Curating Design: Between Word and World

Catherine Hon FRIBA is an independent curator and consultant. Between 2015 and 2023 she was Chief Curator, V&A East, and developed the curatorial vision for the V&A’s two-site project in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park London. Catherine has worked at the Barbican Art Gallery, ARoS Art Museum, Aarhus, and the British Council. She is currently Research Fellow, Charles and Ray Eames Foundation, and a PhD researcher at the Royal College of Art.

Fleur is a curator and design researcher. She is Associate Professor in the School of Architecture & Urban Design at RMIT University and the Chair of RMIT’s Practice Research Symposium Europe. Author of 'The New Curator: Exhibiting Architecture & Design' (Routledge) and series editor of 'Editions: Australian Architecture Monographs' (Thames & Hudson). Fleur was Curator at RMIT Design Hub Gallery and has held senior curatorial roles in Australia and internationally.

Frederico is a design writer and curator. He is currently guest assistant professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts - University of Lisbon and postdoc researcher at the Interactive Technologies Institute - University of Lisbon. In 2017 he curated the exhibition How to Pronounce Design in Portuguese: Brazil Today (MUDE, Lisbon). In 2023 he co-founded the design magazine Fazer and in 2025 co-curated the international exhibition of the 1st Covilhã Design Triennial, both with Vera Sacchetti.

Together with Dan Edelstyn, Hilary works across art, film and social enterprise to make contagious visions take place – pulling off a Bank Job as community heist on an unjust financial system (setting up a rebel bank, printing money, exploding £1.2M debt) and building a people powered renewable POWER STATION. Actions produce artefacts making impact in different ways/worlds – feature documentary films, books, print, sculptural works, all part of a story designed to make change happen.

José is an artist, designer and curator. With an active curatorial research and through a multidisciplinary formal approach his work questions and transforms traditional artistic formats within cultural institutions and public space. With a vast experience in exhibition-making and public installations, he aims to reframe contemporary critical discussions through innovative artistic formats to be accessible to a wider audience that reaches beyond the art context.

Judith is Professor of Fashion and Museology at University of the Arts, London, is a curator and fashion exhibition-maker based in London. She runs a studio space in Notting Hill, to exhibit hypothetical exhibitions of dress in the form of 1:12 models. Clark opened the first experimental gallery of fashion in London (1997-2002). Clark has curated major exhibitions of dress internationally, most recently ‘If you know you know’ at the Museum of Art Pudong in Shanghai.

Larry is an architect, tutor at the Architectural Association, and engagement specialist with wide-ranging experience across the public, cultural and community sectors. He is the co-founder of the award winning POoR Collective, a socially driven design and engagement practice. Recognised as one of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Rising Stars in 2023 and co-recipient of LDF Emerging Design medal 2023, Larry has developed expertise in placemaking, architectural design and the creation of urban strategies.

Marina is an architect and curator. She has curated exhibitions such as Wet Dreams at the Madrid Biennial of Design and Architecture, CentroCentro; Work, Body, Leisure at the Dutch Pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennale; and After Belonging at the Oslo Architecture Triennale. In 2025, she received the Jury Mention at the Venice Biennale for Opera Aperta, the Holy See Pavilion. She teaches at Harvard GSD and is a member of the Architecture Advisory Committee of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.

Stella is a museum practitioner working across learning, curatorial practice and public engagement, with extensive experience shaping programmes across museums in Hong Kong and the UK. Currently Head of Learning at the Design Museum, her practice is grounded in experimentation, agency and enquiry, exploring collaborative and cross-disciplinary approaches to visual culture. As founding curator for Learning and Interpretation team at M+, she pioneered new models of museum learning and public practice.

Vera is a Basel-based design critic, curator, and educator. She is the co-founder of Fazer, a new design magazine in Portugal; and co-initiator of the Design & Democracy platform, which maps the intersections and overlaps between design and democratic systems and practices. Sacchetti is a lecturer in Design Theory at HSLU Design Film Kunst and a tutor at Design Academy Eindhoven. Since 2020, she has been a member of the Federal Design Commission of Switzerland.