Felicity’s work centres around art: through practice; writing; its display, management and institutions; and art education. Her work is independent, sometimes solitary, as well as a medium for dialogue, exchange and collaboration.

    Career at a glimpse <top>
1980 — current   Artist, writer, educator
2010 — 2013   Artist / writer; two books published September 2011; guest scholar at Getty Research Institute (2011, 2012); Visiting Research Fellow, London South Bank University; visiting lecturer and guest speaker at European and US art schools and conferences
1999 — 2010 Senior manager at Tate and Hayward Gallery; lecturer and writer
1980 — 1999   Artist working to commission and exhibition
1991 — 1999   Portfolio work, focus on gallery education
 

_

_

 

_

_

director and developer of a new national organisation, Engage founder-editor, producer and writer for magazine, Engage
consultant, educator, writer with arts development organisations, museums, galleries, universities and schools
lecturer in curatorial studies, Goldsmiths University of London

artist in social and educational settings

1984 — 1991   Lecturer in fine art and partnership programmes; artist educator in social settings; occasional art journalism
1982 — 1984   Slade School of Art, University College London, MA / MPhil fine art
1978 — 1983   Lecturer in women’s art; curatorial assistant in contemporary art; artist educator in social settings
1974 — 1978   Exeter University, BA English / fine art
     
    Art <top>
Current practice is a dialogic portraits project produced in the form of books and for exhibition. Between 1999 and 2010 in her roles at Tate and the Hayward Gallery, Felicity worked with her teams to produce events, collaborative work and displays, with artists including Reem Al-Khatib, Faisal Abdu’Allah, Gayle Chong Kwan, Raimi Gbadamosi, Sara Haq, Hew Locke, Trevor Mathison of Smoking Dogs Films, Henna Nadeem, Olivia Plender, and Ala’ Younis. Between 1977 and 1999, Felicity consistently made work for exhibition, as well as working in social projects.
     
    Selected solo exhibitions
1998   Photo 98, Yorkshire and Humberside, Greetings site specific photographic installation
1993   Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, exhibition and residency
1991   Southern Arts Touring Exhibitions, Elements and senses
1989   Mario Flecha Gallery, London
1989   Public Art Development Trust, London
1986   Air Gallery, London, The naked city: Durham effigy
1986   Shape London, touring
1985   Whitechapel Art Gallery at Spitalfields Health Centre, Rooms
1984  1985   ICA, London, Café Royal installation
     
    Selected group exhibitions
2012   Stockwell Studios, London, Off the S{h}elf:the self and subjectivity in the artist's book
1997   Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, What’s for dinner?
1996   Contemporary Art Society
1994   Charleston Gallery, Print show
1990   Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, Mothers, touring
1978 1990   Whitechapel Gallery, London, Whitechapel open
1989   Air Gallery, London, Critics space
1988

 

Harris Museum, Preston, Graven images

Pomeroy Purdy Gallery, London, Print show

1987   George Ciscle Gallery, Baltimore, USA
Mario Flecha Gallery, London
Curwen Gallery, London, 8 x 8
Mario Flecha Gallery, London, Ikons
1986   Plymouth Arts Centre, Love: Sacred and profane, touring
Air Gallery, London, Critics space
Guildhall, London,  Four painters
1985

 

The Warehouse, London, with Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party

Whitespace Gallery, London, Open drawing

     
    Public Art Development Trust commissions
1989   St Charles Hospital, London, The Five Senses, 5 photographs with and for patients, staff and visitors in the Mental Health Unit
1988   Little High Wood Hospital, Brentwood, Diverse Fruits, 14 paintings for patients with learning difficulties, staff and visitors
1986   St George Hospital, Essex, Anecdotal Landscapes, 4 paintings installed in outpatients waiting area
     
    Social projects
1995 — 1997   Priory Comprehensive School, Lewes, artist in residence
1996

 

Stanford Junior School, Brighton, artist in residence

Lewes Barbican Museum and three schools, Lewes, artist in residence

1995 & 1996   Surrey County Council, artist in residence
1991   Oakwood Comprehensive School, Horley, artist in residence
1985 — 1987   Shape, artist projects with people with disabilities
1985 — 1987   Age Exchange Theatre Trust Reminiscence Project, artist projects with older people across art forms
1984 — 1985   Durham Cathedral, artist in residence
1978 — 1979   South Island Community Centre & Mayville Community Centre, London, artist projects with young people
     
    Awards and purchases
    Work in private and public collections, including Coopers & Lybrand and London local authorities
1996, 1994   South East Arts
1991, 1989   Greater London Arts
1989   Edwin Austin Abbey Memorial Scholarship, major award
1986, 1982   Greater London Arts
     
    Articles, films and reviews
1997   TV programme: The Pier, Meridian TV, interviewed for What’s for Dinner?
1988 — 1986   Reviews: Marina Vaizey, The Sunday Times, ‘The British come in from the cold’ (October 1988); Marina Warner,  Independent, ‘Anatomies of melancholy’ (27 July 1987); Kerris Blake, Women’s Review (July 1986); Sarah Kent, Time Out (February 1986, June 1986); William Feaver, Observer (June 1986)
1986   Catalogues: The Naked City and Critics space
1984   Film: Lives of artists, not wives of artists, by Aron, Moravietz & Rowling, Arts Council. One of five participating artists with Alexis Hunter, Tina Keane, Mary Kelly, and Paula Rego
     
    Writing <top>
2013 _ 'Reassembling the Barricades', article in Engage 32, May 2013
2013 _ 'The Installation', fictionalised biography, Intercapillary Space: an unrolling poetry magazine based in the UK April 2013, http://www.intercapillaryspace.org
2013 _ 'What does globalisation mean for education in the art museum?', article in It's all Mediating. Outlining and Incorporating the Roles of Curating and Education in the Exhibition Context (ed. Kaija Katiavuori, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2013)
2013 _

'Textual Intimacies: Letters, Journals, Poetry – Ghost Writing Telegraph Cottage', with Simon Smith; article in Scenes of Intimacy: Reading, Writing and Theorizing Contemporary Literature (ed. Jennifer Cooke, Bloomsbury Academic, 2013)

2012 _

'Invasive Assessments, Surprise and Performing the Self in the Sketchbook', De Witte Raaf 120, Nov-Dec 2012

2012 _

'Smadar Dreyfus: School', review in Art in the Public Sphere 1: 2, 2012

2011 _ Your Sketchbook Your Self, publisher: Tate
2011 _ Education, publisher: Whitechapel / MIT, Documents of
Contemporary Art
2009 _ ‘Border crossing’, Tate Papers 11, April 2009 (issue co-edited with Mundy, Jennifer); revised for I-JADE (International Journal of Art and Design Education) 28.3, 2009
2008 _ ‘Situating gallery education’, Tate Encounters e-dition 2, February 2008
2007

_

_

 

 

_

‘Perspectives across cultures’ (with Heald, R), Engage 20

‘Democracy, freedom, expression: practising ideas of liberty
and representation in gallery education’ in Rodrigo, J (editor), Dialogical practices, publisher: Es Baluard, Palma

Telegraph cottage with Simon Smith, publisher: Mindmade Press, Los Angeles

2002 _ ‘The Hayward Gallery’s programme with the Department ofHealth’, Engage 11
2000 _ ‘Discovering the horizon: Felicity Allen talks to Peter Jenkinson’,  The Art Book, vol. 8, issue 1, publisher: Association of Art Historians 
1999 _ ‘It’s groovy to be global’, Art Monthly, issue 224, March
1998 _ Guest editor, Make (the magazine of women’s art) 20 year
review issue
1995 _ ‘From community arts to gallery education’ (with Clive, S),
Art with People (editor Dickson, M), Newcastle
1985 — 1990 _ Reviews published in New Statesman & Society, The Arts
Business, Women’s Review
     
     
    Education and management <top>
    Management
2003 — 2010   Tate Britain, London, Head of Learning
1999 — 2003   Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre, London, Head of Public Programmes
1979 — 1982   Air Gallery, London, Curatorial assistant
1972 — 1973   University Press, Oxford, Personal assistant
     
   

Lecturing and Research

2012 — current

  London South Bank University (LSBU), Visiting Research Fellow

2012

  Getty Research Institute, Guest Museum Scholar

2011

  Getty Research Institute, Guest Museum Scholar

2011

  University of the Arts, London, Camberwell School of Art, MA Fine Art
1998 — 1999   Goldsmiths, University of London, MA Fine art administration and curatorship
1992 — 1997   University of Sussex Centre for Continuing Education, Cultural studies certificate, team teaching, Twentieth century art
1995   Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Practical courses tutor, part-time short contract
1994 — 1995   Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, Exhibitions in context, weekly two-term courses offering practical and history classes with current exhibitions, repeated over two years
1991 — 1994   University of East London, School of Fine Art, external examiner in Painting
1988 — 1991   Winchester School of Art (Southampton University), BA Fine art special options: Public art, Exhibitions studies, European studies
1987 — 1988   Goldsmiths, University of London, BA Fine art

1995 — 2006

visiting

 

_

 

_

City University, London, MA Arts management

Royal College of Art, London, MA Curating and commissioning contemporary art

 University of Sussex, Arts management certificate

     
    Consultancy
2011   PEER, London, evaluating PEER Participate programme
1998 — 1999   Modern Art, Oxford, researching and developing plan for integrated education and exhibition programmes
1998   British Library, London, providing materials and training about BL art collection for staff
1997

 

_

South East Arts, Education and Training, researching and developing artists’ training programme

Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, researching and developing plan for integrated education and exhibition programme; providing materials and training for teachers

1997

 

Arts Training South, professional development programmes

1996 — 1997

 

South East Arts, Education and Training, monitoring and evaluating Artists in Schools in East Sussex

1995 — 1996

 

East Sussex County Advisory Service, professional development for teachers

 

 

 

 

 

Recent presentations

2013

 

Whitechapel Gallery, Education: Politics and Practices devising and presenting a seminar series with invited speakers

ICA London, Platform in conversation with Sophie Hope

2012

 

 

 

 

'Practice, Dialogue and Nahnou-Together', Approaches to Trust-building in the Context of Divided Beirut symposium with University of Kent & the Lebanese University

'Surprise, performance and education in the sketchbook', Old School New Class symposium, Ghent

'Process in Three Directions', research seminar, LSBU

'Practice and Dialogue', research seminar, University of Kent

'Branded Speech: what does globalisation mean for education in the art museum?', lecture, Otis College of Arts Los Angeles

'Progress: the Age of Reflection', lecture, Azusa University California

'Apart of the Art World', lecture, The Prince's Drawing School Lectures & Film Programme

'Branded Speech', Face to Face: Visual Cultures and Radical Distrust in the Middle East,B Kent University with October Gallery, London

2011

 

Engaging, Creating: Residencies in Public Spaces, Sackler Conference, V&A, London

The Sketchbook Conference, Access Art, Cambridge

2010

 

Writings of Intimacy (with Simon Smith), conference, Loughborough University

Air Iomlaid / On exchange, seminar, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh

2009

_

 

_

 

 

_

 

 

_

Creating the global image archive, conference, University of London Goldsmiths

The pedagogical intersection of contemporary art and
education outreach, conference, Art Gallery of York University,
Toronto

Museum management and practices, seminar, British
Council / World Collections Programme, Damascus, January
2009 and Istanbul, May 2009

Guggenheim International Art Museum Education Forum, Guggenheim, New York

2006

 

 

 

_

Dialogical practices, conference, ‘Democracy, freedom, expression: practising ideas of liberty and representation in gallery education’, Museu d’art modern I contemporani de Palma

Albers and Moholy-Nagy: the imperative of teaching, seminar, Tate Modern, London

2005

 

The institute and the experiment, keynote paper, Engage annual conference, Arnolfini, Bristol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Professional development <top>
 

 

Management

2011

_

Facilitating Action Learning Sets, ILM accredited

2010

2009

_

_

Team coaching with a solutions focus

Clore leadership short course

2004

_

_

_

_

Runge leadership course

Managing multiple priorities

Performance management
How to be a great coach

2003, 1999

_

Managing for managers

 

 

 

 

 

Evaluation

2007

_

Evaluating the impact of arts and cultural education, Centre Pompidou, Paris

1998

_

Researching audience development in museums and galleries, SEMS

 

 

 

 

 

Negotiations

2007

_

Braver conversations

 

_

Negotiating skills

 

 

 

 

 

Presentation

2007

_

Presentation is performance

2001

_

Presentation for broadcast skills

 

 

 

 

 

Memberships and voluntary work

2009 — current

_

_

_

_

Member of AICA (the International Association of Art Critics)

Member of an Action Learning Set

Trustee of PEER

Member of AHRC Peer Review College until 2011

2007 — 2009

_

Member of Museums Review editorial advisory panel

1997

_

Arts Council of England Arts for Everyone Lottery Fund,
panel of assessors

1994

_

Arts Council of England appraisal team member for Museum
of Modern Art, Oxford

 

 

 

 

 

Education

1982 — 1984

 

Slade School of Art, London. Higher Diploma in painting (equivalent MA /MPhil)

1973 — 1977

 

Exeter University BA Hons in English / Fine art