Journalist, Author and Director, Arts and Creative Industries Policy Unit, Fabian Society
Alison Cole is the director of a policy unit working to develop arts and creative industries policy in the U.K. She is also an editor at large of The Art Newspaper, the journal of record for the international art world, having served as the paper’s editor for the last five and a half years. She has worked as an executive director for some of the U.K.’s leading cultural organizations, including Art Fund, where she edited Art Quarterly magazine and led the VAT refund campaign to make all national U.K. museums free, as well as London's Southbank Center and Arts Council England. She previously served as a trustee of the Foundling Museum in London and is currently an adviser to cultural education charity Art U.K. and a member of the Critics' Circle.
Ms. Cole is the originator of the Superpower of Looking – a transformational program for school children in the U.K. – as well as an author and art historian. She gained her M.Phil. in Renaissance studies at the Warburg Institute, University of London. Her books include “Michelangelo: The Taddei Tondo” (2017); “Italian Renaissance Courts: Art, Pleasure and Power” (2016); “The Renaissance” (1994); “Perspective (1992), produced in association with the National Gallery, London; and “Color” (1993), produced in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. She has also written two children’s books – “Bod’s Way: The Meaning of Life” (2002) and “Bod's New Leaf: Making a Fresh Start” (2003).
