Events

28 January: Race, Empire and the Pre-Raphaelites Objects in Focus: Decolonising Victorian Art and Design? 12:00 – 14:00, via Zoom

By using Birmingham’s rich collections as a starting point, we aim to facilitate wider conversations about how Pre-Raphaelite and Arts & Crafts material might be displayed and interpreted for the 21st-century museum and its diverse audiences. The first event will feature responses to Victorian objects in Birmingham’s collection by Fariha Shaikh, Sally-Anne Huxtable, Wayne Modest, Gursimran Oberoi, Caitlin Beach and Nicola Thomas, followed by informal breakout sessions where we will look together at a range of Pre-Raphaelite and Arts & Crafts objects and discuss how they might be reinterpreted in the context of race and empire.

For more information and to join the Group, contact: Race.Empire.PRB@gmail.com

11 February: Landscape Mapping the Landscape 13:30 – 15:30, via Zoom

Maps tell many stories of our landscape through the places they depict. Find out more about a range of historical maps and how they can provide insight into themes of identity, power and authority. Explore how artists have used maps to reinterpret our surroundings and contemporary mapmakers reactivate collections to create future maps. Speakers include: Nick Millea, Map Librarian, Bodleian Library; Alison Byrne, University of York; Lisa Temple Cox, artist; and Garrett Carr, curator, lecturer, writer and map-maker.

For more information and to join the Group, contact Emma Roodhouse: emma. roodhouse@colchester.gov.uk

15 February: Post War Painting in Regional Collections A collective taskforce workshop to audit diversity among John Moores Painting Prize winners 13:00 – 16:30, via Zoom

The John Moores Painting Prize was established in 1957 in order to encourage excellence in British painting. The Prize is anonymously judged, theoretically creating a more level playing field for unknown artists. By auditing catalogues from a sample of consecutive editions, we hope to establish whether the Prize invited more diverse field of talent than more conventional institutions. We hope this statistical research will provide the basis for investigation of overlooked artists and further support studies of marginalised practitioners in the post-war period, particularly in terms of representation within regional collections.

For more information and to join the Group, contact Sophie Hatchwell: s.hatchwell@bham.ac.uk