We chat to Kathryn Johnson, now heading up the RWA’s curatorial team…
Kathryn Johnson grew up in East Devon but has spent most of her professional career in London, with curatorial roles at the V&A and the Design Museum. Returning to the south west, she now lives in Easton area of Bristol with her young family, and as the new RWA’s new Head of Exhibitions she will be responsible for curating all the major shows in the galleries.
Here’s our Q&A…
Tell us a little about your background in the arts…
I like to think my curatorial career started at age 9! I visited London for the first time in 1991 and saw an exhibition at the V&A called ‘Visions of Japan’. Coming from my tiny Devon village and stepping into this completely new, theatrical and dynamic world was so exciting. It blew my mind! I remember lying on the floor in a room full of projected light and colour, and never wanting to leave.
Fast-forward to 2009 and I joined the V&A Theatre and Performance department, working as an exhibition assistant on a display about Top of the Pops. I stayed at the museum for almost ten years – the highlights of which included meeting David Bowie, as the assistant curator of a ground-breaking exhibition about his art and music.
Through working together on the same exhibition, I also met my husband, Zsolt Balogh, who is a creative video director and animator. We later set up the audiovisual design company Palma Studio together while bringing up two small girls, now 2 and 5. I can’t stay away from museums and galleries for too long, though, and returned to curating full time at the Design Museum a few years ago. We moved to Bristol around the same time. I’m thrilled to be back in the south-west and now, at the RWA, at the centre of local arts and culture.
What made you want to join the RWA team –- and what makes the RWA special for you?
I fell in love with the building when I first brought my daughters to spend time in the family room. It seemed to me a V&A in miniature! The capital restoration project has made it an outstanding ‘home for art’, as Ellen Sharples first envisaged. It’s a joy to plan exhibitions for galleries with such wonderful architecture. I’m excited by the RWA’s unique and close relationship to active art-making, through the Academicians and Artist Network, but also the Drawing School and workshop programme. And it’s very important to me to be part of a gallery that places high value on inclusivity and accessibility as well. It’s a central part of the RWA’s “DNA”.
What are the main elements of your role as the RWA’s Head of Exhibitions, as you see it?
My main focus is on shaping and developing the headline exhibition programme, outside of the Annual Open. On a day-to-day basis, I am working with external curators, artists and designers, project-managing the delivery of exhibitions, and researching exhibition ideas and current practice. I’m also about to co-teach a curatorial MA course, which the RWA and University of Bristol have been partnering on for some time.
Have you been involved in organising the 170 Annual Open – and what are your impressions of this year’s exhibition?
This is my first Open, so I’ve taken a position of ‘watch and learn’! The Open is traditionally, and very effectively, managed and hung by our Academicians with support from RWA staff. Fiona Robinson, RWA President, leads the selection panel and hanging committee. How they have managed to create a coherent and beautiful hang from such a dizzying variety and volume of work staggers me – I almost didn’t believe it possible until I saw it done, in the space of just two days. It’s a job that needs an artist’s eye, and the final exhibition is an artwork in itself.
Despite the crowded walls, the Open has quite a peaceful and airy feel to it this year – particularly in the Winterstoke and Stancomb-Wills galleries. This tone is established by the delicate work of our invited artist, Charmaine Watkiss, as well. Perhaps there’s some compensation in art going on for a collective lack of peace, air and freedom in recent years but, whatever the reason, it gives the 170 Open a very special atmosphere.
What are you working on next?… Any inside info you can share with the Friends about upcoming exhibitions or events at the RWA?
In the immediate instance, I’m looking forward to this year’s Secret Postcard auction and especially the display of the postcards themselves that will be up 4-9 November. I’m not privy to who has created what – so the “big reveal” will be as exciting for me as you!
The next two After Hours events are also shaping up to be very special – on the 9 November Alison Bevan will be talking about how to start or develop your personal art collection, we’ll have artists in the galleries, and of course, the final night of the auction too. The 7 December After Hours will be a festive extravaganza – plans are still in development, but expect candlelight, carols and, as always, lots of creativity.
Are you an artist yourself?
No, and I must be one of the few RWA staff members who is not! I’m very much looking forward to the staff exhibition coming up in November in the Link gallery on our lower ground floor. There is so much artistic talent in the office and the Drawing School. My father studied at the Royal College of Art and I’ve inherited a good eye and creative slant from him, but I identify as one of the audience. I’m always putting myself into the visitors’ shoes as a curator – and really, it’s a great place to be.
The Floating Circle 