ARTiculating Regeneration: Art as Agent for Change. Adam Sutherland.
Adam Sutherland was appointed Grizedale Arts' Director in March 1999. He was previously director of art.tm, a visual arts organisation in the Scottish Highlands, prior to which he was a visual artist, producer and maker based in London.
Adam leads Grizedale Arts' core development - curating on and off-site projects, liaising between GA and its local communities, developing short, medium and long term strategies for the organisation's survival and working with artists at all stages from concept development to making and producing. He has been instrumental in the career development of numerous artists and curators including Marcus Coates, Bedwyr Williams, juneau/projects, Laure Prouvost, Ceri Hand, Sarah McCrory and Alistair Hudson. Rejecting the traditional desk bound role of the director / curator, Adam makes time for production, making ceramics for installations by Laure Prouvost and others, working on building projects at Lawson Park and prototyping many of the craft initiatives for which GA has become known in the last decade.
Since 2003, Adam has led the strategic and operational development of Grizedale Arts' hill farm headquarters Lawson Park, from a derelict shell to a thriving residency centre where visitors and residents come together in a unique place surrounded by productive and ornamental gardens. With partner Karen, he lives as a residential warden on site, hosting volunteers, guests and visitors there. Their cooking is legendary, with fresh Lawson Park produce and local game a speciality. In 2020, Adam was instrumental in the organisation acquiring The Farmer's Arms at Lowick Green, and beginning its re-invention as a new kind of cultural space.
Additionally to his prodigious output at Grizedale Arts, Adam has curated projects for commissioners such as Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin), PS1 / MoMA in New York and Jerwood Visual Arts in London.