Biographies
David Wilson Posnett MA Cantab. OBE
Chairman of the Holburne Trustees
David Posnett graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1964.
From 1964 he worked in the investment department of stockbrokers, Montagu, Loebl, Stanley in the City of London, before moving in 1966 to The Leger Galleries on London's Old Bond Street, a distinguished firm of dealers in fine art, established in 1892. From 1981, David Posnett moved the firm's speciality from Old Masters mainly to that of British Paintings and Watercolours, 1720-1850, and in 1996 sold the firm to the dealers, Spink and Son. During his tenure at The Leger Galleries the firm sold many important works of art to collectors and museums throughout the world.
David Posnett was Chairman of the Society of London Art Dealers from 1990 until 1993, during which time he was responsible for the important regulatory work leading to the introduction of their Terms and Conditions of Sale. He was made a Freeman of the City of London in 1963 and has been a Liveryman of the Leathersellers' Company since 1967.
David Posnett was appointed a trustee of The Holburne Museum in 1999 and has been Chairman since 2000. He was awarded an OBE in the 2012 New Year Honours in recognition of his work for the Holburne.
Alexander Sturgis
Director of the Holburne Museum
Alexander Sturgis studied Modern History at Oxford (1982-85) before completing a PhD in Art History at the Courtauld Institute, London (1985-90).
He joined the National Gallery, London in 1991 where he spent 14 years first as Education Officer (1991-99) and then as Exhibitions and Programmes Curator (1999-2005). During this time he also served as the Director’s Curatorial Assistant helping to set up the Regional Museums Task Force. His exhibition credits at the National Gallery include Seeing Salvation (2000), Telling Time (2000), Bill Viola: The Passions (2003) Rebels and Martyrs: the artist in the nineteenth century (2006) His list of publications includes Faces (1999) Telling Time (2000) Understanding Paintings: Themes in Art Explored and Explained (2000), and Rebels and Martyrs: the artist in the nineteenth century (2006).
He was appointed Director of the Holburne Museum in 2005.
Eric Parry
Architect of the Holburne extension
Eric Parry studied architecture at the University of Newcastle (1970-1973), the Royal College of Art (1976-1978) and the Architectural Association (1979-1980).
He founded Eric Parry Architects in 1983, the year he was appointed as a lecturer in architecture at the University of Cambridge, where he taught until 1997. The innovative 30 Finsbury Square won the practice much acclaim and was short listed for the Stirling Prize in 2003. The office building Aldermanbury Square is now complete and has also been short listed for the Stirling Prize, and the Renewal Project at St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square has won many awards since its completion in 2008.
He was elected Royal Academician in 2006. He was President of the Architectural Association from 2005 to 2007, and a council member since 1995. He served as Chair of the RIBA Awards Group and was a member of the Kettles Yard Committee and the Arts Council of England Visual Arts and Architecture Panels in previous years.
He serves as an External Examiner at schools of Architecture in the UK and has held lectureships at the University of Cambridge, Graduate School of Design, Harvard, USA and the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
