Antonia has been curating exhibitions for over 20 years. She began curating at The Barbican Art Gallery before becoming Senior Curator at Compton Verney. She is now an independent freelance curator, writer and consultant.

Recent projects include an exhibition on the material of glass at the heart of London’s Two Temple Place (27 January -21 April 2024). The Glass Heart explored the heart and soul of this unforgiving, fragile and strong material uniting sculpture and stained glass to defy preconceptions about its form and function. She has just completed curating a series of exhibitions exploring the cultural significance of Apples with partners including The National Trust & the Museum of Cider in Herefordshire (April - November 2023).

Currently under development she is curating The Wonder of Birds a collaboration with artist Jackie Morris & writer Robert Macfarlane (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin). She previously worked on the exhibitions which accompanied their award-winning books The Lost Words (at Compton Verney & subsequent tour) and The Lost Spells (at The Sill, in Northumberland’s National Park).

At Compton Verney she researched and curated a number of significant thematic shows including A Tea Journey: from the mountains to the table; The Marvellous Mechanical Museum; The Arts & Crafts House: Then & Now; The Fabric of Myth (with James Young); Mary Newcomb: Nature’s Canvas as well as collaborations including What the Folk Say (with Paul Ryan), Outside In: Central; Alfred Wallis & Ben Nicholson; Van Gogh & Britain; Only Make-Believe: Ways of Playing (with Marina Warner) and filmmaker and artist Peter Greenaway’s Tulse Luper.

Many of these exhibitions included commissions and new work by contemporary artists, designers, poets, landscape gardeners, performers, sound artists and musicians including: Timorous Beasties, Adam Buick, Ting Tong Chang, Sebastian Cox, Phoebe Cummings, Delaine Le Bas, Jane Edden, Mark Hearld, Tania Kovats, Mariele Neudecker, Rosa Nguyen, Selina Nwulu, Tim Lewis, Harrison Pearce, Dan Pearson, Paul Spooner, Julian Stair, Kurt Tong, Bouke de Vries, Shane Waltener and Andrew Wicks.

Antonia has an MA in History of Art & English Literature (Edinburgh University) and went to Central St. Martin’s College of Art.

Picture credits: top The Marvellous Mechanical Museum, above Phoebe Cummings ‘An Ugly Aside’ commissioned for A Tea Journey, copyright Compton Verney & Jamie Woodley photography.