University for the Creative Arts - OLDING Professor Simon

University for the Creative Arts > Staff Profiles > OLDING Professor Simon

Professor Simon Olding leads our MRes Crafts course and is Director of the Crafts Study Centre at UCA Farnham. He's also Professor of Contemporary Crafts at UCA. Simon has held many senior roles in museums, galleries and art organisations since 1979.

Simon joined the University for the Creative Arts in the year 2002 as Director of the Crafts Study Centre, the university museum of modern craft. He joined the professoriate in 2004 as Professor of Modern Crafts. He leads the MRes Crafts degree and supports the theory and analysis unit for the MA Craft and Design students.

His previous career includes working as a specialist ceramics curator, as a museum director (Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth) as well as periods in agency and advisory work (London Museums Officer and Assistant Director, Area Museums Service for South Eastern England) and as Director of Policy and Research for the Heritage Lottery Fund. After graduating from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, he received his PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1980.

Contact
+44 (0) 1252 892 953
solding@uca.ac.uk

Simon’s research interests focus on the field of modern and contemporary craft practice. He has a special interest in 20^th century and contemporary ceramics, as well as the history of craft organisations and of craft practice and guilds located in south west England. He has made a special study of the etchings of Bernard Leach and of Leach’s personal collection of ceramics.

Simon has supervised four PhDs to successful completion, including a study on heritage architecture in Spain, two practice-led ceramic studies and one in contemporary textiles.

Current supervision for UCA:

Francine Blythe
Linda Brassington
Liz Thomson
Christine Day
Jaci Foster
Penelope Clayden
Martha Todd
Lynn Setterington.

Professional Membership, Affiliation and Consultancy:

Fellow of the Museums Association, Royal Society of Arts and the Tourism Society
Member of the editorial boards of The Journal of Modern Craft and Craft Research
Peer reviews for Bloomsbury, Berg Publishers, Design Journal, Craft Research, Journal of Modern Craft
Artistic assessor for Arts Council England
Acting Chair, The Leach Pottery
President, Walford Mill Crafts
Patron, SIT Select
External member, Advisory Committee, Aberystwyth University, School of Art Museum
Honorary Fellow of the Arts University Bournemouth.

External examination:

External examiner for the City University, London, Department of Arts Policy and Management, and the Art Gallery and Museums Diploma of Manchester University.
Simon has examined PhD research degrees at the University of Ulster and Manchester Metropolitan University (University of Wolverhampton, Falmouth University in pipeline)

Awards, Grants and Commissions:

HEFCE University Museums Grants
2006-2009 £250,000
2010-2016 £350,000
Arts Council England
Craft Commissioning programme 2004 £45,000
Setting the Scene 2013 £50,000
Urban Field 2007 £60,000
Esmee Fairbairn Foundation
Marketing for CSC 2004-6 £90,000
Heritage Lottery Fund
Collecting Cultures 2010-2012 £185,000
Paul Mellon Foundation
Research project for Edinburgh Weavers £25,000
Various grants from Idlewild Trust, Farnham South Street Trust, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, Ernest Cook Trust, Patricia Baines Trust.

Commissions:

Simon curates craft exhibitions for the Crafts Study Centre and externally:
Consultant curator for the retrospective exhibition John Hinchcliffe (Salisbury Museum, 2015).
Co curator (with Dr Glenn Adamson and Martina Droth) for the exhibition Things of Beauty Growing: British Studio Pottery (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven CT, 2017; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 2018).

Professor Simon Olding

Director of the Crafts Study Centre, Professor of Contemporary Crafts, UCA Farnham

Academic, School of Crafts and Design

Research Statement

Research Supervision

Professional Membership, Affiliation and Consultancy

Research Outputs

Key outputs on UCARO: