Articles

Paul Hobson reveals the people who have inspired him most.

Arts Professional
3 min read

Paul Hobson

ROGER FRY
As the Contemporary Art Society marks its centenary this year, I feel close to the visionaries who founded the organisation. Roger Fry was amongst that pioneering group. As a curator and champion of contemporary art, he did more than anyone at that time to bring new forms of art to audiences in Britain. If anyone exemplifies the transformational impact a curator can have on audiences, it is him. When one is the custodian of an organisation that stretches back over a century, it is possible to have gurus who guide and shape one’s work who are long gone but whose inspirational legacy lives on in the present.

GILANE TAWADROS
I first met Gilane when she was the Director of inINVA. We became friends and collaborated on a publication, ‘Life is More Important Than Art’, which explored the conditions for making art in the twenty-first century. Gilane is a true visionary with an overriding belief in the importance of artists and what they have to say. It was from the discussions I have had with her that I came to understand the importance of contemporary practice as a form of knowledge and experience production, one that extends our engagement with the world and ourselves. A wonderful gift from a generous teacher and friend.

RAFAEL BONACHELA
Rafael is currently Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company. I joined the board of his dance company – Bonachela Dance Company – in 2006 and he is a close friend. As someone immersed in the contemporary visual art world, it is interesting that the deepest insight I have achieved into the creative process should be from an artist in another art form, one with which I am not so familiar. Watching Rafael work – the way he crafts movement in space – and knowing him personally revealed something essential about the nature of creativity, and led to an acknowledgment that frustratingly, sometimes the closer you are to something, the more elusive it becomes.

SARAH WEIR
I met Sarah at the very beginning of my career when she had just joined Arts & Business and I was working at South Bank Centre. Years later, we worked closely together at the Royal Academy of Arts, until Sarah went on to run the Almeida and subsequently Arts Council England, London. It was from working with Sarah that I observed the elusive lessons of leadership. Sarah is an inspirational leader and charismatic advocate for the arts, who commands respect from those with whom she works and exemplifies the importance of believing in oneself. It is Sarah’s vitality, energy and conviction that I find so inspirational.