Cultivating spaces for extraordinary artists

Adrian Plant

Adrian studied Art, Photography and Film at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art (1978-81). After leaving college he worked for museums and galleries across the UK, including the Cambridge Darkroom, the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford and the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich.

Adrian then worked for the Tate Gallery in Liverpool (1989-99) as Curator to develop projects supporting the gallery's exhibitions and commissions programmes, including managing artist's residencies such as working with Antony Gormley and a local community to create Field for the British Isles.

Adrian gained an MA in Contemporary Art History and Theory at the University of Liverpool (1995-1998).

In 2001 Adrian was appointed the first Exhibitions Officer for Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery, Shropshire Council Museums Service, where he has developed an innovative curatorial policy to engage new audiences for contemporary art:

'The aim is to develop new ways to invigorate, animate and (re) interpret our historic museum collections (and the heritage environments of Shrewsbury and Shropshire) through commissioning and exhibiting the work of local, national and international contemporary artists.'

Adrian has curated exhibitions and commissions with a wide range of international artists including Antony Gormley, Louise Short, Vladimir Arkhipov, Ivan and Heather Morison, Ken Feingold, Rosemary Butcher, myvillages.org, Paul Bush, Helen and Newton Harrison, Dorothy Cross, Marcus Coates, Shirley Chubb, Neil Brownsword, Iain Gardner, llana Halperin, David Haley, Brandon Ballangee and Thomson and Craighead.

Adrian is an experienced mentor to emerging artists, was a Trustee for Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown (2002-07) and has been a Trustee for DASH since 2010.