Alison Cole, a journalist and senior art consultant, has been appointed the editor of The Art Newspaper.
Alison Cole is a visual arts critic for the Arts Desk and the Independent and the former editor of Art Quarterly magazine.
She launched the digital arts channel The Space, a co-venture of Arts Council England and the BBC, brokered a cultural partnership with the digital education specialists TES Global, and recently advised Heni Talks on the creation of a TED-style art history digital platform.
An art historian and author, her latest books are Michelangelo: The Taddei Tondo (Royal Academy, 2017) and Art, Pleasure and Power: Italian Renaissance Courts (Laurence King, 2016).
Her career has included positions as the executive director of advocacy and communications at Arts Council England and the director of communications at the Southbank Centre and the Art Fund.
She is a trustee of the Foundling Museum, a learning adviser to Art UK and a member of the Critics Circle.
Cole joins The Art Newspaper on 1 February 2018.