About

Deborah Smith is a curator and collections consultant whose practice explores strategies for collaboration and the presentation of interdisciplinary work across contemporary art, collections, heritage and architecture. With over three decades of experience, she has developed and delivered major exhibitions, public realm projects, commissions and institutional programmes, working across the public and private sectors to foster partnerships and exploring ways of engaging with art.

She was formerly Director of the Arts Council Collection, the UK’s national collection of modern and contemporary British art, and has held senior roles including Interim Head of Programmes at Serpentine Galleries and Associate Curator at Arup, the global engineering and design firm. She co-founded the curatorial partnership smith + fowle.

Her curatorial collaborative projects include Human Conditions of Clay/Chapter; the first UK institutional touring exhibition of work by Kerry James Marshall/Camden Art Centre, Baltic, The New Art Gallery Walsall, Modern Art Oxford; The Future’s Not What It Used to Be/Chapter; and I Want! I Want! – Art and Technology /Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and Excavation: Macro to the Micro, a VR and online exhibition /vortic.art. Her practice spans exhibitions, public programmes and commissions, bringing together artists, institutions and diverse audiences to explore ideas across disciplines.

Alongside her independent practice, Smith is a judge for the Museum + Heritage Awards and a member of the UK Parliament Collections Advisory Group. She also serves on the University of Warwick Art Collection Committee and the HS2 Independent Design Panel, and is a Shadow Advisory Board member of The Box, Plymouth. A newly appointed Trustee at Matt’s Gallery.