Francis Greenacre

Member since 1995

Francis was curator of fine art at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery from 1969 to 1997 and thus an employee of Bristol City Council when elected to the Society. At the museum he was responsible for a wide variety of exhibitions, including the first retrospective of the work of Peter Blake in 1969, the influential 'Artists of the Newlyn School 1880-1900' in 1979 and 'From Bristol to the Sea, Artists, the Avon Gorge and Bristol Harbour' in 1997. Perhaps best remembered are the exhibitions celebrating artists of the Bristol School, including Francis Danby, which went on to the Tate Gallery in London in 1989.

He was a member of the Arts Council Exhibitions Committee, the South Bank Art Advisory Group, the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum Trust and the Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust. He has been chairman of the Clifton and Hotwells Improvement Society, President of the Canynges Society and Master of St Stephen’s Ringers. He was High Sheriff of Avon in 1992/3.

Educated at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London University, Francis worked first at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. After leaving Bristol Museum and Art Gallery he became an art consultant and dealer, lecturer and art historian and the author of many articles and publications including, with Douglas Merritt, 'Bristol Public Sculpture', 2011.

For SMV Francis has served two full terms on the Standing Committee and chaired the Almshouse sub-committee. He was a member of the Downs Committee from 1998 to 2019 and chaired the Collections and Heritage Committee from 2011 to 2020.