We collaborate with a broad range of external experts who share their knowledge and experience with artists and art professionals.
These experts are behind some of our core trainings and workshops, developed over years, to provide artists with skills and knowledge, toolkits which are adaptable and tailored to each artist’s individual practice.
Meet some of our experts:
Mariana Sesma / Artist, Curator & Cultural Manager
Mariana Sesma is an artist, curator and cultural manager from Brazil with several years of experience in small and large Brazilian art institutions, including the São Paulo Biennial. She graduated in Visual Arts and holds an MBA in Cultural Management, she has vast knowledge of contemporary art and has worked in the fields of Institutional and International relations, Fundraising, Art mediation, as well as having organised numerous art exhibitions. She is passionate about art and culture and a true believer in its crucial role towards a better society. Her professional mission is to contribute in making the arts ever more sustainable and accessible to diverse audiences.
PhD. Emilia Telese / Artist & Lecturer
Emilia Telese is an artist and academic based between Reykjavík, Italy and the UK. Born in Italy, she graduated in Painting from Fine Arts Academy in Florence in 1996 with a particular interest in XIV Century techniques, the Italian Trans-AvantGarde movement and contemporary performance. She subsequently furthered her studies at the University of Brighton (Printmaking), University of Sussex (Arts Management), University of Warwick (Cultural Policy) and University of Loughborough (Social Sciences). Her work has been shown worldwide since 1994, exhibited at the Louvre (Paris 2012), the New Forest Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale (Venice, 2005), Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria, 2002 – 2003), ZKM (Karlsruhe, Germany 2007), Chashama (New York City, USA 2008), Centro Cultural Telemar (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil 2010), Manege (St Petersburg, Russia 2000), Leeds City Gallery, ArtSway(New Forest, UK) and the Freud Museum (London UK). She has presented her work at major events at Tate Britain, the Royal Festival Hall, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) Oxford, Manchester Contemporary, Merchant City Festival, Glasgow, the Brighton Festival, among others.
She holds an AHRC CDA full bursary PhD doctorate in Social Sciences from the University of Loughborough, UK. Her PhD thesis focused on the social value and the individualisation of artists in the UK between 1980 and 2010.
As an artist, her practice crosses traditional media with time-based practice, including immersive, sensorial, interactive and body-responsive technology, lens-based practice, performance, installation, and public art, as well as classic media such as painting, printmaking and drawing. Often site-specific, Emilia’s work deals with conscious engagement, political and social debate, non-verbal communication and the questioning and deconstruction of social behaviour.
Emilia Telese is Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Ambassador for his Third Paradise worldwide project, supported by the Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella, Italy. She is a lecturer specialised in the relationship between art, society, economics and artists’ professional practice. She has lectured and held courses at many UK and international institutions, such as The University of the Arts, London; Royal College of Art, London; Manchester Metropolitan University; University of Brighton; University for the Creative Arts, Farnham; Sheffield Hallam University; Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design, London; the Iceland University of the Arts, Reykjavík; University of Maastricht, the Netherlands; University of Munich, Germany; the Pistoletto Foundation, Biella, Italy; the Fine Art Academies of Palermo and Florence, Italy.
Emilia has represented practising artists in official UK and European contexts since 2001. She has led UK and European-wide debate events about artists’ livelihoods, political art and social engagement. Emilia Telese is represented by The Artists’ Agency in the UK. She has received awards, endorsements and scholarships by private and public funding bodies since 1999, such as Arts Council of England, AHRC – Arts And Humanities Research Council UK, Millennium Awards, Awards for All, British Council and others.
