Dame Julia Peyton-Jones (born 18 February 1952) is a British curator and gallery director, currently Senior Global Director at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in London, Paris and Salzburg. She formerly worked as Co-Director of the

Serpentine Gallery The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Central London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Gallery, ...

in London.

Early life/career

Peyton-Jones was educated at Tudor Hall School, a boarding and day

independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...

for girls, between the village of Bloxham and the market town of Banbury, in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

. She left the school in 1970. After leaving school, Peyton-Jones studied painting at the Royal College of Art, between the years 1975–1978, but did not continue a career as a professional artist. Two of her works still hang in the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

."Julia Peyton-Jones: I feel impoverished. We are adrift from nature"
''The Independent'', Retrieved 12 May 2014. After her education, she was briefly an art lecturer at the Edinburgh College of Art. In 1988 she became a curator at the Hayward Gallery.

Serpentine Galleries

In 1991, Peyton-Jones became the director of the Serpentine Galleries. In 1998, she oversaw a major refurbishment of the gallery ."Julia Peyton-Jones"
, Royal Society of the Arts; retrieved 12 May 2014. In 2000 she inaugurated the annual Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, a project that invites an architect who has previously never been commissioned to work in the United Kingdom to create a temporary structure at the Gallery. The first pavilion was designed by Dame Zaha Hadid."Serpentine Pavilion to be 'space pod'"
BBC.co.uk; retrieved 12 May 2014. Subsequent pavilions have been designed by Ai Weiwei, Jean Nouvel, and Oscar Niemeyer. In 2013 she oversaw the expansion of the Serpentine into a second building, the Serpentine Sackler Gallery.Stathaki, Ellie
"The Serpentine Sackler Gallery launches with a new extension by Zaha Hadid"
''Wallpaper Magazine''; retrieved 12 May 2014. The Serpentine Sackler Gallery is located in a Grade II listed building, which was originally used for gunpowder storage, and has an extension by the architect Zaha Hadid. In October 2015, Peyton-Jones announced her departure from her role at the Serpentine Galleries in summer 2016. ."Serpentine co-director Julia Peyton-Jones to step down after 25 years"
‘’The Guardian''; retrieved 2 November 2015.

New Projects

Peyton-Jones announced she was stepping down from her post in the Serpentine in October 2015, planning to work independently in contemporary art and architecture, and embark on new projects. “I felt after 25 years this was a good time to hand over the reins to someone new” she said. At age 64, in January 2017, the birth of her first child, a daughter,"Dame Julia Peyton-Jones becomes a mother for first time aged 64"
theguardian.com; retrieved 18 January 2017. Pia was announced

Recognition

Peyton-Jones was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire 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 ...

(OBE) in the 2003 Birthday Honours for services to art and

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire 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 ...

(DBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to the arts.

References

Articles

"Peyton's place"
Telegraph.co 7 September 2006.
"BBC News: OBEs 2003"
BBC News Website, June 2003. {{DEFAULTSORT:Peyton-Jones, Julia 1952 births Living people People educated at Tudor Hall School, Banbury Alumni of the Royal College of Art British curators Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Edinburgh College of Art British women curators