Charles Saumarez Smith
Charles Saumarez Smith was born in 1954 and was educated at Marlborough before winning a scholarship to King’s College, Cambridge, from where he took a double first in History and History of Art. After Cambridge, he spent a year at Harvard University as a Henry Fellow studying at the Fogg Art Museum and then returned to the Warburg Institute as a postgraduate student.
In 1979, he was elected Christie’s Research Fellow at Christ’s College, Cambridge and in 1982 he joined the staff of the Victoria and Albert Museum as an Assistant Keeper with special responsibility for the V&A/RCA MA in the History of Design. In 1990, he was appointed Head of Research at the V&A Museum. In 1994, he was appointed Director of the National Portrait Gallery and, in 2002, Director of the National Gallery.
Dr Saumarez Smith is currently a Governor of the University of Arts, London, an Honorary Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge, and has received honorary degrees from the Universities of London, Westminster, Sussex, East Anglia and Essex. In 2002, he was Slade Professor at Oxford University.
Peter Cook
Peter Cook graduated in 1960 from London’s Architectural Association and within a few months had founded the massively influential broadsheet Archigram.
He has won six international architectural competitions and his most renowned buildings include the housing block at Lutzowplatz, Berlin (1985, with Christine Hawley), the pavilion for the Botanical Gardens of Osaka, Japan (1990) and the Kunsthaus (2000) in Graz.
His reputation in Britain rests on his work as an inspirational figure – educator, organiser and critic. He started teaching in 1964 at the age of 27 (at the Architectural Association) and has since become internationally renowned as a pedagogue and academic. He was invited to join the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London in 1990, and was given the prestigious post of Bartlett Chair of Architecture. He was awarded the Royal Gold Medal of the RIBA in 2002 and elected Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy in 2005.
Cook has been a Visiting Professor in MIT, UCLA, Harvard, Tokyo, Oslo, Moscow, Rice, Queensland, Berlin, Haifa, Madrid and Aarhus as well as a critic in some 70 other universities.
Peter Cook has written ten books, edited issues of magazines, written innumerable articles and has had his work featured in a diverse array of publications.
Simon Thurley
Dr Simon Thurley is the Chief Executive of English Heritage, the Government’s principal advisor on the historic environment in England. Under Dr Thurley’s leadership the 420 sites opened to the public by English Heritage are undergoing a major period of investment and improvement and membership numbers have risen to nearly 600,000 in the last two years.
Before April 2002 Dr Thurley was the director of the Museum of London, the world’s largest city museum. In 1989 he was appointed the Curator of the Historic Royal Palaces with responsibility for the presentation, archaeology, building maintenance and display of the six unoccupied royal palaces.
Dr Thurley is a leading architectural historian and broadaster. His books include the best selling Royal Palaces of Tudor England and documentaries include Flying Through Time, a six-part history of London for Granada and Channel Four’s six part series Lost Buildings of Britain for which he also wrote an accompanying book.
Dr Thurley is Honorary Fellow and Visiting Professor of London Medieval History at Royal Holloway College, London. He is an honorary member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, President of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, Chairman of the Society for Court Studies and serves on the Council of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Sir John Tusa
John Tusa was born in Czechoslovakia and came to this country with his family in 1939. He was educated at St Faith’s School, Cambridge, Gresham’s School, Holt and Trinity College, Cambridge where he took a First in History.
After National Service as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery in Germany he joined the BBC as a General Trainee in 1960. Having worked in all parts of the BBC both as a producer and increasingly as a radio and TV presenter, John Tusa was a main presenter of BBC 2’s Newsnight from its start in 1979 to 1986. He won awards from both the Royal Television Society and BAFTA. From 1986 to 1992 he was Managing Director of BBC World Service.
After a short spell as President of Wolfson College, Cambridge he became Managing Director of the Barbican Centre in 1995 where he is to this day.
John Tusa has written books on broadcasting, arts policy and the nature of creativity. He is Chairman of the Wigmore Hall Trust, a Vice Chairman of the British Museum, and a Trustee of Somerset House and has been Chairman of the Government Art Collection, Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery and Design Museum.