Julia Weiner

Julia Weiner is an art and design historian with extensive experience of teaching in museums and galleries. She has worked in this field for over 30 years and has been teaching a range of courses at Regent's University London since 2008.

Julia also works as a curator and has co-curated two exhibitions for the Jewish Museum London. She also curates exhibitions for the Knapp Gallery at Regent’s University London.  

Qualifications

• July 2014 - MA (Hons) University of Oxford
• October 1989 – July 1990, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, Postgraduate Diploma in the History of Art
• 1985 – 1989, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, History and Modern Languages (BA Hons), 2:1, Awarded Exhibition

Relevant past employment

• January 1993 – 2020: Art Critic for the Jewish Chronicle
• July 2005 – 2019: Lecturer and writer of teachers' resources, Victoria and Albert Museum
• September 2006 – July 2017: Consultant for Imperial College Healthcare Charity Art Collection
• September 1990 – January 2002: Head of Education, Courtauld Institute Gallery
• July 1990 – June 1996: Curator of the Ben Uri Gallery, London Jewish Museum of Art
• November 1994: Invited Lecturer at the School of Fine Arts, Vilnius, Lithuania

Julia was also a visiting lecturer at New York University, London, Florida State University London and Anglo Educational Services London where she has worked with a number of universities in the US and Canada on their study abroad programmes.  She has also worked as a freelance educator for the National Trust and the British Museum.

Julia wrote regular articles for the Jewish Chronicle for a number of years and has interviewed a number of leading figures in the art world including Sir Nicholas Serota, Lord Jacob Rothschild, Anish Kapoor and Susan Hiller. She has also contributed articles to the Jewish Quarterly, Jewish Renaissance and Manna.

List of publications

• (In preparation) The memoirs of Agathe Sorel 
• (2018) Nehemia Azaz – the "Forgotten" Artist published on the artist's website
• (2015) Edited Naomi Alexander: Domesticity. Gateshead: Shipley Art Gallery
• (2011) Edited Jews and Medicine. London: London Jewish Cultural Centre
• (2011) Bettina Caro: A Journey into Sepharad. London: London Jewish Cultural Centre
• (2010) Edited The Enduring Lie: Antisemitica from the Collection of Simon Cohen. London: London Jewish Cultural Centre
• (2010) Wrote foreword for The Human Figure and Jewish Culture by Eliane Strosberg. USA: Abbeville Press
• (1994) Edited Jewish Artists: The Ben Uri Collection. London: Lund Humphries

Chapters in the following

• (2018) 'Two Centuries of British Jewish Artists' in Jewish Lives Projects. Arts. London: Jewish Museum, London
• (2017) 'Introduction' and 'Jewish Identity and Design' in Designs on Britain. London: Jewish Museum
• (2016) 'Introduction' and 'Interview with Ray Silverman' in Shaping Ceramics: Lucie Rie to Edmund de Waal. London: Jewish Museum 
• (2011) '"Zealots and dreamers aiming at something to which only millionaires and powerful nations can aspire." The Ben Uri Art Society and its founders' in Jewish Artists and Central-Eastern Europe Poland. Warsaw: DiG Publishing
• (2010) 'Foreword' in Strosberg E. The Human Figure and Jewish Culture. New York City: Abbeville Press
• (2007) 'The Art of Commemoration – Holocaust Memorials and their Makers' in Davies M. Absence and Loss, Holocaust Memorials in Berlin and Beyond. London: David Paul Books
• (2002) 'The Myth of Womanhood' in Gretta. London: Sartorial Contemporary Art
• (2001) From Prodigy to Outcast: Simeon Solomon, Pre-Raphaelite Artist. London, Jewish Museum
• (2001) '"Mr Ben Uri" - Barry Fealdman's Years as Secretary 1950-1976' in The Ben Uri Story from Art Society to Museum. London: Ben Uri Gallery
• (2000) 'Solomon Alexander Hart RA' in The Jews of Devon and Cornwall. Bristol: Redcliffe Press
• (1998) 'Commentary' in Meshoulam Y. Androids, Robots and Golems. London: Yair Meshoulam
• (1996) Jewish Women Artists in Britain 1700-1940 in Rubies and Rebels: Jewish Female Identity in Contemporary British Art. London: Lund Humphries

Other outputs

• Featured in the BBC radio documentary ‘Paint, prejudice and the power of art - the story of Solomon Hart’. The piece was aired on 25 September 2023 on BBC Radio Devon and is available on BBC Sounds.
• Invited to join the National Gallery’s Interfaith Sacred Art Forum 2022
• Member of the Advisory Board for the Hebrew Manuscripts exhibition at the British Library 2020
• Curator of the exhibition Bettina Caro – Recorrido Sefarad at the Centro Sefarad, Madrid, 2018.
• Co-curator of Designs on Britain, exhibition at the Jewish Museum, London 2017-8
• Co-curator of Shaping Ceramics: From Lucie Rie to Edmund de Waal, exhibition at the Jewish Museum, London 2016-7
• Curator of Naomi Alexander: Domesticity at the Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead, 2015
• Curator of Naomi Alexander: Once Upon a Time in Lithuania at various locations including London Jewish Cultural Centre, Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead, Vilna Gaon State Museum, Vilnius, Lithuania and the Jewish Museum of Florida, Miami, USA 2006-13
• Curator of Anna Pavlova at Ivy House, London Jewish Cultural Centre 2012
• Curator of Jews and Medicine London Jewish Cultural Centre 2011
• Curator of The Enduring Lie: The Portrayal of Jews in the Arab and Western Media London Jewish Cultural Centre 2010
• Curator of A Cast of Characters – Paintings and Drawings by Antony Sher, London Jewish Cultural Centre 2007

Conference papers given

• 'Lucie Rie - Viennese Modernist', at the symposium entitled 'Why have there been no great (Jewish) women artists?' at the Freud Museum, London, 12 November 2021
• 'Jewish Identity and Design', Designs on Britain: Jewish Émigré Designers Victoria & Albert Museum, Thursday 30 November 2017  
• Invited speaker for the 2015 programme of the Vacation Term for Biblical Study (VTBS) at Robinson College Cambridge. Delivered 3 lectures on different approaches to the Bible in the work of Christian and Jewish artists, August 2015
• ‘Zealots and dreamers aiming at something to which only millionaires and powerful nations can aspire.' The Ben Uri Art Society and its founders. First Congress of Jewish Art in Poland, Kazimierz Dolny, Poland, October 2008
• '"An Artist of Strong Jewish Feeling" – Simeon Solomon's depictions of the Old Testament and of Jewish Ceremonies', Simeon Solomon – A Half-Forgotten Genius at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 19th November 2005

Julia is particularly interested in the work of Jewish artists, designers and architects and how they express their identity in their work. More recently, she has been looking at the contribution made by Jewish artists and designers who came to the United Kingdom as refugees from Nazism. She is currently editing the memoirs of Hungarian-born artist Agathe Sorel (1935-2020)  which will shortly be published and planning new exhibitions of the work of Naomi Alexander and Bettina Caro.

Examined MA thesis on the photography of Roman Vishniac for the Courtauld Institute of Art. Regularly acts as supervisor for the BA Liberal Arts and has also acted as supervisor for the MA International Relations. 

• Senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Member of AICA, the International Association of Art Historians

Julia leads the BA (Hons) Art History, the BA (Hons) Media and Communications and was responsible for the course development of these two new curricula as well as working on the development of the common curriculum.  She also leads the MA Media and Digital Communications.  She teaches a number of Art History modules on the new BA (Hons) Art History and on the Liberal Arts degree ranging from Early Renaissance Art and Society to Enlightenment to Impressionism. She is preparing a new module on Art and Global Conflict and for many years also taught History of London and World Religions.