Jago Cooper is the Director of the Sainsbury Centre Art Museum based at the University of East Anglia. With the Can We Stop Killing Each Other? season continuing into next year, Jago explains how helping people answer the biggest questions they have in their lives is the future
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Jago Cooper, and I am lucky enough to be the Director of the Sainsbury Centre which is a job which I massively enjoy. I have worked on museum and cultural projects around the world for more than 20 years.
What led you to becoming Director of the Sainsbury Centre?
When I saw the job of Director, I knew that if the Living Art concept was going to work anywhere, it would be here, due to the radical founding principles of the Sainsbury Centre and its creators Sir Norman Foster, and Sir Robert and Lisa Sainsbury.
How would you describe the Sainsbury Centre, to someone who has yet to visit?
The Sainsbury Centre is the best museum in the world! From temporary exhibitions exploring the biggest questions of our time, working with the most exciting global artists of today, to a world-class collection of artworks spanning 6000 years, plus a 350-acre evolving Sculpture Park and a vast and inspiring digital experience. It is a unique experience like nowhere else will offer.
How has the Sainsbury Centre evolved since you arrived?
We underwent an exciting and radical relaunch of the Sainsbury Centre in 2023. We now see art as alive, which has changed the whole way we do things and see our collection. Art is powerful in being able to teach us about the past, present and future, as well as new ways to think, and so our exhibition programming now asks Big Questions, from What is Truth? To Why Do We Take Drugs? and currently Can We Stop Killing Each Other?
We invite visitors to meet art like another human being, through a range of experiential, analogue and digital pathways, such as lying beneath a Giacometti painting or stepping into a glass box to become an artwork. We also now have a new ticketing system, where visitors can pay if and what they want, really allowing art to be for all.
What is the Living Art concept?
That there is something totally unique about being human, and that great artists, makers and creators have an ability to channel that uniqueness, and in the case of visual arts, materialise it through the brush onto the canvas, and through the chisel into the stone.
Would you like to mention the current Can We Stop Killing Each Other?
We are currently hosting a series of incredibly powerful exhibitions asking Can We Stop Killing Each Other?. Bringing together artists and cultural viewpoints from all around the world, we explore some of the most challenging aspects of human behaviour. The emotional power of art to generate empathy and understanding is what enables us to explore the world around us from a completely different perspective. This is what makes these exhibitions so resonant and impactful. They bring into sharp relief our ability for compassion, sensitivity and hope; some of the best defining traits of what makes us human. Exhibitions continue until 11 January, 15 February, 17 May and 19 April. Check out our website for more details.
How does the Universal Ticket concept work?
When visitors arrive, they are asked to only pay if and what they want, either on their way in or on their way out, because it is really important to us that money isn’t a barrier to seeing the best art in the world.
Any more plans for the Sainsbury Centre, under your directorship, you can share?
We are really keen to increase our media production around how art can help people answer the biggest questions they have in their lives, so we are doing a lot of work planning for that now.
The Channel section of our website, and our YouTube, hosts high quality produced films. In Day Release, masterpieces escape the walls of the Sainsbury Centre and step into the real world – meeting new faces, reflecting society’s changes, and sparking fresh conversations.
Watch the special ceremony which welcomed the exhibition Tiaki Ora ∞ Protecting Life: Anton Forde to the Sainsbury Centre, interviews with artists and specialists, and more.
How can people support the Sainsbury Centre?
With a limited marketing budget, we rely on word of mouth to help spread the word about everything we are up to here. Please support us on Instagram and the brilliant video content being produced on YouTube, become a Member, sign up to our newsletter… and just come and visit – there is something at the Sainsbury Centre for every single person.
The Can We Stop Killing Each Other? exhibitions continue until 11 January, 15 February, 17 May and 19 April 2026. Visit Sainsbury Centre.
Featured image of Jago Cooper – by Kate Wolstenholme
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