About the speakers
Emily Todhunter is a British interior designer and co-founder of Todhunter Earle Interiors.
Emily studied Philosophy and Psychology at Bristol University, training in her spare time with the legendary colourist and specialist painter, Jim Smart, who had painted some of the great British rooms designed by John Fowler. After graduating, Emily set up her own paint effects business and shortly afterwards moved to New York where she was asked by Howard Stein, of Xenon fame, to create the feel of a St James’s club in his nightclub, Au Bar. This brought public attention and, though only then twenty-three, her work was featured in the New York Times, Vanity Fair and many other publications. Commissions followed in the US and a move back to London in 1990 saw her commissions for fashionable restaurants Daphne’s in Chelsea and Christopher’s in Covent Garden. Soon after that, with her business expanding, she started working with Kate Earle. They cemented their partnership in 1994, together forming Todhunter Earle Interiors. For nearly 30 years this has been an unusually happy and productive partnership, during which they have designed and decorated houses all over the world. In the autumn of 2021, Vendome Press published their book Modern English.
Emily is married to financier and businessman Emmanuel (Manoli) Olympitis and has three children in their early twenties. They live between their homes in Wiltshire, London and Greece.
Will Gompertz has led the Barbican Centre’s artistic direction and wide-raging education programmes since June 2021. His ambitious Artistic Vision aims to build on the Barbican’s role as a world-class international arts centre by investing in emerging talent, education programme and closely collaborating with its local communities, and increasing inclusivity and diversity among its staff, associates, and audiences. Immediately before joining the Barbican, Will was the BBC's first ever Arts Editor, a senior journalistic and broadcasting role he started in 2009. Will reported extensively on the arts across the globe, interviewed countless artists, actors, writers, musicians, and directors. He also wrote and presented documentaries for BBC One and BBC Two, and hosted shows on Radio 2, Radio 4, and BBC 5-Live. Prior to joining the BBC, Will spent 7 years as a Director of the Tate Galleries where he was responsible for its BAFTA-winning website, creative direction, and the launching of the UK's first Performance Art festival. Will has written two internationally best-selling non-fiction books (published by Penguin in the UK). What Are You Looking At? (2012) – a history of modern art and Think Like an Artist (2015) about creativity. Both books have been translated into more than twenty languages. His latest book, See What You’re Missing: 31 Ways Artists Notice the World – and How You Can Too, was published in March, 2023. Will was voted one of the World's Top 50 Creative Thinkers by New York's Creativity magazine and is a Supernumerary Fellow of Harris Manchester College, Oxford University.
Picture credits: Emily Todhunter by Ray Maine / Will Gompertz by Richard Pohle
