Tim Craven has worked at Southampton City Art Gallery for 37 years in conservation, collection management and as Curator. He has curated and co-curated many and various exhibitions of British Modern Art, including The Camden Town Group, Surrealism and Romanticism, contributing essays and forewords to their catalogues. He has also substantially developed the permanent collection during his tenure. Always a practising artist (having trained initially in fine art), he founded The Arborealists group of artists of diverse practice who share the subject of trees in 2013. He was elected to The London Group in 2015.