For those of you missing the Courtauld’s excellent event programme – or those of you that are keen to get involved from the comfort of your own home – Open Courtauld has put together a brilliant package of talks, discussions and performances as part of their Open Courtauld Hour series. This weekly event will take place from wherever you are from Thursday the 30th of April, 20.05 – 21.00. Visit the website to see the full programme and reserve your free tickets: https://courtauld.ac.uk/research/research-forum/events
Week 1 – Art in Isolation: Lockdown has been transformational in how artists, galleries and museums are adapting to an online world to continue showcasing and making art. Join Alixe Bovey (Head of Research at The Courtauld Institute of Art) on Thursday 30th of April, 20.05 – 21.00, in exploring the importance of creative practice and artistic consumption in a time of isolation.Alixe will examine this issue through discussions with Courtauld’s own Barnaby Wright (Deputy Head of The Courtauld Gallery), the National Gallery’s Caroline Campbell (Curator of Italian Paintings) and Underpinning’s Lorraine Smith (Co-founder). The hour will include a one-off poetic reinterpretation of Paul Cezanne’s ‘Montagne Sainte-Victoire with Large Pine’ by award winning poet Shagufta K Iqbal.
Week 2 – Art and Wellbeing: Over recent years, there has been a growing understanding of the power that taking part in the arts can have on health and wellbeing. In our second session on Thursday 7th of May, 20.05 – 21.00, we will investigate the supplementation of arts alongside medicine and care to foster an environment that improves the health of people — within and without a healthcare setting. Join Rebecca Chamberlain (Lecturer in Psychology at Goldsmiths University), Sir Leszek Borysiewicz (Chair of Cancer Research UK and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge), Michaela Ross (Curator, Bethlem Gallery) and Jasmine Cooray (poet and counsellor) in discussions and performances exploring access to the arts in healthcare environments, the power of ‘Slow Art’ within galleries and museums and to be engaged in learning and debate on the subject of mental and physical health and artistic practice.
Week 3 – The Future of Art: In this session on Thursday 14th of May, 20.05 – 21.00, our experts discuss the Courtauld’s ever-changing approach to the online publication of its extensive photographic collection (via the development of an ambitious digitisation project encompassing 3.3 million prints and negatives), the implementation of scientific techniques of conservation and the challenges/opportunities this pandemic may provide those working in the field. In light of the changing landscape of art history, we will be joined by Aviva Burnstock (Professor and Head of the Department of Conservation and Technology at the Courtauld Institute of Art), Theo Gordon (Sackler Postdoctoral Fellow 2019-20 at the Courtauld Institute of Art), Tom Bilson (Head of Digital Media at the Courtauld Institute of Art) and artist and poet Muneera Pilgrim.
Week 4 – Women Artists: Our fourth Open Courtauld Hour will focus on Women Artists, addressing gender imbalance in the art world, expanding on notions of public and private and reinserting women of all backgrounds back into the canon of art history. Hosting the evening will be Katy Hessel of @thegreatwomenartists — an account and podcast series which celebrates women on a daily basis. She will be joined by Jo Applin (The Courtauld Institute of Art) who will chat with Katy more about their podcast episode on Louise Bourgeois, Ketty Gottardo (Martin Halusa Curator of Drawings at the Courtauld Institute of Art) who will be virtually opening up our object study room and allowing the audience to see, close-up, a number of works by Helen Saunders and other academics and curators focusing on women artists. Stuart Hall Foundation Scholarship Jade Montserrat. Jade will be reclaiming women’s narrative through a one-off poetic take on Paul Gauguin’s Te Rerioa.
