SOUTHARD REID - Key Persons
A love of culture and business, food and psychoanalysis, classics and cricket led Frances to set up The Seeking State that helps clients redefine how we engage with culture in the future. It offers consultancy: creating strategies and maps for the future in brand, retail, change business; writing and research on culture, retail and heritage; and training and curated experiences. Frances collaborates with A-I-R and is Founding Member of the collective.
Frances' current work includes: introducing the idea of brand into the world of heritage for the Initiative of Heritage Conservation in Athens; inspiring a team to ‘plane' and create extraordinary experiences for all for the Galway International Arts Festival in Ireland and shaping an entrepreneurial and creative retail culture for the Manchester Art Gallery, The Burrell Collection, Glasgow, The Tower of London, Museum of London and M+ Hong Kong.
Having studied Classics at St Johns, Frances worked for Christies' New York and completed her studies with an MA in Contemporary Art Theory at the Courtauld Institute, London.
Academia led Frances to be the Product Developer at Tate Enterprises for 10 years where she was responsible for the strategic direction, creation and production of Tate product, committed to supporting the Tate brand financially and emotionally through the retail experience.
Julia combines a strategic, analytical and business-driven approach with creativity, knowledge and admiration for artistic practices and cultures. She loves setting up new projects and seeing them through from conceptualisation to execution - be it a capital campaign or a large-scale exhibition.
Born in Vienna, Julia has travelled extensively from an early age. She completed a double Major in Art History and Economics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, followed by a Master's degree at New York University at the Visual Arts Admin programme with some of New York's major art world figures as lecturers. Her master's thesis on international collaborations between museums was presented at the American Museum Alliance Innovators Forum.
After internships in both banks and several cultural organisations such as Performa, LaPlaca Cohen and Departure, Julia worked for Klaus Biesenbach, then Chief Curator at Large at MoMA and Director at MoMA PS1 where she first worked as his assistant and then joined the Development team. Experiences such as coordinating the annual gala at MoMA, setting up a corporate membership programme, writing grant proposals and looking after museum-wide events allowed her to work on all aspects of Development in a two-person team in a fast-paced, multifaceted organisation. Her curatorial support has been credited in MoMA exhibitions, including Yoko Ono: One Woman Show and Björk.
Coinciding with a move to London, Julia supported Hans Ulrich Obrist and Biesenbach as Curators' Consultant for the live art exhibition 15 Rooms in the Long Museum in Shanghai, followed by working with Julia Peyton Jones, then Director of the Serpentine Galleries, on the Pavilion Architecture Commission in 2016. For several years, Julia continued to write and research for Obrist on a freelance basis.
For the next five years, Julia founded, built and ran the young patrons programme at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A Young Patrons' Circle became the largest such group in the UK over a span of two years and outperformed targets year-on-year. Julia managed relationships and renewals, programmed and hosted well over 200 events, started a YPC Future Fund and instigated an annual party and travel programme. Julia's network of artists, designers, creatives as well as cultural professionals and philanthropists expanded significantly during that time.
In early 2021, she moved towards supporting ecological protection and joined US-headquartered Parley for the Oceans to set up a philanthropy arm for their global collaboration network. Recognising the climate emergency as a key challenge of our time, and convinced of the perception-shifting power of art, Julia has consulted artists and initiatives at the intersection of these converging fields, such as CultureCOP, Music Declares Emergency and is currently working on several forthcoming exhibitions and projects.
Julia is based between Lisbon and London.
Kirsty is an independent advisor to the cultural sector and consultant on major art projects. With more than 15 years experience working with public and private arts organisations in the UK and internationally, she has specialist knowledge in building creative content and facilitating audience-led cultural development.
Before collaborating with A-I-R, Kirsty was International Advisor to Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow and prior to this she headed up Garage's International Office based in London. A key area of her role at Garage was to facilitate relationships, negotiate partnerships and build bridges with other institutions, artists, organisations and brands. She became an international connector and cultural broker for Garage and through expert diplomacy and creative mediation she opened doors to collaborate on programmes internationally.
Kirsty has worked with the V&A, LTB Foundation, The Gilbert Collection and The Wallace Collection. She led major commissions with James Turrell, and managed exhibitions including Mark Rothko, Carsten Höller, Performa, Christian Marclay, William Kentridge, Marina Abramovic, The Museum of Everything and John Baldessari. In 2012, Kirsty was Creator of The Museum of Everything; Russia and in 2010 and 2011 co-curated an inaugural large-scale Moscow annual contemporary family event entitled Art Experiment.
From 2006, Kirsty was Senior Project Manager for the LTB Foundation and led the opening of a major new 20,000sqft institute in West London and managed a series of complex international projects in New York. During this time, Kirsty managed programmatic engagement programmes for HNWI, senior academics, artists and political leaders.
During previous roles at Garage and LTB, Kirsty has worked with Founders to establish strategy and related programmes to cultivate and engage new patrons to support the organisations both at an individual and corporate level.
She has worked with diverse cultures and international audiences including Europe, US and Russia. Kirsty also has an extensive professional network across arts, culture, business and media. Kirsty studied History of Art at the University of York.
Louise specialises in strategic business development in the cultural sector. Working with public and private arts organisations at the highest level for nearly 30 years, Louise has gained an in-depth knowledge of strategic vision development, fundraising, implementation and organisational change.
Rebecca studied film and photographic arts at the legendary PCL in the early 80s and worked as a photographer whilst also working in the Finance Department at the Arts Council. In 1987 she joined the Serpentine Gallery, when it devolved from Arts Council direct management. She worked on seminal shows such, as Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away, curated by Damien Hirst and Take Me I'm Yours curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist, both of which featured the most important young artists of the late 20th Century.
As the Gallery grew she took on the role of fundraising and helped organise the now famous Gala Dinners, sponsored by Vanity Fair and attended by the Gallery's Patron, the late Princess of Wales. Rebecca saw the Gallery grow from a staff of just 4 and a turnover of £200,000 to a major international arts institution by the time she left in 1999 to work on a broader range of arts and cultural projects She is a mentor for young people starting their careers in the arts and is currently working with artist, Mat Collishaw, producing the touring virtual reality exhibition Thresholds.
Since leaving the Serpentine Gallery Rebecca co-founded ACTIV with Joyce Hytner - a consultancy working in the arts, non-profit and corporate sector. Their clients range from large national institutions including the National Gallery, Tate, the RSC, and the Royal Academy Schools to cutting-edge organisations such as Artangel, Kneehigh Theatre Company, Polka Theatre and the Pop-Up Festival.
She has undertaken a range of short and long-term strategic development projects with companies, arts organisations and charities, including ATG (the world's largest theatre company)The Natural History Museum, The Courtauld Institute and The Photographers' Gallery. Her corporate clients include global financial companies, such as Bloomberg or UBS Private Banking to luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Jimmy Choo.
Over the past 19 years Rebecca has helped to raise some £35m for the arts, through fundraising events and has helped companies to invest many millions in the arts.
Simon's experience includes strategic vision, international business development, brand building, communications, and an in-depth understanding of contemporary artistic discourse. He has created renowned brands, galvanised diverse communities, worked with leading artists, and produced cultural programming that brings art outside gallery walls and offers the public powerful experiences with culture.
In 2012, Sakhai co-founded The Moving Museum as an independent social enterprise to support new artistic activity in different cities across the world. The Moving Museum produces city-wide incubators, international residencies, large scale exhibitions, publications, public outreach programming, and new art work commissions by the worlds' most important practitioners. With The Moving Museum, Sakhai has realised ground-breaking projects in Dubai, London, New York, and Istanbul and worked with over 100 international artists across 150,000 square feet of space.
He has nurtured some of the most urgent artistic voices and commissioned art that has won international acclaim at the Venice Biennale (receiving the Golden Lion) and institutions such as Tate Modern and The Whitechapel Gallery. The Moving Museum is known as one of the most dynamic contemporary art organisations working today with an enviable track record of working with leading artists early on.
Sakhai has co-edited and produced several publications, speaks regularly at professional conferences on the subjects of curatorial innovation and cultural production, and has collaborated extensively with renowned cultural institutes such as the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, PLATFORM Singapore, The National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne, Traffic, Dubai, and SALT, Istanbul. He has organised cultural programmes for organisations such as Marie Curie Cancer Care and The World Wildlife Fund, and sits on various committees included Tate Young Patrons in London, and PRAKSIS Oslo.
He has developed an expansive network of industry professionals, cultural figureheads, art patrons, business professionals, and press with a focus in Europe, The Middle East as well as wider networks in North America and the Pacific Rim. Currently, Simon is advising Art Basel Cities on the initiative's strategic development in Latin America.
Prior to this, Sakhai was involved in international affairs, cross cultural development, and public diplomacy. He held positions at The Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Office of Egypt and the Levant, at the US Department of State in Washington DC, where he served as Colin Powel Fellow, as well as within the Business Programmes department at the Asia Society in New York. Sakhai holds a Masters Degree in Contemporary Design from The Sotheby's Institute of Art, London, as well as a BA in Culture and Politics from The City University of New York with a dual concentration in East Asia and the Middle East, having also completed research fellowships at The University of Hong Kong, Georgetown University, and The American University in Dubai.