Joan Mary Cowper Crossley-Holland MBE (1912 - 2005)

Biography

Joan Mary Crossley-Holland (née Cowper; 3 April 1912 – 12 January 2005) was an English gallery owner and potter. Educated at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, she began a career in pottery at Royal Doulton. She took a break from work to raise her children. Therefore, Crossley-Holland was employed as a personal assistant to the Maharana of Mewar at the Lake Palace Hotel for a year. She was appointed director of Oxford's Bear Lane Gallery in 1966 but left to establish the independent Oxford Gallery in 1968 after disagreements with trustees over whether pottery was considered art. Crossley-Holland oversaw 186 exhibitions from artists by the time she retired in 1986.