Dr Caroline Campbell is Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, the first woman and the first person from Ulster to hold this role in the Gallery’s 172-year history. She was previously Director of Collections and Research at the National Gallery, London, and has also held curatorial positions at the National Gallery, the Courtauld Gallery and the Ashmolean Museum.

Caroline was born and grew up in Belfast, and came up to Univ in 1991 to study Modern History. Subsequently she took an MA and PhD in Art History at the Courtauld Institute, University of London, and was a Fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership, New York. She has curated and co-curated many exhibitions, including Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300-1350 (2024-25, winner of the Apollo Award 2025), Mantegna and Bellini (2018-19) and Bellini and the East (2004-05). She has published widely, and her first non-exhibition book, The Power of Art, was published in 2023.

Caroline is a strong advocate of widening participation and digital engagement in museums. Her interest in art history developed after a visit to the National Gallery of Ireland as a teenager, and she wants all young people to be able to see and enjoy great art.

Dr Oliver Cox is Head of Academic Partnerships at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), where he is responsible for building a global network of higher education partners to enable the V&A to deliver its mission to champion art, design and creativity in all its forms for everyone.

He joined the V&A in 2023 from the University of Oxford, where he was Heritage Engagement Fellow and Co-Lead of the Oxford University Heritage Network responsible for the University’s research and engagement projects with partners in the UK and international heritage sector.

Olly is a historian by training, and received his undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees from Univ.

Leighton House is the former home and studio of the leading Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896). From its first construction in the 1860s up until shortly before Leighton’s death, his studio-house on the edge of Holland Park was a constant preoccupation. Absorbing large amounts of his time, money and effort, the house combined spaces for living, working and entertaining and the display of Leighton’s collections.