Joan Crossley-Holland

Joan Mary Crossley-Holland ( Cowper; 3 April 1912 – 12 January 2005) was an English gallery owner and potter. Educated at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, she began a career in pottery at Royal Doulton. She took a break from work to raise her children. Therefore, Crossley-Holland was employed as a personal assistant to the Maharana of Mewar at the Lake Palace Hotel for a year. She was appointed director of Oxford's Bear Lane Gallery in 1966 but left to establish the independent Oxford Gallery in 1968 after disagreements with trustees over whether pottery was considered art. Crossley-Holland oversaw 186 exhibitions from artists by the time she retired in 1986.

Early life Crossley-Holland was born Joan Cowper at Peatling Magna, Lutterworth, Leicestershire on 3 April 1912, to the medical doctor Claude Marriott Lovell Cowper and the nurse and amateur artist Mary Bourne, née Collard. An only child, she was raised in Leicestershire and Buckinghamshire, where her father practiced his profession in Leighton Buzzard. Crossley-Holland was first taught at Plymouth Brethren Boys' School, Northfield, where she captained the first XI football team. Studying opposite Dora Billington, the course gave her a life long fascination of pottery, Crossley-Holland often disagreed with the gallery's trustees if pottery was considered art when she argued an exhibition of craftsmanship would be best suited to fill a gap in their schedule.

Personal life From 10 September 1939 to 1970, she was married to the composer Peter Crossley-Holland. They had two children, Kevin Crossley-Holland, who became a children's author and poet, and Sally. In 1983, she received the OBE for "services to the arts", becoming the first independent art gallery owner to earn the award. She died from Alzheimer's disease at Pinford End House nursing home, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk on 12 January 2005.

Personality and legacy Marina Vaizey described Crossley-Holland as "small, bustling, and determined, rather like a fictionalised version of an inspiring but at times overwhelming sixth-form teacher" who had an "old-fashioned" appearance. She also noted her "preference for subdued colours from sludge green to rust red" and for sporting "the unexpected piece of avant garde jewellery."

Upon her retirement, the director of the Crafts Council Victor Margie labelled her a "crusader and missionary", and spoke of her "dogged persistence of a remarkable woman who chose to dedicate her working life to a better understanding of the visual arts. She has earned the respect of those of us working in the crafts." The obituarist for The Independent said Crossley-Holland and her colleagues " quite simply changed the map of craft in Britain in the second half of the 20th century."