Biography
Mary La Trobe-Bateman OBE is a freelance curator, lecturer and consultant. She is an experienced designer and project manager with an extensive knowledge of the exhibiting, commissioning and discussion of craft. She practised as an interior designer for many years. After running her own gallery in Somerset she was appointed Director of Contemporary Applied Arts, the UK´s leading crafts gallery. Under her leadership she established a vibrant relocated gallery and built on the organisation´s reputation of more than fifty years by expanding the exhibition and education programmes. La Trobe-Bateman has served on many committees and panels including the Crafts Council, Collect at the V&A and The Goldsmiths' Company. She has lectured at many institutions worldwide including the Royal College of Art and Sotheby's Institute of Art, and was also a lecturer for NADFAS: the National Association of Decorative & Fine Arts Societies. She was a Council Member of Arts Council England South West, was a Trustee of The Making, Hampshire and is a Patron of Stroud International Textiles (SIT). She has won several awards: Princess of Wales scholarship, Royal College of Art (1966); elected RSA Fellow (1995); received OBE for services to contemporary craft (2001); and in 2004 was a finalist in European Women of Achievement Award (Arts & Media).