Members of the art world internationally, nationally and locally joined campus colleagues last week to celebrate the career of John Hansard Gallery’s longstanding Director Stephen Foster.
Stephen, who retired at the end of April 2017 after 30 years as Director, guided the John Hansard Gallery to become one of the foremost galleries of contemporary art in Europe.
Since he took up his post in 1987, the Gallery has specialised in showing developments in contemporary art and has created exhibitions that examine the legacy of early conceptual art from the mid-1960s to the present day, working with many of the original artists of the conceptual art movement. It has gained a major reputation for its seminal work with artists and curators.
Under Stephen’s leadership, the Gallery has collaborated closely with a wide range of University disciplines, and was designated ‘world-leading’ for its curatorial research in the most recent national assessment of University research.
Stephen was instrumental in the creation of the £27m new arts complex in Southampton’s city centre, where John Hansard Gallery’s future home at Studio 144 is due to open later this year. This exciting new element of Southampton’s Cultural Quarter owes much to the vision of a group of people nearly twenty years ago, one of whom was Stephen.
Earlier this year, Stephen became John Hansard Gallery’s founding patron, and on his retirement becomes an Emeritus Professor of the University.
