Moira Lascelles is Executive Director & Head of Partnerships at UP Projects. As well as overseeing the strategic direction of the organisation, Moira leads UP Projects partnership projects working to develop progressive public art strategies and commissions that foreground the needs of communities in their conception and development. She also directs UP Projects' digital commissioning programme, This is Public Space that explores the online world as a site for public art and is editor of What’s the Point? A Case for Art in the Public Domain, published by UP Projects in 2020.
Moira joined UP Projects in 2019 with over a decade of experience of curating and delivering socially engaged projects in the public realm both as an independent Curator and also through her previous role as Deputy Director of The Architecture Foundation in London, where she spearheaded the realisation of both temporary and permanent architecture and artist-led projects in the public sphere. During this time, she curated a number of flagship meanwhile projects including the Union Street Urban Orchard with the Wayward Plant Registry and South Kilburn Studios with Practice Architecture that activated vacant sites in London and tested new models of bringing culture into communities.
Moira’s network of past collaborators is extensive having previously worked with institutions and organisations including the GLA, the London Legacy Development Corporation, the Barbican, the V&A, the Canal and River Trust, the British Council and the Crafts Council to develop exhibitions, strategies and live projects. Moira’s passion lies in connecting people with their built environment and empowering them to engage with progressive creative projects. Ultimately, she believes the arts should be accessible to all and that creative projects have the power to bring about social change.