Contemporary art summer school at the Royal Academy

Tanya Barson is Senior Director (Curator-at-Large) at Hauser & Wirth. She was Chief Curator, MACBA, Barcelona 2016-2021; Curator of International Art, Tate Modern 2007-2016; Exhibitions and Collections Curator, Tate Liverpool 2004-2007; and Assistant Curator, Tate, Millbank, 1997-2004. She has curated important exhibitions of Felix Gonzalez-Torres (2021), Georgia O’Keeffe (2016) and Frida Kahlo (2005) among others, as well as the major thematic exhibition Afro Modern: Journeys Through the Black Atlantic (2010).

Rob and Nick Carter are a husband and wife artistic duo who have been collaborating for over 20 years. The Carter’s work is centered on the boundaries between the analogue and the digital. Their acclaimed Transforming series has been 10 years in the making, and creates a unique intersection between the art of the past and cutting-edge computer-generated imagery. They are the only living artist who have shown work at the Frick, New York, and their work is held in collections including the Mauritshuis, The Hague, Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the Fondation Custodia, Paris.

Jennifer Higgie is an Australian writer who lives in London. Formerly the editor of Frieze magazine, her latest book, The Mirror & The Palette: Rebellion, Resilience and Resistance: 500 Years of Women’s Self Portraits is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. She is currently working on a book about women, art and the spirit world. She also writes screenplays.

Thomas Marks is a writer and art critic. He is currently an Associate Fellow at the Warburg Institute, London, where he is researching Elizabeth David’s collection of historical cookery books, and was Editor of Apollo art magazine from 2013–21. He has contributed to numerous publications, among them Prospect, Literary Review and the TLS, and continues to write a monthly column for Apollo about the relationship between art and food. He is a trustee of Art UK, the cultural education charity that exists to democratise the UK’s public art through digitisation and storytelling.

Hammad Nasar is a curator, researcher, and strategic advisor. His most recent curated/co-curated exhibitions include Turner Prize (2021) and British Art Show 9 (2021-22). He is presently Senior Research Fellow, Paul Mellon Centre and Lead Curator, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum (Coventry). Earlier, he was Executive Director of the Stuart Hall Foundation, London; Head of Research & Programmes at Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; and, co-founder of Green Cardamom, London.

Dr. Zoé Whitley is Director of Chisenhale Gallery. A leading non-profit space founded by artists in London’s East End, Chisenhale produces and commissions acclaimed new works of art by contemporary artists. Exhibitions to her credit include co-curating Elijah Pierce’s America (Barnes Foundation, 2020); curating the British Pavilion (La Biennale di Venezia, 2019) and co-curating the award-winning international touring exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power. Zoé also serves on the Mayor’s Commission on Diversity in the Public Realm as well as the boards of the Teiger Foundation and Decolonising Arts Institute, University of the Arts London, having just finished her term on the Arts Council Collection Committee (2020-2022).