About
I’m now working professionally as Michelle Mills, having previously been known as Mills Jackson Rowe. My work, exhibitions and projects continue under my new name.
I’m Michelle Mills, an artist-curator based in Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Art has gradually become the centre of my life. I spend most of my time travelling around the UK visiting exhibitions, meeting artists, and discovering new work.
At the heart of my work is an interest in control: both how we are controlled and how we control ourselves and also from an art world point of view; who is allowed to make art, who gets to see it, and who decides what is valued.
As an artist-curator from a working-class background, I’m drawn to artists whose work asks difficult questions, and to the independent spaces, regional galleries and unexpected places where exciting work is being made and shared.
I lead projects including the Women Making Art Reading Room and Women Making Art Collection, and develop exhibitions and other projects that create opportunities for artists and audiences to engage with contemporary art.
image credit: www.pictorialphotography.co.uk
CV
Selected Exhibitions as Artist:
2026: Pieces of Mind, Jackal, Berwick-upon-Tweed, UK
2025: We Also Fight Windmills, Hundred Heroines Museum, Nailsworth, UK
2024: Trial and Error, ASC Studios Kennington, London, UK
2024: Heart of Rebellion, Pink Collar Gallery, Sunderland Art Week, UK
2024: We Also Fight Windmills, Curiously, Berwick-upon-Tweed, UK
2024: Outside Our View, Newcastle Contemporary Art, UK
2024: All of the Things None of the Time, Curiously, Berwick-upon-Tweed
2024: We Also Fight Windmills, The Fairway, Oxford University Press, UK
2023: The Power of Play, ASC Studios Kennington, London, UK
2023: Now That’s What I Call Art 2, Newcastle Contemporary Art, UK
2022: Reflections on the Hudson, Blue Door Arts Center, New York, USA
2022: Rockland Arts Festival, New York, USA
2022: Inner Voices, Blue Door Arts Center, New York, USA
2022: Despatch, New Forest Heritage Centre, Lyndhurst, UK
2022: Primary Colors, LAA Gallery, Stamford, USA
2022: Lost and Found, Bartlett Arboretum, Stamford, USA
2022: CoLab, Falls Church Arts, Washington DC, USA
2022: In Spring, Gallery Mui (online)
Selected Exhibitions as Curator:
2026: Beth J Ross: BINGO!, Jackal, Berwick-upon-Tweed, UK
2026: Pieces of Mind, Jackal, Berwick-upon-Tweed, UK
2024: We Also Fight Windmills, Curiously, Berwick-upon-Tweed, UK
2024: All of the Things None of the Time, Curiously, Berwick-upon-Tweed
2023: The Power of Play, ASC Studios Kennington, London, UK
Public Art:
2022: America Connects Mural, iX Art Park, Charlottesville, USA
Residencies:
2022: Colehayes Creative Retreat, (WSG), Devon, UK
2021: Despatch Residency, (WSG), Lyndhurst, UK
Publications:
2022: OutLoud #1
2021: United Issue One
Education & Professional Development:
The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 2024
Women Artists in France 1770-1914 (short course)
Node Center for Curatorial Studies, Berlin, 2021-Present
Curating Beyond Exhibitions: Events, Performances, Talks, 2026
Socially Engaged Art: Curating for Empowerment and Disruption, 2024
A Practical Guide to Curating, 2023
A Guide to Making Art Publications, 2023
Launching an Independent Art Space, 2022
Feminist Art and Exhibitions, History and Challenges, 2021
Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2020
Seeing Through Photographs