Errol Anthony Francis (born in

Oracabessa Oracabessa is a small town in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica east of Ocho Rios. Its population was 4,108 in 2009. Lit in the afternoons by an apricot light that may have inspired its Spanish name, ''Oracabeza'', or "Golden Head", Oracabessa's comme ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

, 1956) is an artist, former mental health campaigner, and current charity executive in the United Kingdom. He currently lives and works in London, England.

Biography

Errol Francis gained his MA Fine Art from

Central St Martins College of Art and Design Central Saint Martins is a public university, public tertiary education, tertiary art school in London, England. It is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and pos ...

in 2004. His professional practice ranged from being a mental health carer, a mental health writer, consultant and campaigner, to running mental health charities and being a senior manager in the NHS. He has co-authored of a number of inquiry reports and book chapters, including ''Black People, Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System'' with Deryck Browne and ''Epidemiology, ethnicity and schizophrenia'' with S. P. Sashidharan. Francis was part of the independent public inquiry into a number of deaths of African-Caribbean patients at

Broadmoor Hospital Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England. It is the oldest of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth Hospital near Liverpool and Rampton Secure ...

and was co-author of the 1993 ''Big, Black and Dangerous'' report into deaths of African-Caribbean patients at Broadmoor Hospital. Francis was formerly Joint Programme Lead at the

Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health The Centre for Mental Health is an independent UK mental health charity. It aims to inspire hope, opportunity and a fair chance in life for people of all ages with or at risk of mental ill health. The Centre acts as a bridge between the worlds o ...

and was co-author of ''Breaking the Circles of Fear'', a research report into the relationship of the African-Caribbean community with the psychiatric services. The project aimed to promote inclusion and positive mental health for black mental health service users, advising the Department of Health on their Delivering Race Equality programme. As an artist, Francis has exhibited across the UK. His installation about voting processes was exhibited at the Nehru Centre London, and his photos and videos have been seen at a series of exhibitions at the

Stephen Lawrence Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

Gallery in

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

, at the

BFI Southbank BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the UK, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Institute. His ...

and the Camberwell Arts Festival. He was one of the artists chosen in 2007 to respond to the Bicentenary of the Parliamentary Abolition of the Slave Trade, to which he responded by encapsulating a lump of demerara sugar in acrylic. His collaborations with former asylum patients were shown in London, Birmingham, Penryth and Glasgow in 2007 as part of the Mental Health Media project Testimony. He has collaborated with artist Caspar Below as ''Black Park'', in 2005 when they launched their online project as part of the A2 Arts Ephemeral Cities project for

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dock ...

. There are numerous references in Francis’s work to

post-colonial Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...

visuality as it is manifested in architecture, landscape, museums and plant collecting. This critical questioning of

empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

and difference and its meaning for contemporary

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

have repeatedly led him to

, a place he has identified as historically crucial and representative for the British national identity, which he explored in his (2009) ''Space time and Englishness''. His doctoral thesis is about the institutional, spatial and historical relationships between museums, gardens and hospitals. Errol was appointed CEO of Culture& in 2016, in which capacity he remains. In addition, he was awarded his PhD from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, where his research focused on postcolonial artistic responses to museums. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of West London in 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Francis, Errol 1956 births Living people Black British artists Photographers from London British contemporary artists Jamaican emigrants to the United Kingdom