ART HISTORY FESTIVAL 2024 – Online/Hybrid Events

Sir Alfred Munnings is famed the world over for his paintings of horseracing. Beginning in Newmarket, the home of racing in the UK, this short film takes you on a journey from Newmarket, to Munnings’ home in Dedham where he created some of his most well-known racing pictures and ends in the USA at the National Sporting Library & Museum in Middleburg where such paintings are loved and appreciated by a far-flung audience.

Co-presented by Esther Chesterman, CEO of the National Extension College and Christina Bradstreet, Head of Programmes at the Association for Art History.

This free 1-hour webinar will introduce the subject of Art History, including what it is and its social and cultural value, the transferable skills that you will gain from studying it and the diversity of careers that it can lead to.

If you would like to learn more about the world of Art History, this will be a great introduction, including a chance to learn about studying A level History of Art online with NEC.

Ayo Akingbade and curator Matthew Barrington discuss the artist’s new exhibition and film commissions along with her wider body of work.

The Fist is a portrait of the Guinness brewery in Lagos, where histories of industrialisation and labour collide; while Faluyi follows protagonist Ife on a journey tracing familial legacy and mysticism in ancestral lands. Both films have been acquired by the Whitworth and will be shown together in a bespoke installation designed by the artist.

This recording was taken during the Whitworth Late event on Thursday 12 September 2024.

Join art historian Éric de Chassey to learn how we can write a more inclusive and more global art history.

Let’s take an image-object: an Egyptian male head from the XXXth Dynasty. Reviewing the six lessons it could teach us through varying approaches, we will try to assess how we can write a more global history of art, one where artifacts shape theoretical frameworks, one that amplifies the possibilities of art history instead of impoverishing it.

Éric de Chassey is director of the French National Institute of Art History (INHA) in Paris and professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at the École normale supérieure in Lyon, France. Between 2009 and 2015, he was Director of the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici. He has published extensively on the work of Matisse, US and European art, transatlantic cultural relationships, and the visual culture of the second half of the 20th century, especially in relationship with counter-culture and politics. He has also curated numerous exhibitions, in France, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Italy, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. He currently chairs the International Network of Research Institutes in Art History (RIHA) and the editorial board of the international project “The Visual Arts in Europe: An Open History” (EVA).

Join a free online discussion exploring the impact of residencies held at the G.A.S. Foundation in Nigeria since 2019.

Founded by British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, the live / work artist residency programme includes two sites, one in Lagos and one on a rural farm in Ljebu, Ogun State. Part of the artist’s eponymous foundation, the programme aims to cultivate the local art scene, as well as the broader ecosystem and sustainable farming. It combines critical and engaging practices in the fields of contemporary art, design, architecture with agriculture and ecology. The residency has attracted remarkable artists and academics from the Diaspora and further afield, with motivations such as a desire to connect with the African continent or specific curiosity relating to pan African history and culture.

In this panel discussion we are joined by Belinda Holden, CEO of Yinka Shonibare Foundation, UK and Moni Aisida, Executive Director of the G.A.S. Foundation, Nigeria to hear how artists and academics are using the space to research, experiment, share, educate and develop work, and the impact G.A.S. is having both locally and globally.

“The mutually beneficial exchange, between artists and intellectuals, visitors and locals, is happening at G.A.S Foundation. In a global world of continuing and growing conflict, polarisation, ignorance and misinformation, providing a safe space to meet with other cultures for research, exchange, debate and collaboration, really feels to me more vital than ever.” – Yinka Shonibare CBE RA

This lecture explains art history as a critical thinking, community building tool. More than the study of elite objects, we’ll think about how studying art history might transform our cultural landscape and our personal perspectives on humanity. The goal is to understand why art history matters in the world, right now.

Join us for an engaging and insightful panel discussion, “Why Study Art History at University?”, designed for young adults and teenagers eager to explore the fascinating world of Art History. This free Zoom event brings together a group of students who studied Art History A Level as part of our free Art History for Everyone Programme (applications for the next academic year are currently open) and went on to study it further at University. They will share their unique perspectives on the transformative power of the subject.

Hosted by two passionate advocates for the subject, Rose Aidin, Founder and Chief Executive of Art History Link-Up, and Ludo Amory, Education and Outreach Officer, this discussion will delve into the many reasons why Art History is a vital and rewarding field of study. We will also be joined by AHLU’s Chair, Toby Monk, Global Director, Recruiting and Staff Engagement, Christie’s, on possible career pathways in which studying Art History can take you.

Whether you’re interested in pursuing a career in museums, galleries, education, or even fields like media and cultural heritage, this panel will reveal how Art History can open doors to a multitude of exciting career paths. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with like-minded peers, ask questions, and discover how studying Art History can enrich your academic journey and shape your future!

Throughout the history of European art, the tree has been of great importance in so many ways. It can act as a punctuation mark within a composition, or to create perspective, to draw attention to a figure, to offer a framework for a narrative or to give meaning to the subject of the painting or sculpture. Dead or broken trees can symbolise death, a living tree in contrast can indicate everlasting life or the Resurrection, and in the Garden of Eden the Tree of Knowledge is crucial to the Fall of Adam and Eve. This V&A Academy online lecture, given by Clare Ford-Wille, will explore the many ways in which artists and sculptors, such as Piero della Francesca, Titian, Caspar David Friedrich or Constable, use trees in their work. .

Once you have booked your free place, you will receive a link to join the live lecture 24 hours before the event, as well as a link to the recording afterwards, so that you can enjoy watching the lecture on demand.

It was said that ‘though Irish by birth, Lavery was a Scottish painter.’ Join assistant curator Freya Spoor as she discusses Lavery’s connections to Scotland from his schooldays in Ayrshire to his role in the pioneering group of artists known as the Glasgow Boys.

This talk considers the games and toys marketed in Europe and in the United States over the long 19th century, from the French Revolution to the First World War. It will examine the way in which games, aimed at both children and adults, contributed to the creation of an image of the world and its history.

We will look at widely distributed paper and cardboard games and toys, such as card games, goose games, lotto and jigsaw puzzles. From the memorialization of Napoleon’s career to later colonial conquests and from geographical exploration to touristic enjoyment, these games brought history down to a miniature scale and imported distant landscapes and peoples into the domestic sphere.

While the transmission of historical and geographical knowledge was most often the ostensible objective of these games, what did it actually mean to play with it?

Hélène Valance is a lecturer in American history at Université de Franche Comté and scientific advisor at Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, where she is leading a project on French 19th century games. She is the author of Nocturne. Night in American Art (Yale University Press, 2018).

As ethnographic research into indigenous groups grew after the Mexican revolution, photography became one of the most important instruments in the representation of these vast ethnic differences and specificities. Modern artists were interested in photography, both as an expressive artistic form but also as a useful documentary technique, often exchanging with both anthropologists and professional photographers.

Join Deborah Dorotinsky Alperstein for a free online talk, on the exchange between ethnography, photography and modern art and the construction of new Mexican identities between 1890-1940.

Deborah Dorotinsky Alperstein (she/her/ella) is a full-time, tenured researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas in UNAM, Mexico City. Her areas of research include the History of Mexican Ethnographic Photography 1850-1950, Visual Culture and gender in Mexico 1920-1950 and Popular Arts through the 20th Century. Her book, Viaje de sombras. Fotografías del Desierto de la soledad y los indios lacandones en los años cuarenta was published by UNAM-IIE in 2013 http://biblio.esteticas.unam.mx/items/show/9 She is currently responsible for the Getty research project “Popular Arts in the Twentieth Century: concepts, dialogues and social resistance” a joint venture She is currently responsible for the Getty research project “Popular Arts in the Twentieth Century: concepts, dialogues and social resistance” a joint venture between Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas-UNAM, IDEAS in the Universidad Nacional de San Martín in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the Graduate Art and Architecture program in Universidad Nacional de Colombia, in Medellín.

Join Celia Joicey, Director of Dovecot Studios and Naomi Roberston, Master Weaver and Head of the Dovecot Tapestry Studio, to hear about the work of Dovecot Studios and the making of their major tapestry with Chris Ofili, The Caged Bird’s Song, commissioned by The Clothworkers’ Company. Explore Dovecot’s latest exhibition on a virtual tour which has brought the tapestry back to Scotland to be shown in the context of the tapestry studio where the work was created. Learn how the colour, myths and magic of Ofili’s watercolour design were transformed into a large format tapestry that took Dovecot’s master weavers over three years to create.

At the end of the 19th century, the botanist and social activist Patrick Geddes worked with painter John Duncan and other young artists enthused with the idea of a Celtic Revival in Scottish culture. They took inspiration from the Book of Kells and Pictish stone carving but also contemporary European symbolism, international theosophy and the occult. This special online event features four speakers exploring local and global aspects of this fascinating movement.

Murdo Macdonald explores Geddes’s international localism, including connections in India and the US. Michelle Foot discusses spiritual and occult dimensions of the Celtic Revival. Matthew Jarron highlights Duncan’s protégé Nell Baxter and her role in Celtic Revival projects in Edinburgh and Dundee. And Joanna Meacock focuses on Duncan’s painting Ivory, Apes and Peacocks: The Queen of Sheba and its connection to Geddes’s Masque of Learning.

Murdo Macdonald is

Michelle Foot is 

Matthew Jarron 

Nell Baxter

Joanna Meacock is head of … at Glasgow Life Museums.

The United Arab Emirates has rapidly earned its place on the international museum and art market landscape over the last decade.

Join leading women art world leaders from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah to learn more about the development of an art history in the United Arab Emirates in recent times.

This free, online panel discussion features key figures in the country’s art ecosystem and lead by Sophie Kazan Makhlouf, author of Art Is Not Made To Be Understood: The Development of An Art History in the UAE and a member of the Association for Art History’s Higher Education Committee.

This promises to be an interesting and lively presentation with perspective from the country’s three largest emirates.

Manal Ataya is a Senior Advisor and was previously Director General of Sharjah Museums Authority

Asmaa Shabibi is the co-founder and Director of Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai

Munira Al Sayegh is an independent curator and founder of Dirwaza Curatorial Lab in Abu Dhabi.

Eric Ravilious (1903-42) was always looking for what he called ‘a good place’ – a scene that inspired him. This quest took him across the downland of southern England, into the Welsh borders and further afield. Like so many of his generation he found that World War Two offered new (if dangerous) opportunities to travel: his watercolours of the June 1940 Norwegian campaign are among his finest. This wide-ranging, colourful lecture explores Ravilious the artist of the local and particular, whose influences, vision and ambition were international. James Russell is an art historian and exhibition curator. His exhibition ‘Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious’ opens at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, in November.

Join Christie’s Education and Ben Street on the 18th of September for a complimentary lecture in partnership with the Art History Festival 2024, exploring this year’s theme Art History: Local to Global.

Street photography provides a way of mapping places and what people do in them. From Daidō Moriyama’s images of postwar Japanese city life to Helen Levitt’s scenes of children at play in the streets of New York, this genre of photography allows us to think about the human experience of local sites. This talk examines the global phenomenon of street photography, taking in work by artists in India, Great Britain, Mexico and Hungary.

Ben Street is an art historian and writer. He has been a lecturer for the National Gallery, Tate, the Royal Academy, Dulwich Picture Gallery and Christie’s Education, among other institutions. He is the author of numerous books for general readers, most recently ‘How to Enjoy Art’ (Yale University Press, released September 2021) and a contributing writer on contemporary art for Apollo, Art Review and the Times Literary Supplement.

Join the livestream to hear an engaging conversation with renowned art historian Janina Ramirez. She will discuss the value of art history, its impact on society and culture, and on her own life with fellow art historian and educator, Sarah Jaffrey.

For our 50th anniversary celebrations, the Association for Art History is asking people in the arts and those interested in our subject – Art History Advocates – what art history means to them.

Hear Art History Advocate Janina Ramirez address, in a variety of inspirational ways, why it is important to the individual and to society, and gain a new perspectives on Art History Now.

“Art History is one of the few subjects that leaps across disciplinary boundaries, combining our intuitive responses to visual stimulus with documents, music, film, archaeology, as well as the sciences. To understand the world through the marks and images humans have made provides a unique way of viewing past, present and future.” Janina Ramirez, Art History Now

Professor Janina Ramirez is a lecturer, researcher, author and broadcaster.

She is Research Fellow in History of Art at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, and Visiting Professor in Medieval Studies at the University of Lincoln. Her most recent book, ‘Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages Through the Women Written out of it’, was an instant Sunday Times number 1 best-seller, Waterstones Book of the Month and Book of the Year. Janina is also an award-winning documentary-maker, with 15 years of writing and presenting for the BBC, Sky Arts and Arte. Her films include ‘The Search for the Lost Manuscript’, ‘Britain’s Millenium of Monasteries’, and ‘Chivalry and Betrayal: The Hundred Years War’. Her repeating series ‘Raiders of the Lost Past’ has included episodes on the Olmec Heads of Mexico, the Lion Man of Germany, and Tutankhamun in Egypt. She has published extensively, including monographs on The Private Lives of Saints, Julian of Norwich and Beowulf. Her forthcoming book, ‘Legenda: A New History of Nation Building Through the Women at the Heart of It’, is due for release July 25 with Penguin-Random house.  She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society for the Arts. 

Sarah Jaffray is an art historian and educator who currently works as the art history coordinator at City Lit.

Sarah holds a BA and MA in art history with an emphasis in 19th/20th century France and a minor in the Italian Renaissance. She holds a second MA in cultural theory from Goldsmiths, University of London. Sarah was a tenured professor of art history in Los Angeles before relocating to London in 2012. She has worked in curatorial roles at the British Museum and Wellcome Collection. In addition to her current coordinating role, Sarah lectures on art history for a variety of organisations and societies, including City Lit and University of Arts London. Her art historical practice focuses on experimental narratives, artistic process, art pedagogy, politics and philosophy. Sarah’s current research is focused on translation and empathy.

Over the past four years, the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) has made progress in establishing a cultural institution in Nigeria focused on archaeology, heritage management, and arts programming. At the heart of this is the MOWAA Institute, a center for conservation and research with a wing for archaeological science.

As the Institute prepares for its opening this November, Founding Director Ore Disu reflects on the impact of cultural infrastructure and how the building process can mend cultural fractures. The upcoming structure, inspired by traditional Benin architecture, uses rammed earth, a rare choice in institutional building in Africa. Ore discusses the experimentation involved, the integration of archaeology, and the embrace for open learning. She considers the potential for arts institutions to influence heritage management, environmental sustainability, and support artisanal industries.

The campus design process also intersects with difficult historical legacies. Situated in Benin’s historic urban core and with colonial remnants, the development raises questions about which elements of the past to preserve, erase, or commemorate. Ore envisions scaling these ideas, exploring how community support and local policies can align with culturally conscious building in Nigeria.

During the 19th century, there was a rising demand in Western Europe for ‘Orientalist’ paintings and the Wallace Collection displays several fascinating examples. On the surface, these alluring depictions of Asia and North Africa appear realistic and potentially innocuous. However, Dr Matthew Morgan will reveal how these highly contrived images represented deeply entrenched racial and gender stereotypes, and supported Eurocentric views of cultural superiority.      

At The New Art Gallery Walsall we have been working with a local Collections Community Panel to explore our publicly owned art collections through the lens of different themes and lived experiences important to them, and contemporary society as a whole. Through the increase in digital engagement platforms we are able to expand the reach of our Collections nationally and internationally, so that the work of one regional UK collection can engage with other like minded groups across the country and beyond. We can demonstrate a wider impact of art history and offer art historical reinterpretations from a contemporary perspective.

The panel’s current exhibition project examines the subject of Ableism through our Collections. Equal+Able uses our Collections to present ideas in relation to Disability, Neurodiversity and Mental Health. Join panel members and Collections Curator, Julie Macfarlane Brown, for an online look at the exhibition and the themes and artworks explored.

Goya & Africa is a new virtual exhibition and learning resource designed to introduce young people to work of the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya and contemporary African artists whose work responds to Goya’s including William Kentridge, Roméo Mivekannin, Grace Nyahangare, Johannes Phokela, Athi-Patra Ruga, Yinka Shonibare and Diane Victor.  In this talk, the project team from Athena Art Foundation and their South African partners, Brundyn Arts and Culture, introduce the project, talking about how they have set about trying to engage groups who have had little or no experience of visiting art galleries, for example in rural Africa, and about the feedback they have had so far.

Join us for a free webinar offering an overview of some of the various roles in arts organisations such as in Engagement, Learning, Fundraising and Development and Marketing and Comms.

Our guest speakers will offer information and advice aimed at undergraduate students and A Level students thinking about pursuing careers in this sector. There will be time for Q&A.

Amber Akaunu, Video Producer, National Gallery, London

Kathryn Havelock, Marketing and Communications Specialist in Arts and Culture

Claire Mead, Community Engagement Manager, Museum of London

Gráinne Rice, Adult Programme Co-Ordinator, National Galleries of Scotland

Siti Osman, Philanthropy and Patrons Manager, Yinka Shonibare Foundation