The Team
Theresa Bergne – Curator/Commissioner
Field Art Projects is an art consultancy based in Bristol run by Theresa Bergne. Established in 1999, the organisation has more than a decade of experience commissioning visual artists, designers and performance artists to create permanent and temporary public artworks and events. Projects include Wonders of Weston, a programme of commissions for Weston super Mare, co-curated with Situations involving artists Lara Favaretto, Ruth Claxton and Wrights & Sites, amongst others, and an ambitious, award winning public art programme for The Barts Breast Care Centre in London with artists Julian Opie, David Batchelor and Cornelia Parker.
Field Art Projects has recently delivered a multi-disciplinary public art project for Sovereign Housing in Barton Hill, Bristol with the artist Serena Korda and is currently working with the University of Bristol to deliver a programme with artists Melanie Jackson and Andy Holden.
Jes Fernie – Curator/Commissioner
Jes Fernie is an independent curator and writer based in Colchester in East Anglia. She works with galleries, architectural practices and public realm organisations on public programmes, commissioning schemes and residency projects across the UK. Working primarily beyond gallery walls, she is interested in an expansive idea of contemporary artistic practice, which encompasses dialogue, research, engagement and serendipity.
She has worked with a broad range of artists and architects including Nathan Coley, Melissa Appleton, Alison Wilding, Matthew Butcher and Caruso St John and is a member of many art commissioning selection panels. Organisations she has worked with include firstsite, Tate, Peer, Serpentine Gallery, St Paul’s Cathedral and RIBA. She is currently working with Dutch artist Marjolijn Dijkman on History Rising, a major project in East Anglia, as well as a research project on destroyed public art works. She is a visiting lecturer at the RCA, University of Essex, University of East Anglia and Central St Martins.
Aldo Rinaldi – Programme Commissioner
Aldo Rinaldi is a curator and commissioner based in Bristol. He was the Senior Public Art Officer for the City of Bristol from 2008 – 2017 and commissioned the Future Perfect programme leading on the development of the overall programme and recruitment of the project curators and other staff.
Prior to working in Bristol he worked at a CBAT (now Safle www.safle.com) a commissioning agency based in Cardiff from 2003 – 2007 as a project manager, where he produced a number of projects with artists from the UK and abroad. He was Assistant Director of Laurent Delaye Gallery, London from 2002–2003 and has worked for over 15 years on a range of contemporary art projects in both galleries and the public realm. Past projects include a major work by artist Roger Hiorns, the artists’ first permanent outdoor commission in the UK, together with ‘Primary/Bristol’ a major commissions programme for primary schools developed in partnership with the Arnolfini and Foreground. Other projects include ‘Resilience Lab’, an experimental programme of artist propositions co-curated with Tessa Fitzjohn with artists Marjetica Potrč and Ooze, Marinella Senatore, Fourthland, Mariele Neudecker, and Marvin Gaye Chetwynd.
Tessa Fitzjohn – ‘Sharing the Harvest’ Project Manager
Tessa is an Independent Curator/Producer, who has specialised in developing artist commissions with museums and heritage sites. Her projects are ambitious, high quality and broadly inclusive, they focus on deepening the visitor experience and creative interpretation. These projects include Charles Fort Commissions, Kinsale; Garden of Reason, Ham House, Richmond; Public Art Strategy for Bristol General Hospital; SS Great Britain Public Art Commission, Bristol; Seeds of Change/Ballast Seed Garden, Bristol; Dialogue, a season of contemporary art on Bristol's Dockside and North Devon Ceramic Events.
Her clients include Kinsale Arts Festival; National Trust; Arnolfini,; Look Ahead Housing and Care; Linden Homes PLC; City and Country Group; Torridge District Council; Somerset County Council As a past Arts Council Officer for two regions she has experience of delivering strategic initiatives for artists, workspace and digital media development as well as financial management for eight regularly funded organisations.
Rowan Lear – ‘Sharing the Harvest’ Project Communications
Rowan Lear is a freelance arts producer and orchard-lover. Based in Bristol, she is experienced in managing communications for arts projects and festivals. Rowan is co-director of Bristol Biennial, and has previously worked for In Between Time, Diffusion Festival of Photography, Edinburgh Art Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Jo Plimmer – Engagement Curator (2009-2015)
Jo Plimmer has seventeen years experience of working across the arts, community, health and heritage sectors. Most recently the co‐ordinator for Rook Lane Arts Trust in Frome, she has also worked across a range of public art projects within local authorities and health care trusts in Gloucestershire, Somerset, BANES and Bristol. Committed to the importance of creativity in learning, she is also one of the founder/directors of Break 3, devising and developing arts‐led initiatives to support core learning for children, families and schools.
Leela Clarke – Marketing Manager (2013-2015)
Leela Clarke is an arts marketing specialist and creative producer based in Bristol. She is a co-founder of Hand in Glove, an independent arts project which supports emerging artistic practice and artist-led networks by bringing a range of events and exhibitions to Bristol. She is currently Project Manager for Bristol-based artist Luke Jerram. Previously, Leela managed marketing and communications for Ffotogallery, the national development agency for Photography and lens-based media in Wales and Diffusion, Cardiff’s first International Festival of Photography. Other roles were carried out at LOCOG, Tate Britain and Picture This.
Lynn Froggett – Evaluation
The curators have appointed Lynn Froggett Professor of Psychosocial Welfare at the University of Central Lancashire to track the methodology, process and outcome of Future Perfect. Froggett has an academic background in the Humanities (History and Philosophy) and Social Sciences (Sociology and Social Policy). The distinctive profile of the Psychosocial Research Unit which Froggett directs, reflects her interests in trans-disciplinary approaches to the arts and humanities, psychoanalytic studies and the applied social sciences.
Jane Porter- Orchard Engagement Programme Manager
Jane Porter is a Bristol based independent producer and horticulturist who has worked in leading arts venues in the city for the last 10 years such as Picture This, Watershed and Arnolfini. She programmed the project space Central-Reservation in 2010 and managed public art commissions with Ginkgo Projects in Hartcliffe and Hengrove in 2008. She gives regular exhibition tours at Arnolfini and City Museum and works as Projects Officer at Bristol City Council Culture Team.
Arts Steering Group
Cllr Barry Clark, Hengrove Ward
Cllr Sylvia Doubell, Hengrove Ward
Ray Andrews, Hengrove resident
John Button, Hengrove resident
Norma Davies, Hengrove resident
Nella Stokes, City of Bristol College
Youth Moves representative