Name Tessa Jackson | Role Writer | |
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Abdoulaye Konate in conversation with Tessa Jackson, 06/12/2011
Tessa Jackson OBE (born 1955) is a British contemporary art curator, writer and administrator. From 2010-15 she was the chief executive officer of the Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva) in London.
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Life and work
Jackson was born in the UK in 1955. She was educated at the University of East Anglia, the University of Manchester and the University of Bristol, where she took her Master's degree.
Career
In 1988, Jackson was appointed as the director of the Arnolfini, Bristol's contemporary art venue, where she played a leading role in the redevelopment of the institution. In 1999 Jackson was appointed as the director of the Scottish Arts Council, where she was responsible for the public funding of the arts in Scotland. After two years in post, she left, after falling out with SAC chairman James Boyle. In 2002 Jackson became the founding artistic director and chief executive of the Artes Mundi Prize, a contemporary art prize in Wales, a position which she held until 2010. Simultaneously, she was also the chair of the Edinburgh Art Festival between 2005 and 2010.
Appointed to her position as CEO of Iniva in 2009, she has continued to uphold the organisation's remit to bring leading black, Asian, African, Middle-Eastern, Caribbean, Oceanic and Latin American contemporary artists from around the world to the London venue, which had become, in 2007, the capital's first purpose-built, publicly funded international contemporary art gallery since the Hayward Gallery in 1968.
Speaking to LabKulture in 2011, Jackson stated that her aim at Iniva was, "to diversify how we look at society – through the visual arts... poking society in the ribs a little bit and reminding us there are different view points, different histories that historically in Britain we haven’t always given a proper platform to." During her time at Iniva, the organisation's Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation core funding was reduced by 75%.
Awards
In 2011, Jackson was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in the Queen's New Year's Honours List, in recognition for her 25 years of service to art.