John Gillett studied Classics and History of Art at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and went on to complete a Traineeship in Exhibition Organisation with the Arts Council of Great Britain. He was mentored by the late Michael Harrison (then Director of Touring Exhibitions at ACGB and subsequently Director of Kettle’s Yard) and by the pioneering gallery educationalist, Helen Luckett, (of Southampton City Art Gallery and the Hayward Gallery). He was Keeper of Art and Exhibitions Officer at Worcester City Art Gallery before becoming Director of The Winchester Gallery at Winchester School of Art in 1985. He developed the Gallery as a key element of a regional network of contemporary art providers, and in particular as the operating base for the Southern Arts Touring Exhibition Service, an educational agency promoting contemporary art and craft through the provision of professional exhibitions to small, developing and non-gallery venues throughout central southern England. Together with the Directors of John Hansard Gallery, Aspex, Millais Gallery and Artsway, he set up the innovative audience development network Gallery-Go; he made the Gallery the base for the regional photography development agency, Fotonet South, and the home for several years of the public art agency Hampshire Sculpture Trust. From 2008-2011 he was Director of Research at Winchester School of Art, and Deputy Head of School from 2009-2013. He has published very many exhibition catalogues, and created publication designs for institutions including Russell-Cotes Museum, Bournemouth; Crafts Study Centre, Farnham; John Hansard Gallery, Southampton; Arnolfini, Bristol; The British Council; Arts Council; and The Crafts Council. His work as digital media artist in residence at ArtSway, New Forest (2001-2), and subsequent exhibition projects Loss of Gravity (ArtSway, 2002), John Bull War and Peace (The Bracknell Gallery and the New Forest Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2005) formed the basis for his PhD by Published Work (Southampton, 2012). In 2012, with Beth Harland, he developed the global video project ‘The Seven Billionth Citizen’, shown at Townhouse Gallery, Cairo; Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury; Solent Showcase Gallery, Southampton, Anglia Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge, and Mamute Gallery, Porto Alegre. With Sara Roberts, he curated the exhibition ‘Still’ for Solent Showcase Gallery in 2013. Since 2014 he has been Programme Leader for Fine Art, developing, with Ian Dawson, ‘Shared Drive’, an ongoing cross-year-group spiral-learning project, promoting collective activity as the key to individual practice, and informing the ethos of the BA programme.
