Anna Somers Cocks

Anna Somers Cocks is CEO,  and a former editor and journalist at the Art Newspaper. From 1973-86 she was Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and was Editor in chief of Apollo magazine from 1986-1990.

Anna founded the Art Newspaper in 1990 and edited it until 2003, when she joined the board of the parent company, was the 1992 Winner of the National Art Collections Fund annual prize. From 1999-2012 she was chairman of the Venice in Peril Fund, which restores monuments and works of art in Venice and funds research into flooding, tourism, demographic change in the city.

Currently a Governor of the Courtauld Institute, Trustee of the Gilbert Collection and Member of the Advisory Board of the Sotheby’s Institute, she was awarded a Commendatore della Stella di Solidarietà italiana in 2004,  was 2006 Winner of the Arts and Media Section of the 16th European Woman of Achievement Awards, 2011 Winner of “Advocate Award” from the International Institute for Conservation and was awarded an OBE in 2011 for her services to the arts.

Related Sessions
Sunday 20 October 2013, 5.15pm Garden Room

Stop the press: the media after Leveson

"The rules of the game at The Battle of Ideas makes beating about the bush impossible. When you are given 5 minutes to make your point, you either say something essential, or you reveal that you have nothing really to say. This eliminates 'the unbearable lightness' of speculation that haunts public debate."
Albena Azmanova, social philosopher, political commentator and activist

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