London, England, United Kingdom
Elisabeth Del Prete (she/her) is a London-based, Italian/British curator. Her work explores socio-political issues through collaborative art practices. She is currently undertaking an AHRC-funded PhD at Birmingham City University with Flat Time House and Eastside Projects. Alongside her research, Elisabeth is Associate Lecturer on MA Curating & Collections at University of the Arts, Course Leader on Curating Contemporary Art & Design at Royal College of Art and works as a independent curator. She is currently co-curating a series of wayfinding artworks with Company, Place commissioned by Torridge District Council in North Devon. Prior to starting her PhD, Elisabeth worked at UP Projects as Senior Curator (2018-2024) on five annual iterations of Constellations, a learning and development programme for public art and socially engaged artists and curators, in partnership with Flat Time House, Liverpool Biennial and Deveron Projects. Recent projects with UP Projects also include curating Co-Creating Public Space: How Can We Thrive?, a conference commissioned by John Hansard Gallery; and leading the curatorial research and development and co-creation strategies for two public art commissions by Sahra Hersi in partnership with the London Legacy Development Corporation, and by Anne Duk Hee Jordan in partnership with Wigan Council and National Trust, respectively. In 2018-19, Elisabeth was co-curator of AFTER LEAVING/BEFORE ARRIVING, the 12th edition of Kaunas Biennial, Lithuania. Between 2010-2016, Elisabeth worked as a Post-War and Contemporary Art auction house specialist at Christie’s, London and Wright, New York. Other recent work also include UK-based and international collaborations with Central Saint Martins (MA Culture, Criticism and Curation), Plus Tate, Barbican, Suprainfinit Gallery, Lady Kitt and The NewBridge Project, as well as speaking at conferences by Getty Museum/MUDEC, and CCA Brighton. Elisabeth holds a BA in History of Art from Goldsmiths, an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from RCA, and participated in the Clore Leadership Pulse programme.
2025 - 2026: Course Leader, Executive Education - Curating Contemporary Art & Design: Art in Public: Curating and Commissioning Contemporary Art in Social Contexts - directed by Victoria Walsh supported by Thomas Cury (2026) - Curating Contemporary Art & Design: Why Publish? Publishing as an Expanded Curatorial Practice - directed by Victoria Walsh and led in collaboration with Gerrie van Noord and Laura Valles-Vilches (2025) 2022 - 2025: Associate Lecturer, School of Art and Humanities - Ecologies of Curating, Tutor (MA Curating Contemporary Art) - Curating in the Collaborative Context, Tutor (MA Curating Contemporary Art) - Curatorial Group Projects, Tutor (MA Curating Contemporary Art) - Urgency of the arts, “Co-creating futures: participatory democracy and regenerative designs”, Unit Leader (Across School of Art & Humanities) - Curatorial Approaches, Tutor (MFA Arts & Humanities)
Associate Lecturer, MA Curating & Collections, Chelsea College of Art
To maximise the opportunity for learning, I curated public programmes across the UK with partner organisations, designed civic engagement plans in Wigan and Newham based on co-creation models, and curated the learning and development programmes for early to mid-career public art/socially engaged artists and curators (Constellations: Cohort and Assemblies), including a conference in 2023 in Southampton. Key project areas also involved: leading the R&D and artist selection for a public art commissions by German/Koren artist Anne Duk Hee Jordan (launching in 2025) in partnership with Wigan Council and National Trust and funded by ACE and Goethe institute; developing the evaluation strategy for the organisation including innovating the environmental strategy working closely with Julie's Bicycle; line managing one member of staff at Producer level.
Working in a five-piece curatorial collective, I was responsible for devising the concept, selecting artists and preparing briefs for 10 new art commissions. As part of my role I produced four new commissions in public spaces from conception through to installation (artists: Robertas Narkus, Tamu Nkiwane and Andrej Polukord); and liaised with artist studios and galleries on artwork loans, shipments and installations (artists: Céline Condorelli and Bas Jan Ader). My curatorial contributions also include writing a number of essays published on the catalogue for the biennial, as well as curating a public programme event at Emalin Gallery with Andrej Polukord in London supported with funds from the Lithuanian Institute of Culture and the Austrian Institute of Culture in London. 12th Kaunas Biennial, AFTER LEAVING | BEFORE ARRIVING Curators: Elisabeth Del Prete, Daniel Milnes, Lýdia Pribišová, Neringa Stoškutė, Alessandra Troncone Consulting curator: Lewis Biggs Artists: Bas Jan Ader, Jasmina Cibic, Céline Condorelli, Johanna Diehl, Ieva Epnere, Aslan Gaisumov, Inga Galinytė & Anna Papathanasiou, Alberto Garutti, Francesca Grilli, Laura Grisi, Christian Jankowski, Laura Kaminskaitė, Taus Makhacheva, Adrian Melis, Artūras Morozovas, Deimantas Narkevičius, Robertas Narkus, Tamu Nkiwane, Amalia Pica, Karol Pichler, Andrej Polukord, Ghenadie Popescu, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Mykola Ridnyi, Bálint Szombathy, Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas MagiC Carpets artists: Sonja Jo, Ana Kovačić.