Sonia Solicari

Sonia Solicari
BornJuly 1978[1]
City of London
OccupationCurator, Director of the Museum of the Home
NationalityBritish
EducationUniversity College London, Royal Holloway University of London, King's College London, Bishop Stopford's School at Enfield[citation needed]

Sonia Solicari is a British curator and museum director at Museum of the Home. Solicari has been the Director of the Museum of the Home, in Hoxton, London, since January 2017.[2][3][4][5] Solicari is also co-director of the Centre for Studies of Home, a partnership with Queen Mary, University of London and an international hub for research on the home, past, present and future.[6]

Biography

Early life and education

Solicari was born in London to Italian parents and grew up in Enfield, north London where she attended Galliard Primary School and Bishop Stopford's School.[7][3]

Solicari completed her undergraduate studies in English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, followed by postgraduate degrees in Nineteenth-Century Studies at King's College London and Museum Studies at University College London.[7]

Career

Victoria and Albert Museum

Solicari began her career at the Victoria and Albert Museum as assistant curator of the paintings, prints and drawings collection and later of the Chinese textiles collection. In 2006 she became curator of ceramics and glass, part of the team delivering the new Ceramics Galleries which opened in 2009 and 2010.[7][3][4]

In 2010, Solicari was appointed Principal Curator of the Guildhall Art Gallery in the City of London and promoted to Head of the Gallery in 2013.[8][6] Here she led the complete redisplay of the City’s art collection and launched a new public programme, including Victoriana: The Art of Revival in 2013; Ajamu X Fierce in 2014 and No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990, the first exhibition of its kind in the UK, in 2015-2016. In 2015, Solicari initiated a new collecting and programme strategy, Money, Power, Politics, working with artists to interrogate the role of London’s square mile - including Martin Parr, Polly Braden, Martha Richler (Marf) and Mark Titchner.

Museum of the Home

In 2017, Solicari became Director of Museum of the Home (formerly the Geffrye Museum of the Home) in Hoxton, east London. She succeeded David Dewing who had run the Museum for 25 years.[2]

As Director of the Museum, Solicari has overseen an £18.6 million capital development project[9] to expand and transform the site. The restoration of the Grade I Listed Museum buildings was overseen by architects Wright & Wright who created 80% more space for events, collections and exhibitions.[10]

Solicari also led the rebranding of the Museum, with the name changed to Museum of the Home to better reflect the new vision to represent home as a physical, emotional, psychological and political space and to become a more socially engaged organisation.[11]

With Alison Blunt, Solicari is co-director of the Centre for Studies of Home, a collaboration with Queen Mary, University of London.[12]

Solicari is a trustee of Bethlem Gallery which works with artists to lead change in health and society.

References

  1. ^ "Search Results".
  2. ^ a b "Sonia Solicari to be new Director of the Geffrye Museum". ArtsProfessional.
  3. ^ a b c "Musesum [sic] of the Home: Meet the director Sonia Solicari".
  4. ^ a b "London design secrets from Shoreditch's Geffrye Museum director". 18 July 2017.
  5. ^ "Our Members - National Museum Directors' Council Website".
  6. ^ a b "Who we are".
  7. ^ a b c "A working life: the art gallery curator". the Guardian. 14 October 2011.
  8. ^ "London design secrets from Shoreditch's Geffrye Museum director". Homes and Property. 10 July 2017.
  9. ^ "Geffrye Museum reopening as Museum of the Home after £18m investment". 28 November 2019.
  10. ^ "Expanded buildings | New spaces | Refreshed Gardens | Museum of the Home". www.museumofthehome.org.uk.
  11. ^ ""The past has a lot to offer to contemporary debates", says Museum of the Home director". Dezeen. 16 December 2019.
  12. ^ "People". www.studiesofhome.qmul.ac.uk.