Joanna Drew

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(1929–2003) was an English art gallery director and arts administrator. She worked for the Arts Council for nearly four decades, and was director of the

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Roy ...

from 1987 until 1992. She was once described as "unquestionably the most important individual in the British art scene".Obituary: Joanna Drew
''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'', 22 April 2003. Retrieved 17 July 2013.

Life

Joanna Drew was born in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, the daughter of Brigadier Francis Greville Drew, later military governor of Eritrea, and the artist Sannie Drew. She was educated at

Edinburgh Ladies' College The Mary Erskine School, popularly known as "Mary Erskine's" or "MES", is an all-girls independent secondary school in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1694 and has a roll of around 750 pupils. It is the sister school of the all-boys Stewa ...

O'Ryan, Lydia (2002
Drew, Joanna. (12 of 50). National Life Story Collection: Artists' Lives
British Library, Retrieved 16 October 2014 and

Dartington Hall Dartington Hall in Dartington, near Totnes, Devon, England, is an historic house and country estate of dating from medieval times. The group of late 14th century buildings are Grade I listed; described in Pevsner's Buildings of England as "on ...

before studying a course in the history and practice of art taught jointly by the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

and

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

. Drew joined the Arts Council in 1952 as an exhibition organizer. She helped organize

Fernando Gamboa Fernando Andrés Gamboa (born 28 October 1970 in Marcos Juárez, Córdoba) is an Argentine football manager and former player who played as a defender. Playing career Gamboa started his playing career in 1988 with Newell's Old Boys where h ...

's 1953 exhibition of

Mexican art Various types of visual arts developed in the geographical area now known as Mexico. The development of these arts roughly follows the history of Mexico, divided into the prehispanic Mesoamerican era, the New Spain, colonial period, with the perio ...

at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, and went on to organize the 1960

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

exhibition (where takings were too large to count at the end of the day), the 1964 Miró exhibition and the 1968

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...

exhibition at the Tate.Andrew Dempsey
Joanna Drew
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 23 April 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drew, Joanna 1929 births 2003 deaths People educated at the Mary Erskine School Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art British arts administrators Women arts administrators British art curators Commanders of the Order of the British Empire