Julia Peyton-Jones studied painting at the Royal College of Art, London, and worked as a practising artist in London and a lecturer in fine art at Edinburgh
College of Art. She moved to the Hayward Gallery in 1988 as Curator in the Exhibitions Department. In 1991 she became Director of the Serpentine Gallery, where she has been responsible for both commissioning
and showcasing the groundbreaking Exhibition, Education and Public Programmes as well as the annual architecture commission, the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, which she conceived in 2000.

Under the patronage of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Serpentine completed a £4 million renovation in 1998. Since then visitor numbers have increased three-fold to approximately 800,000 in any one year. In 2010, the Serpentine
won the Licence for an additional Gallery for emerging artists across all disciplines in Kensington Gardens, which will open in 2012 and be named the Serpentine Sackler Gallery following the largest donation in the history
of the Serpentine from the Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation.

The new Gallery will be housed in a Grade II listed former munitions store renovated by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid and will double the Serpentine’s size. Serving on numerous committees and panels, Julia was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art in 1997. In 2003 she was
made both an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE). In 2008 she was made Professor, University of the Arts, London, and Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art (RCA) in the same year.