The Heong Gallery

The Heong Gallery at Downing College opened in February 2016 as a new gallery for exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. The Gallery was designed by Caruso St John Architects (winners of RIBA Stirling Prize 2016) and so named in gratitude for the generous benefaction of Alwyn Heong. It won a RIBA East Award 2017.

The Gallery is part of a larger construction project at Downing College which contains 78 student rooms and eight common rooms. The project has created a new court, called First Court, at the entrance to the College and the Edwardian stables (built in 1902-1903) have been converted into the Gallery.

Advisory Board

Chris Bartram

Chris is a Wilkins Fellow of Downing, and a benefactor to the College, particularly in support of the Heong. He is an art collector, and was the major lender to the exhibition of Dame Elisabeth Frink work entitled Larger than Life. He currently serves on the College Investment Committee. Chris has spent a career in commercial property investment management, and was variously a Crown Estate Commissioner, a Director of Land Securities Plc., and Chairman of the Bank of England Property Forum, as well as President of the British Property Federation in 2001. In his executive function, Chris was founder and Chairman of Orchard Street Investment Management until he retired in 2015.

Dr Sophie Bowness

Dr Sophie Bowness is a Trustee of the Hepworth Estate, set up by her father, Downing alumnus Dr Alan Bowness (Modern Languages, 1950). She is a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and the Courtauld Institute, London, and a Downing Arts Patron. Dr Bowness is the foremost expert on the life and work of Barbara Hepworth and, under her guidance, the Hepworth Estate gave Two Forms: Divided Circle (1969) to Downing College on long-term loan and lent to the exhibition BARBARA HEPWORTH: DIVIDED CIRCLE (2019).

Stephen Chambers

Appointed to Downing’s Honorary Fellowship in 2016, Stephen Chambers is a graduate of St Martin’s and Chelsea Schools of Art. Between 1998-99 he was the Cambridge University / Kettle’s Yard Artist in Residence, based at Downing College, thus beginning the College’s engagement with contemporary art. He has won numerous prizes, his work is held in private and public collections around the world, and his exhibitions span dealer’s galleries to international museums. Read more

Frances Christie

Dr Rachel Coombes

Dr Rachel Coombes is the Keeper of the Gallery. She is also the Graham Robertson Research Fellow at Downing in History of Art, specializing in the visual and musical culture of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century France. Read more

Dame Shalini Ganendra 

Shalini Ganendra is a cultural entrepreneur and collector known for championing underrepresented regions and creative practices through exhibitions, interdisciplinary programming, and publications. She was a member of the Tate Gallery's Acquisitions Committee, and also commissioned the award-winning Ganendra Art House, one of Southeast Asia's first certified green buildings. She is a Papal Knight of St. Gregory the Great. Ganendra has held visiting positions at Oxford and Cambridge and is a qualified lawyer (UK and New York Bars) with a law degree from Cambridge University.

Professor Martin Kemp 

Professor Martin Kemp FBA is an Emeritus Fellow of the Department of History of Art, University of Oxford. He is an alumnus and Honorary Fellow of Downing College (Natural Sciences/ History of Art, 1960) and a member of the Advisory Board of The Heong Gallery. A preeminent expert in the art of the Italian Renaissance, Professor Kemp is also a collaborator of artist David Hockney and a collector of contemporary art. He co-curated HOCKNEY’S EYE: THE ART AND TECHNOLOGY OF DEPICTION (2022) at The Heong Gallery and The Fitzwilliam Museum. Read more.

Dr Susan Lintott 

Dr Susan Lintott has been involved with The Heong Gallery since its inception in 2016, first in her role as Senior Bursar of Downing (1997-2020) and then as its Director until September 2024. Having read English at Girton, she holds a PhD in English from the University of Kent, after which she taught at Tufts University before joining The Chase Manhattan Bank via the New York University Graduate School of Business Administration. After 14 years as a banker, she returned to the academic fold, combining her College duties with non-executive roles at the University and at the Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. She is currently Chair of Climate Response Ltd.

Professor Rod Mengham

Dr Elisa Schaar

Elisa Schaar is a scholar, writer, and curator of American and European postwar art and contemporary art, working on such topics as modernism and its dismantling; medium, media, and technology; time, history, memory; image, repetition, and truth, across a wide range of artistic practices. In her work, she is interested in how artistic practices relate both to their particular historical circumstances and much broader political and philosophical questions about art and history. After completing her AB in Philosophy at Harvard and her DPhil in Art History at Oxford, she held a Terra Foundation for American Art postdoctoral fellowship at The Courtauld and a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the Ruskin School of Art, where she is a Senior Tutor in Art History and Theory. While trained as a scholar, she often works with artists and across different contexts. Her work has encompassed research projects at the Pinakothek der Moderne, writing for magazines and journals including Artforum, Art History, and American Art, as well as for museum catalogues and artist monographs, and curating shows, such as “Förg in Venice”, which was an official collateral event of the Venice Biennale in 2019. As Program Director at the Terra Foundation for American Art, she has led the rethinking of the foundation’s work with contemporary artists and in the convenings area.

Dr John Tancock 

Dr John Tancock is an art historian and consultant with Chambers Fine Art, New York. He is a former Senior Vice President, Impressionist and Modern Art, Sotheby’s. Dr Tancock is an alumnus of Downing College (English/History of Art, 1960) and a member of the Advisory Board of The Heong Gallery. Dr Tancock curated AI WEIWEI: CUBES AND TREES (2016) at The Heong Gallery and contributed essays to that catalogue and the exhibition catalogues for DAME ELISABETH FRINK: LARGER THAN LIFE and BARBARA HEPWORTH: DIVIDED CIRCLE

Professor Graham Virgo

Professor Graham Virgo has been the Master of Downing College since 2023. Prior to this he held numerous roles within College, including Tutor, Director of Studies and he was the Senior Tutor for a decade. Read more