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Prof Gareth Williams

Dean of Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries

Gareth Williams
  • School Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries

  • Department ACI Faculty Leadership

  • Location London

Research activities

I am particularly interested in how emerging design practices can be incubated in higher education settings and have impact in broader society, for example, how they can be agents of cultural diplomacy and how they are received and represented by cultural arbiters such as museums. At the V&A I curated many exhibitions about aspects of contemporary design including 'Brand:New' (with Jane Pavitt, 2000), 'Milan in a Van' (2002) and 'Telling Tales, Fear and Fantasy in Contemporary Design' (2009) and I was the project curator for the permanent Architecture Gallery in 2004. I have published widely about contemporary design practice including '21 Twenty-one: 21 designers for 21st century Britain' (V&A, 2012) and 'Design, an essential introduction' (Goodman Fiell / Design Museum, 2015)

I am the chair of the Gabo Trust for Sculpture Conservation (), a small specialist charity that supports and promotes the conservation of modern and contemporary sculpture through grants awarded to independent conservators and public sculpture collections internationally, and scholarships to conservation students at UCL.


Current Teaching

I have taught on MA Interior Architecture and Design, offering tutorial support to students on the modules IAD4010 ‘Explore: Scale and Place’, IAD4011 ‘Encounter: Contexts and Debates’, IAD4020 ‘Develop: Personal Practice’ and IAD4030 ‘Realise: Independent Research and Design’. I am also currently Director of Studies for Mamiko Markham for her PhD thesis 'The Translational Functions of Katagami: Japonisme and Commerce between 1870 and 1890 via the Silver Studio Collection'

Previous research student supervision includes Gwen Fereday, ‘Synaesthetic colour responses to text: an investigation through fine art textiles’ (2019, Director of Studies); David Fern, ‘The Interior, the Experiencer, Kokoro: towards the essence of place’, (2019, supervisor); and Lara Furniss, ‘Universal Eyes: Defying Classification: a study exploring the processes of 21st Century design studios’ (Birmingham City University, 2019, second supervisor).


Biography

I am the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries and a Professor of Design. The faculty includes teaching, research and knowledge exchange in design, communication, media and arts subjects. Under the banner of 91ÇéÉ« Studios we also operate as a creative agency with partners in the creative industries, local government, civic society and further education to support students' career ambitions.

My expertise in contemporary design practices was acquired as a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum before I joined the Royal College of Art as a Senior Lecturer in Design Products and Reader in Design Curation.  I joined 91ÇéÉ« University as Professor of Design and Head of the Design Department in 2016, and was subsequently Deputy Dean for Education and Director of 91ÇéÉ« Studios. I became Dean in September 2026.

I completed my PhD '‘Towards a Theory of Performative Design: writing about design and designers since 1990’ at Kingston University in 2016. I was awarded Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) in 2018 and completed my MBA in Senior Leadership at 91ÇéÉ« University in 2024.

Publications