Brian Parkes has been CEO and Artistic Director of JamFactory in Adelaide since April 2010. During this time he has overseen significant growth in the organisation’s audience, reach and operational budget, the opening of a satellite facility with studios, gallery and shop in the Barossa Valley, the development of a successful JamFactory-branded range of furniture, lighting and homewares and the establishment of a national touring exhibitions program, which includes the annual JamFactory ICON exhibitions celebrating the work of leading South Australian artists working in crafts-based media.

He spent ten years prior to this as Associate Director and Senior Curator at Object: Australian Centre for Craft and Design in Sydney. He curated several important exhibitions for Object including the landmark survey of contemporary Australian design, Freestyle: new Australian design for living. Parkes has written extensively on design and contemporary crafts and has regularly consulted on public art policy and strategy.

A graduate of the Tasmanian School of Art in Hobart, Parkes has a significant and unusual background in both the creative and commercial spheres within museums and galleries. In the 1990s he managed the merchandising and retail operations at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (1998-2000) and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (1995-98).