Our Board

Iwona Blazwick OBE is Director of the Whitechapel Gallery in London. Formerly at Tate Modern and London’s ICA she has also worked as an independent curator in Europe and Japan. A critic, art historian, lecturer and broadcaster, she commissioned contemporary art books for Phaidon Press and is Series Editor of Documents of Contemporary Art published by Whitechapel Ventures/ MIT Press. She has served on numerous juries including the Turner Prize.

Susan Collins is one of the UK’s leading artists working with digital media. Collins works across public, gallery and online spaces. Her recent works mainly employ transmission, networking and time as primary materials, often exploring the role of illusion or belief in their construction and interpretation. Susan Collins is currently the Director of the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London where she established the Slade Centre for Electronic Media in Fine Art (SCEMFA) in 1995.

Jean Dent OBE has recently retired after 40years service at Leeds City Council. For the last 3 years she was Director of City Development responsible for the physical, economic and cultural development of the city. She is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and has had an active role, during her career, in many regeneration and cultural schemes which have helped transform Leeds. She is a non executive director of Marketing Leeds; a member of the RICS Regeneration Panel and a governor at the Shadwell/Bramham primary schools. Jean was awarded an OBE in the 2011 New Years Honours List for services to local government.

Paul Dolan was a partner in Deloitte for over twenty years. His main discipline was audit and assurance, looking after commercial clients (both listed and private), but also with experience of charities, public sector and governance matters. He retired from Deloitte in 2004 and now sits on the board of various listed, private and collective society companies. He is an independent Director of the Performing Rights Society.

Gerald Jennings heads the Leeds office of Land Securities, the UK’s largest Real Estate Investment Trust and has responsibility for overseeing the investment performance of the shopping centres in the North and Scotland. Major assets include White Rose, Leeds, The Bridges, Sunderland Bon Accord, Aberdeen and Buchanan Galleries, Glasgow. Development activity is currently focused on Trinity Leeds, with other key projects being actively pursued across the portfolio.

Nigel McClea is a Consultant in the Property Group at the international law firm Pinsent Masons. He is Chair of Marketing Leeds and Leeds Ahead, a member of the Opera North task force and most recently, a trustee of The Hepworth Wakefield.

Peter Murray CBE, Executive Director of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, has travelled worldwide to contribute to conferences, lecture and organise exhibitions. He has contributed to publications, television and radio programmes in relation to the arts; he has judged the Jerwood Sculpture Prize; McClleland Sculpture Award, Australia; and has been advisor to the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project and a selector for the Northern Art Prize.  Peter has been awarded the National Arts Collection Fund Award; made Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art; elected Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors; awarded Honorary Doctorates from Lincolnshire/North Humberside and Huddersfield Universities; and received an OBE and a CBE, for services to the arts. 

Gaby Robertshaw is a Founder and Chair of Contemporary Art North (CAN) and a keen collector of 20th Century art. Gaby sits on the Councils of both the Barbican Association and the Historic Houses Association.