Professor Judith Mottram has been appointed new Director of LICA, which encompasses Lancaster University’s teaching and research activities in art, design, film, and theatre.

She is currently Professor of Visual Arts and Dean of the School of Material at the Royal College of Art and takes up her new role at Lancaster next April.

Her research interests include colour, drawing and pattern and the inter-relationships between subject knowledge, creativity, research and practice.

Before joining the senior management team at the Royal College of Art Professor Mottram was research leader for the Department of Design and Visual Arts at Coventry University.

Prior to that, she was Dean of the School of Art and Design at Nottingham Trent University (2009 to 2012), Associate Dean for Research for the College of Art, Design and the Built Environment at Nottingham (2004 to 2009) and, before that, Director of Research at Loughborough University School of Art and Design.

Having originally trained as a fine artist, Professor Mottram gained her PhD from Manchester Polytechnic in 1988. She spent six years working in a range of galleries in London after completing her PhD and prior to taking up her first academic post at Loughborough College of Art and Design, in 1994, as Subject Leader for the undergraduate programme in Painting.

She was a member of the Research Excellence Framework 2014 sub-panel for Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory and was a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College from 2004 to 2013.

She is currently Fellow of the Design Research Society and a member of the Coventry Cathedral Fabric Advisory Committee, and on the editorial boards of the Journal of the International Colour Association; Journal of Textile Design, Research and Practice; and the Journal of Visual Art Practice.

Professor Mottram said: “For me, the challenge and excitement of the role of Director of LICA rests upon how we might work together on the intellectual and practical parameters of how the disciplines engage with each other, the faculty and the wider context of the university. My ambition is for us to develop an exceptional portfolio of courses and research agendas that clearly articulate new benchmarks for the way creative disciplines contribute to our understanding of the world we live in.”

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Professor Simon Guy: “We are delighted to announce Professor Judith Mottram as the new Director of the Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Art (LICA). Judith is a very experienced leader with a significant international reputation for her research on drawing, colour and creative practice.  We look forward to welcoming her and working with her to further develop the international reputation of LICA for cutting edge interdisciplinary education and research in the arts.”