Dame Julia Peyton-Jones (born 18 February 1952) is a British curator and gallery director, currently Senior Global Director at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in London, Paris and Salzburg. She formerly worked as Co-Director of the

Serpentine Gallery The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Westminster, Greater London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Galler ...

in London.

Early life/career

Peyton-Jones was educated at Tudor Hall School, a boarding and day

independent school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

for girls, between the village of Bloxham and the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

of Banbury, in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

. She left the school in 1970. After leaving school, Peyton-Jones studied painting at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

, between the years 1975–1978, but did not continue a career as a professional artist. Two of her works still hang in the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

."Julia Peyton-Jones: I feel impoverished. We are adrift from nature"
''The Independent'', Retrieved 12 May 2014. After her education, she was briefly an art lecturer at the

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

. In 1988 she became a

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

at the

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Royal ...

Serpentine Galleries

In 1991, Peyton-Jones became the director of the Serpentine Galleries. In 1998, she oversaw a major refurbishment of the gallery."Julia Peyton-Jones"
, Royal Society of the Arts; retrieved 12 May 2014. In 2000 she inaugurated the annual Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, a project that invites an architect who has previously never been commissioned to work in the United Kingdom to create a temporary structure at the Gallery. The first pavilion was designed by Dame Zaha Hadid."Serpentine Pavilion to be 'space pod'"
BBC.co.uk; retrieved 12 May 2014. Subsequent pavilions have been designed by Ai Weiwei, Jean Nouvel, and

Oscar Niemeyer Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was b ...

. In 2013 she oversaw the expansion of the Serpentine into a second building, the Serpentine Sackler Gallery.Stathaki, Ellie
"The Serpentine Sackler Gallery launches with a new extension by Zaha Hadid"
''Wallpaper Magazine''; retrieved 12 May 2014. The Serpentine Sackler Gallery is located in a Grade II listed building, which was originally used for gunpowder storage, and has an extension by the architect Zaha Hadid. Following the scandal involving the Sackler family in the opioid epidemic in the USA, Serpentine renamed the gallery Serpentine North Gallery. In October 2015, Peyton-Jones announced her departure from her role at the Serpentine Galleries in summer 2016."Serpentine co-director Julia Peyton-Jones to step down after 25 years"
''The Guardian''; retrieved 2 November 2015.

New Projects

Peyton-Jones announced she was stepping down from her post in the Serpentine in October 2015, planning to work independently in contemporary art and architecture, and embark on new projects. “I felt after 25 years this was a good time to hand over the reins to someone new” she said. At age 64, in January 2017, the birth of her first child, a daughter,"Dame Julia Peyton-Jones becomes a mother for first time aged 64"
theguardian.com; retrieved 18 January 2017. Pia was announced

Recognition

Peyton-Jones was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the 2003 Birthday Honours for services to art and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to the arts.

References

Articles

"Peyton's place"
Telegraph.co 7 September 2006.
"BBC News: OBEs 2003"
BBC News Website, June 2003. {{DEFAULTSORT:Peyton-Jones, Julia 1952 births Living people People educated at Tudor Hall School, Banbury Alumni of the Royal College of Art British curators Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Edinburgh College of Art British women curators