MA in Arts and Cultural Management at King's College London in 2017 and has since worked independently with a range of clients including CAFA Beijing and UCL Slade School of Fine Art delivering projects and exhibitions at Somerset House and Masterpiece Art Fair. 

     

    For Artwise, Serena has worked on the Tomorrow's Tigers launch at Sotheby's and its continuing exhibition in the Academicians' Room at The Royal Academy of Arts for WWF-UK, and Cure3 at Bonhams for The Cure Parkinson's Trust. In addition to this Serena has developed a new brand identity for Artwise and overseen the design and launch of our new website.