Studio Morison

Fellows - Conceptual and Performance Artists

Melissa Johns

Fellow - Actor

John Bulmer

Fellow - Photographer and Film-maker

Fred Baier

Fellow - Furniture Artist/Designer

Celia Birtwell, CBE

Fellow - Textile Designer

Stephen Cox RA

Fellow - Sculptor

Susan Cross

Fellow - Jeweller and Jerwood Prize winner

John de la Cour

Fellow - Grantmaker and former Chair of Governors

Edmund de Waal

Fellow - Ceramicist and Writer

Peter Florence CBE

Fellow - Director of the Hay Festival

Andrew Foster

Fellow - Illustrator

Professor Sir Christopher Frayling

Fellow - Former Rector of the Royal College of Arts

Nell Gifford

Fellow - Performance Artist

Wally Gilbert

Fellow: Artist and Jeweller

Richard Heatly

Fellow - Former Principal of Hereford College of Arts

Peter Parkinson

Fellow - Artist Blacksmith

Shani Rhys James MBE

Fellow - Painter and Jerwood Prize winner

John Makepeace OBE

Fellow - Furniture Designer and Maker

Don McCullin CBE

Fellow - Photojournalist

Margo Selby

Fellow - Textile Artist

Nick Sharratt

Fellow - Illustrator

Lady Frances Sorrell

Fellow - Co-founder of Sorrell Foundation

Lisbee Stainton

Fellow - Singer-Songwriter

Jo Stone-Fewings

Fellow - Actor

Sir Roy Strong

Fellow - Historian, Broadcaster and Writer

Clare Woods

Fellow - Painter

Professor Phil Cleaver

Fellow - Graphic Designer, Artist and Author.

Lucy Jones

Fellow - Painter

Richard Quinnell MBE

Fellow - Blacksmith

Jackie Morris

Fellow - Illustrator

Seetal Solanki

Fellow - Materials Designer, Researcher and Writer

John describes his career as an ‘adventure in wood’. He first saw furniture being made at the age of 11, and visited the great cabinet-makers in Copenhagen as a teenager. Rather than go to Oxford, he trained as a cabinet-maker. By the age of 22 his designs were being sold in Heals, Liberty’s and Harrods.

John travelled widely as a designer and maker, particularly in the United States. He was a founding member of the Crafts Council, and in 1976  bought Parnham House in Dorset to provide larger studios for his growing design practice, where he also set-up The Parnham Trust to provide courses for aspiring furniture-makers.
Between 1977 and 2001, the Trust educated a generation of designers and makers who have established successful businesses around the world. After 25 years, Parnham Trust amalgamated with the Architectural Association which now runs practical programmes for aspiring architects.

His furniture can be seen in exhibitions and galleries in the UK and abroad. In 2010 he received a Special Commendation from the Prince Philip Designers Prize and in 2011 a 50 year retrospective of his work, supported by the Arts Council, toured the UK. He was awarded an OBE in 1988 for services to furniture design and in 2002 received the American Furniture Society’s Award of Distinction.

To a generation of makers and craft students he is simply known as “the father of British furniture design”.