
Contact
Websites
Biography
Anita Taylor is Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design at the University of Dundee. She is the founding Director of the foremost annual drawing exhibition in the UK, the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize [since 1994], and Drawing Projects UK, a public-facing initiative dedicated to drawing [since 2009]. After graduating from MA Painting at the Royal College of Art [1987], she became Artist-in-Residence at Durham Cathedral [1987-88], then Cheltenham Fellow in Painting [1988-89].
She has extensive teaching, research, peer and expert review, and her academic leadership experience includes: Executive Dean of Bath School of Art and Design at Bath Spa University; Director & Chief Executive Officer, National Art School in Sydney, Australia; Dean of Wimbledon College of Art, University of the Arts London [UAL]; Director, The Research Centre for Drawing at UAL; and Vice Principal of Wimbledon School of Art.
Panel memberships include: Higher Education Funding Councils of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales Research Assessment Exercise RAE2008, Art & Design Panel; Hong Kong Research Assessment Exercise RAE2014, Creative Arts, Performing Arts & Design Panel; and Research Excellence Framework REF2021, member of Sub-Panel 32 Art & Design: History, Practice and Theory.
She is a Trustee and the current Chair of the UK Council for Higher Education in Art and Design, and a Trustee of Stroud Valley Arts.
Recent solo exhibitions include:
- Witness, Young Gallery, Salisbury [2018]; DRAWN, The Customs House, South Shields [2017]
- William Wright Artists Projects [Sydney 2014]
- The Drawing Room, Sydney [2011]; Peter Pinson Gallery, Sydney [2009]
- The Drawing Gallery [2009, 2004]
Her drawings have been included in recent exhibitions at Blyth Gallery, Imperial College London (2019); The Global Centre for Drawing, Langford120, Melbourne [2018, 2013, 2011]; Jerwood Gallery [2016, 2014]; and V&A London [2009].
Awards include the Malvern Award for Drawing [1993]; Drawing Award, Hunting Art Prizes 1999; and First Prize, Hunting Art Prizes 2000, and her work is held in public collections, including the V&A and Jerwood Foundation. She has curated exhibitions of drawing, including Drawing Breath [London & international tour 2006-08] and Drawn Together for Jerwood Gallery [2014]; and organised solo presentations by Barbara Walker [Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, 2018-19], Lyndal Jones [The Holburne, Bath, 2014], Sheela Gowda [Sydney, 2010], and the exhibition programmes at Drawing Projects UK since 2015.
Co-author of Drawing [Cassell Illustrated, first published 2003], she has written on drawing and creative practice for The Guardian/Observer, Craft Arts International, Guardian Culture Professionals Network, and Garageland, and interviews with her are featured in After Nyne [2018], Interalia [2016]; Studio International [2014]; Times Higher Education [2013]; and Artist’s Lives, Oral History Collection, National Life Stories in the British Library Sound Archive.
Media availability
I am available for media commentary on my research.
Contact Corporate Communications for media enquiries.
Areas of expertise
- Art and design
Research projects
Project lead
Research project
Witness was developed as a new series of drawings for a solo exhibition (curated by Esen Kaya), with eight drawings first exhibited in ‘DRAWN’ – Anita Taylor (solo exhibition).

Stories
Press release
A major new UK wide project by Jeremy Deller to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the National Gallery will have its Scottish chapter in Dundee this month.

Press release
More than 450 students will exhibit their work in this year’s Undergraduate Degree Show at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD), part of the University of Dundee

Press release
Over one hundred postgraduate students will showcase their work to the world when the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design Masters Show 2024 opens this month
