ART HISTORY FESTIVAL 2024 – West Midlands

Enjoy a behind the scenes tour of Hereford Museums Service’s art store and join the curatorial team for a discussion about what artworks the museum service should aim collect for the new museum.  

Join the artist Tereza Buskova for a conversation with curator Roma Piotrowska, reflecting on her work featured in ‘Hidden Mothers’. The project aimed to empower women, especially migrant mothers facing isolation, drawing inspiration from Victorian photography where mothers hid behind cloths while their infants were photographed..  

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.

Join us for a live, in-person introductory tour of the Equal+Able=Not A Label temporary exhibition co-produced with our Collections Community Panel.

The third in our embedding diversity series, this time the focus is on Ableism, and exploring our Collections via our panel members own lived experiences of Disability, Neurodiversity and Mental Health, building connections on Global themes of importance, through our Local collections.

This tour will have BSL interpretation and will be followed be an introduction to BSL basics, in support of the International Day of Sign Languages on 23 September, and ahead of National Inclusion Week (23-29 September). Free, all welcome. Please feel free to drop in on the day!  

A free exhibition featuring artworks – selected by local community groups in 2023 and 2024 – from Worcester’s own collection, Connections explores people’s different responses to art and the emotions and perspectives it can evoke.
 
On show will be unexpected treasures and old favourites including John Collier’s ‘Clytemnestra’ (c. 1914) and ‘Market Day’ (1907) by William Frank Calderon.

A free exhibition featuring artworks – selected by local community groups in 2023 and 2024 – from Worcester’s own collection, Connections explores people’s different responses to art and the emotions and perspectives it can evoke.
 
On show will be unexpected treasures and old favourites including John Collier’s ‘Clytemnestra’ (c. 1914) and ‘Market Day’ (1907) by William Frank Calderon.

Acknowledging things in life that we feel positive about can be a great exercise for our mental health. This activity looks at positive things that connect to our 5 senses – which can also be great for grounding and helping us to feel calm. The workshop is inspired by the free exhibition ‘Connections | The Worcester City Collection in Conversation with the Community. The exhibition features artworks selected by local community groups and explores people’s different responses to art and the emotions and perspectives it can evoke. Paintings of Worcestershire views by renowned local artists will hang alongside works representing global themes, including the popular ‘Clytemnestra’ by John Collier (1850-1934).