About

Gill Nicol trained as an artist and has over twenty-five years experience in the arts. She has worked for numerous organisations including engage (national association for gallery education), Ikon Gallery (Birmingham), mac (midlands arts centre, Birmingham), Tate Liverpool, Spike Print Studio and Arnolfini in Bristol. She spent four years with alias (artist-led initiatives advisory service), working as a consultant to artist groups based in the South West, and worked for nearly two years with ArtMatrix, offering professional development advice for over 200 creative people in Bristol and Wiltshire. She has written feasibility studies, business plans and raised funds for a number of projects; a recent example being a succesful capital bid to Arts Council England, South West to matchfund investment gained from East Devon District Council for the growth and expansion of Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Honiton.

In 2009, she spent eight months at Tate St Ives on a work-based Cultural Leadership programme working on audience development, and was Head of Interaction at Arnolfini until February 2011.  Recent work has included:

  • The Visitor Experience Programme, an Arts Council England funded programme looking at the quality of experience for the casual visitor to ten contemporary art galleries across the South West, West and East Midlands
  • Professional development sessions for students at Bath Spa University and University of Chichester
  • Facilitator of ‘Come Along Do’;  a discussion forum following art films at Chapter Art Centre, Cardiff
  • Artistic Assessor for Arts Council England
  • Training sessions in What is Contemporary Art and How to Engage Visitors at Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth and Falmouth Art Gallery

Work coming up includes:

  • Engagement Programmer for artSOUTH; an exciting opportunity for national and international artists to develop new works in collaboration with professionals/specialists of their choice in any other field or discipline. The project aims to instigate engaging and innovative collaborative commissions of the highest quality, for indoor and outdoor non-gallery locations across central southern England in Autumn 2013.
  • Working with Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery to deliver three talks and produce a publication to celebrate their reopening in 2013.

She has an MA in Fine Art Printmaking (Distinction) from University of Brighton (1985-88) and an MA in Feminism and Visual Arts from University of Leeds (1996-98).

Gill is a passionate communicator and a confident trainer, with a focus on mentoring artists and creative businesses. She approaches life with enthusiasm, energy and confidence, yet underpinned by a commitment to research, evaluation and analysis.

Contact: gill@lightsgoingon.com

Testimonials

“I have never had the confidence to critique art before. I always feel like it’s not my place to do so. However I found myself really engaging with the format in which Gill ran the session, and felt really comfortable with discussing Cosima’s work. Gill made the work really accessible and I’ll definitely be more inclined to visit the Arnolfini again in the future”.
“Gill, thank you so much for a great afternoon. I found it really insightful and inspiring. I don’t normally visit art exhibitions, but you have definitely encouraged me to take the time to visit some in the near future. I hope that you will be able to join us for another creativity workshop soon.”
“I found the session with Gill really insightful. Her questions helped me think around the individual pieces of art and work out exactly what I thought of it, making it a lot less intimidating and therefore accessible. I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys art (or even those who don’t) but sometimes find themselves stumped when visiting exhibitions.”