I, Kimberley K. Stone grew up in the west coast of Scotland, in what was then a small village. It was a bit of an odd place and far form the sleepy fishing village you might imagine had been conceived as a holiday village of the rich merchants of Glasgow in the mid part of the nineteenth century, coinciding with the invention of steam power. Steam trains and Clyde Puffers (boats) were at the heart of village life and it was my father’s job as a Railway Man that had resulted in us ending up living there.
As with anybody; where you grow up has a huge impact, it was a childhood of fantasy, getting to play in the woods all day, finding ruined castles and pet cemeteries, within overgrown Victorian gardens, stocked with sub-tropical plants from around the globe. The history of a place filled with stories of Emperors and great explorers. It was in this setting that my imagination run wild. It wasn’t until I was much older that I discovered many of the stories were true.
I then went on to high school in Gourock seven miles form my village and it was here I began to understand the incredible landscape that surrounded me and not just the immediacy of overgrown gardens and derelict buildings. From my school I could see the Argyll Mountains and at the same time I was embedded in post-industrial landscape of Thatcher’s Britain.
On leaving high school I was lost took up a number of courses including Portfolio Preparation and Display Design, which I dropped out of. During this time I moved to Glasgow and started to gain my appetite for social justice and equality having witnessed many of the experiences of the Glasgow poor. From here I took a giant leap to visit Canada and then to New Zealand, it was after this time I realised I had spent most of my time overseas in Art Galleries and this may be the place I want to spend my career. On my return from New Zealand. I applied to Falmouth College of Art and was accepted into a BA Honours in The History of Modern Art and Design. Which I graduated from in 2006. With my dissertation focus on Post-Colonial Theory. I used my time wisely during university to gain paid work in the arts field and had accepted a paying job once a graduated.
After six months there I returned to Falmouth to manage Troubador Studios, where I set up Falmouth Wharves Community which dramatically impacted my my arts practice and headed me in the direction of Radical Curation and an arts practice that I like to describe as Art Inaction.
In 2012 I took the dramatic decision to move to South Africa in order to be with the man I love. Following this decision I set up a small project Open House Exhibition and have curated a number of pop up exhibition within Pretoria. I now live in Cape Town where I have enhanced my scope as a Radical Curator by training as an ICF Master Coach. I now operate as a Life Doula, using my understanding of the arts, community, personal healing and life coaching to create a human oriented world.
Kimberley K. Stone 