Up-scaling your Practice with Kiera Blakey

Kiera Blakey

Blakey is Director of New Contemporaries, one of the UK’s leading organisations for emerging artists. Her work centres on supporting artists at the beginning of their careers, creating transparent and accessible platforms that connect contemporary practice with wider publics. She has held curatorial and leadership roles at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Nottingham Contemporary, Camden Art Centre, and Art on the Underground, where she developed programmes that bring together exhibitions, public space projects, and community-led activity.

As Associate Curator at Compton Verney, Blakey led the development of Sculpture in the Park, a long-term project that brings significant works into the landscape by artists, including Louise Bourgeois, Larry Achiampong, Sarah Lucas, and Augustas Serapinas. She has also curated major commissions and exhibitions with artists such as Erika Verzutti and Helen Chadwick, with a particular focus on how art can inhabit public space and respond to its social and political contexts. Alongside her curatorial work, she regularly lectures, contributes to public debate on contemporary art, and has served on juries including Art Brussels and the 2022 Frieze Emerging Artist Award.

Across her career, Blakey has prioritised widening access to contemporary art and improving the conditions in which artists can work. She is committed to multidisciplinary practice, supporting experimentation, and building spaces for dialogue that foster both artistic and public engagement.