After studying art history during an MA at the University of Oxford, Ruth Millington spent five years working for museums and galleries across the UK, including the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art and renowned modern art dealership Connaught Brown. She is an art expert on radio and TV, including BBC Breakfast, Woman's Hour, ITV News, Radio 4's Today programme and Sky Arts. Ruth has had writing featured across national newspapers, including the Telegraph, the i, The Sunday Times, Daily Mail and Express. She has lectured on art history at Oxford Literary Festival, The 92nd Street Y, New York, Dulwich Picture Gallery and Sotheby’s Institute of Art, where she is Head of Careers. Her first book Muse (Penguin, 2022) reframes the muse as an active agent in the making of masterpieces, and she curated an exhibition on this theme at London Art Fair 2023. She is currently writing a children’s art book, which will be published by Nosy Crow in 2024.

Kimathi Donkor’s art re-imagines mythic, historical and everyday encounters across Africa and its global Diasporas, principally in painting and drawing. Prominent exhibitions include the 15th Sharjah Biennale (UAE, 2023), ‘War Inna Babylon’ at the ICA, (London 2021), the Diaspora Pavilion (57th Venice Biennale, 2017) and the 29th São Paulo Biennial (Brazil, 2010). Born in Bournemouth, England, Donkor is of Ghanaian, Anglo-Jewish and Jamaican family heritage, and as a child lived in rural Zambia and the English westcountry. He lives and works in London, where he is the Reader in Contemporary Painting and Black Art at the University of the Arts, London. Art by Donkor is held in collections including at The British Museum, the Sharjah Art Foundation, the Wolverhampton Art Gallery, the International Slavery Museum, the collection of CCH Pounder and the Sindika Dokolo Foundation, amongst others.

Sadie Clayton is a sculptor exploring the dynamic boundaries between art, spirituality and technology. Sadie works specifically with copper; a material that is known for its healing properties. Having worked with institutions such as the Royal Academy of Arts, Tate, and the London Design Biennale and created a series of large public sculptures and installations both tangible and virtual to extend holistic health benefits of this material into the wider community for the Ivy, Sky Arts ‘Landmark’ and as part of the Albertopolis Fantasy Project. Embraced by the art world as a creator and innovator unique to the UK scene, Sadie was interviewed by BBC Radio 4 on their Only Artists programme, with Ron Arad the renowned industrial designer, artist and architect, about her perspective on what it means to be an artistic fusion with no creative boundaries, created a video for the Art Fund for the V&A Museum exhibition of Frida Kahlo, and spoke about her creative journey at the Royal Academy of the Arts exhibition on Anthony Gormley. Clayton has embarked on more projects within TV including the Channel 4documentary, in collaboration with Dove, Hair Power, Me and My Fro, talking about the symbolism and sensibilities within the African / Caribbean community vs white community to afro hair, and as a mentor and judge on the 11 episode CBBC’s Britain’s best Young Artists.

Brad Blume is president of the Rudolph Blume Foundation that supports various arts programs and emerging artists in the visual arts. Recently, the Foundation has supported Houston’s Theater Under the Stars as well as the Museum of Fine Arts Glassell Core Program. Over the last 30 years, Brad has collected over 850 works of contemporary art from artists all over the world.

Brad is a Tony and Olivier winning theater producer and is a tennis, art and theatre entrepreneur. On London’s West End, he’s co-produced The Inheritance, Be More Chill and An American in Paris. On Broadway, he has co-produced New York New York, The Piano Lesson, Pictures from Home, Ohio State Murders, American Buffalo, The Inheritance, The Band's Visit, Tootsie, Torch Song, Head over Heels, Anastasia and An American in Paris. Brad also founded One More Production Company 1MoreProduction.com

As President of Tennis Express, Brad grew the business from a small start-up to one of the largest e-commerce tennis retailers in the world. Tennis Express proudly supports the Houston chapter of the National Junior Tennis & Learning program.

Educated at the AA school, his architecture & design firm is based in Notting Hill London.  His preoccupations are contemporary art and architecture; and especially their intersection.

Roland is a trustee of the Outset Contemporary Art charity and on advisory panels of The Eye of the Collector and AucArt.

He is much travelled; meeting artists, curators, critics, thinkers, gallerists, institutions, fairs, and biennials.  Roland is involved in many initiatives in art; helping artists, galleries, and institutions develop new ideas, and projects.

Jean Wainwright is an art historian, critic and curator living in London. Her areas of expertise are in contemporary art and photography, with particular reference to Andy Warhol, on whose life and works she is an internationally recognised expert. As a writer and academic she has published extensively in the contemporary arts field, contributing to numerous catalogues and books. She also regularly appears on television and radio, most notably on Channel 4, the BBC, The Open University, Resonance FM and BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Born in London and brought up in Ipswich, Hastings and Glasgow, it was during college that Chris discovered his connection with clay as a medium for his art. Specialising in ceramics, Chris graduated from The Glasgow School of Art.

The contrast of his African heritage and European upbringing lead to Chris’s warm, contemporary style, combining African forms and culture with modern techniques. In 1985, Chris moved to Zimbabwe where he was influenced by methods of colloquial stone sculpture; he learned processes of carving serpentines and verdites and translated these new forms and techniques to his ceramic work.

Returning to London and gaining his masters in sculpture and multimedia at Westminster university, Chris then went on to set up his own studio in 1988. His ceramics are inspired by life, harmony, rhythm and dance and influenced by the people around him; their spirit and heartbeat are captured in his meditative process as he documents hidden aspects of today’s black culture.

Daniella works with art fairs and galleries, as well as contributing to panels and writing. Daniella is a judge for the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize presented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery, was a Ceramics judge on the Woman's Hour Craft Prize (a BBC, Crafts Council and V&A initiative) and is a regular contributor to Rue Pigalle and the Crafts Council’s Collect Fair.

After studying Ceramics at Central Saint Martins, she started her career working at Sotheby’s on exhibitions of contemporary decorative arts in New York and London.

IG: @wellsdaniella

www.daniellawells.co.uk

Originally from France Maylis moved to London aged 20 to study Economics & Business at the LSE. Maylis has been working in the cosmetic industry as a marketing director for LVMH, Coty, Estée Lauder and beauty incubators such as Maesa. She now specializes in helping beauty & wellbeing founders in optimizing their marketing & digital strategy as well as developing their product innovation pipeline.

Parallel to her career she continued to develop her private ceramic collection as well as her interest in museums & galleries acquisition strategy and Art Education. She is a Collector and a Patron.

The Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize is the result of a conversation between her husband and her on how to help young ceramicists.

Preston has been a judge of The Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize since its inception in 2014. For the past 11 years he has curated a Work in Progress exhibition with Royal College of Art students in the MA Ceramics and Glass department. He is on the Cockpit Ceramics Residency selection committee. He has curated ceramics exhibitions through London Craft Week and London Design Festival. Preston is  currently the Chairman of The Crafts Council's Patrons group.

With her work, Bisila aims to challenge Western views on art and craft; to question what we understand as productive and worthy in capitalist societies; and to reflect upon the idea of home and oneness pulling from personal experiences in different pottery communities. 

Her work extends from wheel-thrown pieces with the distinctive addition of marbled slip decoration to create eye-catching abstract landscapes; to sculptural pieces mixing throwing, coiling and carving which connect Bisila to her roots, the makers that precede her and our past.

With a background in Translation and International Relations, Bisila is a passionate feminist activist. She leads the London LGBTQ+ Community Centre and co-directs Lon-art Creative, an arts and activism organisation that offers a platform for everyone to create, collaborate and reflect upon social issues through the arts. Lastly, she is part of Design Can, a campaign to make the design industry more inclusive and diverse.

At Cockpit, Annie has shaped a bold new vision. This year, a £3.2 million capital project backed by the Mayor of London, will refurbish and transform Cockpit’s Deptford studios, creating more studios, a new learning centre, a public art commission by Amber Khokhar and new craft garden landscaped by Sebastian Cox.

Prior to joining Cockpit, Annie was Creative Director at Crafts Council UK.  Bringing contemporary craft to public audiences, she led three editions of Collect – the international fair for contemporary craft and design, and a portfolio of exhibitions including at the V&A, Cheongju Biennale, Design Miami/Basel and the Grayson Perry show Julie Cope’s Grand Tour. She is the author of Our Future is in the Making, the influential manifesto launched by Edmund de Waal and Tristram Hunt in the Palace of Westminster.  

Annie is a regular juror on prizes and awards, including the V&A/BBC Woman’s Hour Craft Prize and the Royal Dublin Society Craft Awards, Ireland’s major prize for makers.  Last year she was a juror on the Fine Art Textile Prize, and since 2020 she has served as a selector for the Queen Elizabeth Trust Scholarships. 

A respected writer and presenter, Annie’s work on craft is widely published. Speaking engagements include Tate, V&A, London Design Festival, Barbican, South Bank Centre, Milan Triennale, and International Futures Forum. Her TEDx talk on craft innovation has received over 30,000 views.  

Educated at the University of Cambridge, Annie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, council member at Creative UK, Associate of the Artworkers Guild, and honorary Associate of Newnham College Cambridge.  She serves on the artistic advisory panel at the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration.