The Courtauld appoints Professor Dorothy Price as Executive Dean and Deputy Director, and Professor Steve Edwards as Inaugural Director of New Manton Centre for British Art

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The Courtauld Institute of Art today announces two new senior appointments as part of its commitment to becoming the world’s most ambitious, dynamic and innovative centre for the visual arts.

Professor Dorothy Price FBA, currently Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Critical Race Art History at The Courtauld, has been appointed Executive Dean and Deputy Director from August 2025.

Dorothy will lead The Courtauld’s teaching, learning, research and public engagement strategy and be at the forefront of our mission to attract new people to study and enjoy art history and conservation. She will also support and deputise for Professor Mark Hallett, Märit Rausing Director of the Institute.

Professor Steve Edwards has been appointed Manton Professor of British Art. Beginning in April, he will serve as the inaugural Director of The Courtauld’s new Manton Centre for British Art, the new home for The Courtauld’s research and teaching on British art.

Named after British art collectors and philanthropists Sir Edwin Manton and Florence, Lady Manton, The Manton Centre for British Art will serve as an intellectual hub for art historians, curators, artists, and students nationally and internationally, providing a platform for sharing world-leading research and teaching the next generation of British art specialists. It will be located initially at The Courtauld’s current campus at Vernon Square and will later be housed in purpose-designed premises at Somerset House.

Dorothy Price

Dr Dorothy Price currently serves as Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Critical Race Art History at The Courtauld and is an elected Fellow of The British Academy. She joined The Courtauld in 2021 from the University of Bristol where she was a founding member of the Centre for Black Humanities. She was co-curator of The Courtauld’s 2023 exhibition Claudette Johnson: Presence, the first monographic show of Claudette Johnson’s work at a major public London gallery. Price formerly edited Art History, the journal of the Association for Art History, and has collaborated extensively with galleries and museums internationally and founded the Tate / Paul Mellon Centre’s British Art Network subgroup on Black British Art.  

Her most recent collaboration has been with the Royal Academy of Arts in 2024 as lead curator of their groundbreaking exhibition Entangled Pasts 1768-now: art, colonialism and change. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of Tate Britain, the Art Committee of the British Academy and the Exhibitions Committee of the Royal Academy of Arts.  

Steve Edwards

Dr Steve Edwards currently serves as Professor of the History and Theory of Photography at Birkbeck, University of London. He previously served as served as Head of Historical & Theoretical Studies in Photography at the University of Derby and was a visiting scholar at the Victoria & Albert Museum and the University of Michigan. He was appointed Professor at The Open University in 2013 and became Head of the Department of Art History. He joined the Department of Art History at Birkbeck in 2016. 

Professor Mark Hallett, Märit Rausing Director at The Courtauld said: “We congratulate Professor Dorothy Price on her new position as Executive Dean and Deputy Director. Dorothy has made a remarkable contribution to The Courtauld since joining us in 2021, and she will play a significant role in expanding The Courtauld’s innovative teaching and research in the history, conservation, curation and business of art. She will also be a great ambassador for the Courtauld across the wider worlds of art and academia. 

“I am also delighted to welcome Professor Steve Edwards to The Courtauld as the inaugural Director of the new Manton Centre for British Art. The Centre aims to support the best new thinking and teaching on British art and place this endlessly fascinating field of study in a global context. Steve, a renowned scholar of British photography and visual culture, and someone who will bring a distinctive mix of authority and open-mindedness to his leadership of the Manton Centre, will help secure The Courtauld’s ambition of becoming a world leader in the field of British art.” 

Professor Dorothy Price, said: “I am delighted to be appointed to this role at such a transformative time in The Courtauld’s history. I very much look forward to collaborating with colleagues to consolidate The Courtauld’s world-leading position as the foremost institute for art historical research, teaching, learning, conservation and exhibitions. I relish the opportunity to help ensure that The Courtauld achieves its ambitions with energy, sustainability, intellectual rigor and care.” 

Professor Steve Edwards, said: “I am privileged to be given the opportunity to join The Courtauld Institute of Art and to lead the Manton research centre, which will become a world-leading hub for art-historical exploration in Britain and beyond.