George Vasey

Dr. George Vasey is a curator and writer. He has curated over 50 exhibitions across the academic, public and commercial sector. He has curated large-scale historic group exhibitions, solo projects, radio shows, residencies and conferences. His writing on art, museum culture and heritage is regularly published in magazines, journals and books. 

Recent exhibitions and commissions have explored interpretative strategies for learning-disabled artists, the history of happiness, representations of illness, end-of-life care, and the politics of air. While his output and thematic interests are manifold, he views curating as a deeply creative practice. For him, curating is a form of interdisciplinary storytelling that synthesises diverse forms of knowledge and experiences to create accessible and inclusive narratives. He is committed to ethical approaches that enable communities to share complex stories sensitively and is passionate about the civic potential of museums and galleries as vehicles for co-produced, multi-modal narratives.

As a curator he supports artists to make ambitious new work, connecting artists and communities and artistic thinking to social and historical contexts. Through his writing he links art to broader fields of knowledge, including economics, psychology and politics. He originally studied Fine Art at Falmouth College of Art and Newcastle University before undertaking an MA in Curating at Goldsmiths. His background as an artist informs the way he works as a curator, in which he is committed to supporting artists and communities holistically.

He believes that a curator’s responsibility reaches far beyond exhibition-making. Having grown up in a working-class background, he shares his experiences and skills through teaching, mentorship and coaching. He teaches widely on BA and MA programmes across the UK and regularly works with organisations committed to early-career artists, curators and writers. 

Recent curated projects include: ”Forecast” with Invisible Dust, Royal Docks (2023) “Commoning the Collection" at Leeds Art Gallery (2021-22), "In the Air" co-curated with Emily Sargent (2022), "Joy & Tranquillity" co-curated with Laurie Britton Newell (2021) touring to German Hygiene Museum (2023), "Misbehaving Bodies: Oreet Ashery and Jo Spence" co-curated with Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz (2019) at Wellcome Collection, and "The Everyday Political" at Southwark Park Galleries (2018). He was Co-Curator on Turner Prize at Ferens Art Gallery, Hull (2017) and has previously worked for Newcastle University (2016-18), BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (2017) and Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (2014-16) in curatorial roles.

He is a Trustee at New Contemporaries (2016-) and a member of AICA-UK, International Association of Art Critics (2013-). He was a Writer in Residence at Intoart (2021-24) and has previously undertaken writing residencies with Jerwood Arts and Arts & Heritage. He completed the Clore Leadership Pulse programme in 2022. 

-Experimental and interdisciplinary approaches to exhibitions, commissioning and collections.

-Inclusive and accessible practice in curating.

-Art & healthcare

-Art criticism & art writing. 

-Emerging and experimental artistic, curatorial and writing practice. 

-10 years of experience teaching across Fine Art, Museum Studies and Curating Programmes at BA, MA and PhD levels across the UK. He was a Teaching Fellow in Curating at Newcastle University (2016-18) and has delivered programmes and talks for: Falmouth College of Art, Sunderland University, Leicester University, Durham University, Reading University, Northumbria University, Goldsmiths, Royal College of Art, Oxford Ruskin, Leeds Beckett, University of Leeds, Central Saint Martins, Manchester School of Art, UCA Farnham and Teesside University. In 2017-18, he was an advisor and lead facilitator on Syllabus, a non-accredited development programme run by Wysing, New Contemporaries, Studio Voltaire, S1, and Eastside Projects. 

-Module lead across postgraduate curating, including apprenticeship provision and advanced practice routes. 

-PhD supervision and support. 

-Lead on intensive week activity and programming. 

-Pastoral and academic support via personal tutoring. 

-Have taught across under and post-graduate Fine Art, Museum Studies and Curating courses as a visiting lecturer at universities across the UK.