Meet the Judges
The Judges for 2025
Every application for The Dover Prize is carefully considered by a panel of experienced and passionate professionals from across the arts and cultural sector.
Our judges bring a broad range of expertise, from curating and commissioning to creative practice and cultural strategy.
We’ve invited people who understand the challenges and opportunities of developing a creative practice, and who share our belief in the power of the arts to make a difference.
Get to know this year’s panel below.
Phil Gatenby
Phil has an enduring interest in visual arts-based cultural production, with a particular focus on the ecology of artist-led studio groups and a deep respect for the autonomy of practicing artists, especially those working within the primary discipline of painting.
Since retiring from his role as Head of Department, Fine Art, at Teesside University in 2014, the legacy of abstraction has remained central to his own studio practice.
Alongside this, Phil has continued to contribute to the wider cultural landscape through curatorial work, including initiating and curating the touring exhibition Pease, Butler & Spence – Indelicate, Ungenteel, Vulgar & Outrageous Women at Durham University (2023), and Pease, Butler & Spence – Radical Non-Resistance & the Art of Transgression at Crown Street Gallery, Darlington (2024).
Vicky Holbrough
Vicky has an artist-centred approach to living and working in the North East. She is a co-founder and executive director of artist-led, visual arts organisation Navigator North. Established in 2010 they are the backbone of artist support, workspace provision and high-profile cultural projects in the Tees Valley.
As a key instigator in the creative sector, Vicky has a track record in commissioning artists through programmes such as WE SHALL BE (2024-present) and Most Creative Station (2023-25) as well as leading on the development and production of cultural heritage and creative community engagement programmes for Middlesbrough’s High Street Heritage Action Zone (2020-24).
Vicky collaborates with partners, artists and communities to enable and support creative practices that enhance people’s lives in the region.
Matthew Jarratt
Matthew is based in North East England and works across the UK, USA and China on arts commissioning, curatorial projects and cultural policy. He began his career as an artist in the 1990s before spending 14 years at Arts Council England, helping shape the North East’s culture-led regeneration and developing major arts buildings and commissions. From 2008 to 2010 he represented the cultural sector in Brussels and has worked extensively in strategic cultural policy.
Since 2013, he has managed the North East Culture Partnership, curated projects across China, founded Cheeseburn Sculpture Gardens, and commissioned over 30 public artworks for private sector developments. Recent work includes an arts strategy for a major Edinburgh development, curating exhibitions on environmental research for Newcastle University and outdoor sculpture for Middlethorpe Manor, and launching the North East Emerging Artist Award with the National Trust.
Helen Marriage
Helen Marriage has dedicated her career to transforming public spaces through the arts. Former Director of Salisbury Festival and Associate Director of LIFT, she co-founded Artichoke in 2006, producing The Sultan’s Elephant, a landmark outdoor spectacle seen by over a million people in London, widely credited with reshaping the UK’s outdoor arts landscape.
Under her leadership, Artichoke continues to deliver unforgettable large-scale projects that challenge perceptions of public space. Since 2022, Helen has collaborated with DAVID RUBIN Land Collective on the redesign of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., and serves on the board of York Central, advising on cultural infrastructure for a major £2 billion redevelopment.
She is a Harvard GSD Loeb Fellow (2012), an Honorary Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and received an MBE for services to the arts in 2016. Helen’s work is driven by a belief in the power of shared experiences to transform places and lives.
Dr. Alistair Robinson
Dr. Alistair Robinson is Lecturer in Curating Contemporary Art at Newcastle University. He has worked as a contemporary art curator for a quarter of a century, in museums including the V&A and Science Museum, and galleries including Kettle's Yard and Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art.
He has curated over 100 exhibitions. His curatorial projects include bringing artists to the UK for the first time such as Cory Arcangel and Harun Farocki, alongside awarding artists with their first projects in public institutions that have included Monster Chetwynd.
Art Monthly described his curatorial work as "providing a valuable service by focusing on politically engaged subjects”. His recent research has been into museum collections as accounts of the nature of modern and contemporary art, and how institutions can tell different stories of what they are. He has published a primer on Museum Studies (Routledge, 2018) with colleagues Professor Rhiannon Mason and Dr Emma Coffield, which has been translated into various languages including Korean, alongside monographs on artists from Chad McCail to Daniel Silver.
Vicky Sturrs
Vicky is Director of Programmes and Collections at The Bowes Museum, an Arts Council England National Portfolio organisation. Since joining in 2023 from her role as Head of Learning and Civic Engagement at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Vicky has led a transformational programme of creative renewal.
She is passionate about working with artists and communities, with a focus on play, place-making, curiosity and storytelling. Her collaborations include projects with Pester & Rossi, Simon & Tom Bloor, Albert Potrony and Pippa Hale. At The Bowes, she has overseen capital redevelopment of galleries in co-production with communities and led the restoration of the museum’s famous 250-year-old Silver Swan automaton.
Vicky is shaping a bold new vision for exhibitions and engagement, with recent shows exploring climate, kinship and community through works by artists such as Norman Cornish and L.S. Lowry. She is also a trustee of Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company.
Stephen Wiper
Stephen Wiper has worked in the creative sector for over three decades, following his early career as a qualified secondary school teacher of Art and Design. With a Fine Art degree and a deep passion for the arts, Stephen has held roles with organisations including Arts Council England, The Bowes Museum, Darlington Arts Centre, local authorities, the Open College of the Arts, and various voluntary groups.
Since 1992, he has managed numerous exhibition programmes and artist-led activity in Darlington, including access to the Borough Art Collection. As Creative Darlington Manager for Darlington Borough Council, Stephen continues to support artists and curators whose work enriches lives and explores ideas.
He looks forward to seeing the proposals for The Dover Prize 2025 and to discovering new and exciting artistic practices.
