Nicholas Tresilian M.A., F.R.S.A, entered Cambridge University via the Mechanical Sciences Qualifying Exam and subsequently read English Literature.
He has been an art-historian, broadcaster, member of management boards of art-related institutions and founding company director of media Plcs in TV and Radio, both in the UK and overseas. Today he describes himself as an independent writer on the evolution of visual art.
- As an art-historian: lectured for 4 years at London’s Central School of Art and Design, Maidstone College of Art and gave visiting lectures at Cardiff College of Art and the Architectural Association
- As a broadcaster: was in the original presentation team for BBC2’s pioneering media and arts programme, Late-Night Line-Up; authored the BBC-2 series of films, Private Landscapes, on UK artists (Peter Blake, David Inshaw, Richard Smith, Joe Tilson); broadcast for 10 years on Classic fm
- As a member of the management boards of art-related institutions: was for 12 years a director of the ground-breaking Artist Placement Group Ltd (APG) and its successor Organisation and Imagination (O&I), championing the placement of artists in real time and on an open brief within government and administrative organisations. He was on the Management Board of the Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol and Vice-President of the International Society for the Study of Time (ISST). He remains a contributing member of ISST and is currently a director of Artstation Projects Ltd.
- As founding company director of media Plcs in TV and Radio: a founding director of the first business television company to be quoted on the UK stock exchange, Spafax Television Plc; founding chairman and director of the UK’s then largest independent radio company GWR Group Plc; and a founder of Classic fm the world’s largest commercial classical music broadcaster. He has also been a director of radio companies and/or consortia in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Austria and former East Germany.
- As chairman of charitable appeals: Led a successful one million pound appeal for a CT scanner for Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon.
- As independent writer on the evolution of visual art: conference presentations in Gargonza (Italy), Cambridge, Plymouth, Newport, Edinburgh (UK), Beijing, Shanghai (China), Montana, Monterey, Tucson (USA), Vienna (Austria) + associated papers.
- As contributor to Tate Britain: His personal archive of APG papers, including the originals of some of his own early theoretical writings, are now in Tate Britain. A recording of his presentation on APG’s history given at Tate Britain in 2005, is available on the Tate Britain website.
Nicholas Tresilian lives in Oxfordshire.