Dr Anna Colin
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Anna's practice encompasses the curatorial, the pedagogical, the social and the ecological.
Alongside her collaborative curatorial projects, which increasingly engage placing art at the service of more-than-human ecosystems, and the creation and care for biodiverse environments, Anna has been training in horticulture and garden and permaculture design, along with volunteering on agroecological farms and woodlands.
Her writing has focused on ecocentric social practice, critical pedagogy, alternative modes of instituting, and institutional time and habitability.
In 2013, Anna co-founded Open School East, an alternative art school and community space in London, then Margate, where she was a director for 8 years. Open School East formed a part of her PhD which, in exploring multi-public educational and cultural spaces in England since the late 19th century, unpacked the notion of the alternative in relation to governance, spatiality, and time.
Academic qualifications
- Permaculture Design Certificate, Permaculture Association UK 2024
- Level 2 Practical Horticulture Certificate, Royal Horticultural Society 2022
- PhD, School of Geography, University of Nottingham 2022
- MA Curating Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art 2005
- BA Arts Management, London Southbank University 2003
Research interests
Anna's areas of curatorial engagement started in sound art, experimental music and tactical media, before migrating towards other marginalised and/or politically symbolic topics, histories, figures and spaces, such as the agricultural and digital commons, the Black Atlantic, the witch as a symbol of feminist and queer resistance, and colonialism’s impact on the natural environment. These research interests largely manifested in exhibitions and publications (see below for further detail).
Anna is currently engaged in research on holistic and intersectional organisational models, which resist chrononormativity and approach sustainability as a dynamic, cyclical, and non-anticipatory, or product-oriented, process. She has been looking for inspiration in the fields of ecology, agroecology, and arboriculture to reconceptualize art institutions’ relationship to waiting, rest, and longevity.
She welcomes doctoral applicants seeking to work in one or several of the following areas:
- cultural production at the service of ecosystems
- regenerative artistic, curatorial and institutional practices
- alternative institutional models
- critical pedagogies
Featured publications
2025:
Let's Talk Practice
Co-editor
2025:
Alternative Pedagogical Spaces: From Utopia to Institutionalization
Author
2023:
Chaleur Humaine
Co-editor
2019:
Hella Jongerius : Entrelacs, une recherche tissée / Interlace, Woven Research
Co-editor
2012:
Witches: Hunted, Appropriated, Empowered, Queered
Editor
Grants and awards
2025:
Investigating the Role of Art Practice in the Diffusion of Ecological Knowledge Among Pupils and Students Through a Bioregional Approach
Interdisciplinary research project in collaboration with a primary school and agricultural college. Early Career Research Fund.
Publications and research outputs
Article
- Pour une pratique sociale écocentrée Colin, Anna . 2024. Pour une pratique sociale écocentrée. RADIAL, ISSN 2678-3185
- Crossed Perspectives on Collaboration Chabanon, Eve; Colin, Anna ; and Planeix-Crocker, Madeleine. 2021. Crossed Perspectives on Collaboration. On Curating(52), pp. 163-171. ISSN 2673-2955
Book
- Alternative Pedagogical Spaces: From Utopia to Institutionalization Colin, Anna . 2025. Alternative Pedagogical Spaces: From Utopia to Institutionalization. Berlin and New York: Sternberg Press. ISBN 9781915609670
Book Section
- Cultivating Interdependence Colin, Anna . 2025. Cultivating Interdependence. In: Frances Cannon, ed. Queer Flora, Fauna, Funga. Amsterdam: Valiz.
- Acting with Trees Colin, Anna ; and Boutonnier, Thierry. 2023. Acting with Trees. In: Angelika Burtscher and Daniele Lupo, eds. As If: 16 Dialogues about Sheep, Black Holes, and Movement. Leipzig: Spector Books, pp. 143-153. ISBN 9783959057523
- Éducation, art, démocratie, communauté Colin, Anna . 2022. Éducation, art, démocratie, communauté. In: Hélène Meisel, ed. L'Art d'apprendre. Une école des créateurs. Metz: Éditions du Centre Pompidou-Metz. ISBN 9782359830651
Conference or Workshop Item
- The Ecosystemic Clock Colin, Anna . 2025. 'The Ecosystemic Clock'. In: Learning with mountains; recalibrating how we understand art and planet. Nicosia, Cyprus 6-8 February 2025.
- The Singing Compost Colin, Anna ; Gray, Ros ; Granjon, Paul; and Morrison, Harun. 2024. 'The Singing Compost'. In: BSSS Annual Conference: 'Sustainable Soils for People and Planet'. Glamorgan Cricket Club, Cardiff, United Kingdom 4-6 December 2024.
- Multi Public Educational Spaces Colin, Anna . 2024. 'Multi Public Educational Spaces'. In: CONTRAcurricular. St George's Theatre, Great Yarmouth, United Kingdom 22 March 2024.
Exhibition Catalogue
- Chaleur Humaine Colin, Anna ; and Richert, Camille. 2023. Chaleur Humaine.
Project
- Multi-public Pedagogical and Cultural Spaces Colin, Anna . 2022 - 2025 Multi-public Pedagogical and Cultural Spaces.
- Art at the service of more-than-human ecosystems Colin, Anna . 2021 - 2025 Art at the service of more-than-human ecosystems.
Report
- Seeding the Garden: our Place in Lewisham's Green Infrastructure Colin, Anna . 2022. Seeding the Garden: our Place in Lewisham's Green Infrastructure. Other. Goldsmiths, University of London, London.
Show/Exhibition
- ĝardeno paradizo #2 Colin, Anna . 2025. ĝardeno paradizo #2. In: "ĝardeno paradizo #2", Montpellier, France, May - September 2025.
- Chaleur Humaine Colin, Anna . 2023. Chaleur Humaine. In: "Chaleur humaine", FRAC Grand-Large Hauts-de-France, France, 10 June 2023 - 14 January 2024.
- ĝardeno paradizo #1 Colin, Anna ; and Lang, Marine. 2023. ĝardeno paradizo #1. Résidence Sévignée, France January - October 2023.
Thesis
- Alternative to what? Alternative how? A Study of Multi-Public Educational and Cultural Spaces in England since the Late Nineteenth Century Colin, Anna . 2022. Alternative to what? Alternative how? A Study of Multi-Public Educational and Cultural Spaces in England since the Late Nineteenth Century. Doctoral thesis, University of Nottingham
Other
- Curatorial Reflections on Ecology, Sustainability and Energy: An Interview with Curator Anna Colin Hung, Pei-Shin; and Colin, Anna . 2025. Curatorial Reflections on Ecology, Sustainability and Energy: An Interview with Curator Anna Colin. Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei.
- Not-clock Exhibition or Was It Just an Excuse to Dream? Colin, Anna . 2025. Not-clock Exhibition or Was It Just an Excuse to Dream?. Vibeke Mascini, Amsterdam.
- Cultural Ecology Colin, Anna ; and Lammer, Elise. 2025. Cultural Ecology. Garden of Sorts Magazine, Vienna.
Past work and residencies
Anna has worked as associate curator at Lafayette Anticipations in Paris (2014-20); associate director of Bétonsalon – Centre for art and research, Paris (2011-12); curator at Gasworks, London (2007-10); and radio presenter at Resonance FM, London (2002-5). She was co-curator, with Lydia Yee, of British Art Show 8 in 2015-16 (Leeds, Edinburgh, Norwich and Southampton), and co-curator, with Camille Richert, assisted by Henriette Gillerot, of 'Chaleur Humaine', the second edition of the Dunkirk Art & Industry Triennale in 2023-24.
She has curated exhibitions and projects at venues including CA2M, Móstoles/Madrid; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Victoria Gallery & Museum, Liverpool; Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo; GAM, Turin; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Guarene; La Synagogue de Delme, Delme; The Women’s Library, London; The European Culture Congress, Wroclaw; Mécènes du Sud - Montpellier, Sète, Béziers; and Villa Arson, Nice.
She has done residencies and held fellowships at LUMA, Arles; Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Vitoria-Gasteiz; FRAME – HIAP, Helsinki; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Contemporary Art Society, London; and La Maison populaire, Montreuil.