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Joint Subject Specialist Network Seminar: Reinvention and Redisplay

Register now for our forthcoming joint Subject Specialist Network Seminar: Reinvention and Redisplay

Organised by Understanding British Portraits and European Paintings pre-1900 in partnership with the Association for Art History

  • Tuesday 22 October 2024, 11.15—16.30 (registration commences at 10.30)
  • The Mildred and Simon Palley Learning Centre, National Portrait Gallery, London
  • Free, booking essential

Chaired by Sandra Penketh, Executive Director of Collections and Research, National Museums Liverpool

Curators, museum educators and researchers from across the UK will share case studies on recent approaches to collection redisplays, organisational changes and new learning and audience engagement strategies – all responding to the theme Reinvention and Redisplay. The seminar will feature reflections from the National Portrait Gallery one year after its reopening, as well as the future vision of the National Gallery as they embark on their bicentenary celebrations.

Aimed at museum professionals, this event will also offer opportunities for networking with sector colleagues and a chance to view new displays at the National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery.

Papers will include:

Renaissance Rediscovered at the Walker Art Gallery
Kate O’Donoghue, Curator of International Fine Art, National Museums Liverpool
The Walker Art Gallery’s (National Museums Liverpool) Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Galleries underwent a major redevelopment from 2020 to 2023. This exciting project, Renaissance Rediscovered, provided an opportunity to fully rethink the display and interpretation of the gallery’s renowned collection of western European art from the 13th to the 18th century. This paper will explore the new approaches taken as part of the redisplay and will reflect on the project’s successes and challenges.

Working nationally, thinking locally: curatorial strategies at the Laing Art Gallery
Julie Milne, Chief Curator of Art Galleries, and Lizzie Jacklin, Keeper of Art, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
This paper explores how we have developed an exhibitions strategy with ‘place’ at its heart, aiming to instil a sense of local identity and pride while also undertaking ambitious national partnership working. We will discuss how we are trying to make our programme more sustainable, and how this connects to the aim to continue developing ambitious exhibitions in house while giving enhanced focus to how objects – including key loans – can be ‘redisplayed’ here in a way that resonates with our own collections and regional heritage.

The Past For The Present: How Can Historic Paintings Speak To Contemporary Lives?
Jane Findlay, Head of Programme and Engagement, and Helen Hillyard, Head of Collection, Dulwich Picture Gallery
This paper considers how Dulwich Picture Gallery has used community-led Participatory Action Research (PAR) to inform new approaches to collection displays, research and programming. It will focus on one outcome of this research, ORACLES, an installation produced by artists Yara + Davina, which asked visitors to bring their own lived experience to the Gallery’s collection of historic paintings.

A Collaborative Collection, A Shared Studio: National Engagement in and Outside the Gallery
Alexandra Talbott, Senior Producer – Creative Projects, National Portrait Gallery
Through the Inspiring People project the National Portrait Gallery has worked in close collaborations with young people, citizen researchers and artists with both greater London and national partners to tell new stories and make connections between lived experience and the Gallery’s collection. This presentation highlights some of the work and key learnings from these partnerships and looks to the questions guiding the future development of this work.

Representing the Barber’s Permanent Collection
Robert Wenley, Deputy Director: Collections and Research, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts
The Barber Institute holds a small but superb collection of paintings in the Western European tradition, dating from the 13th century to the late 20th. It has long been displayed in a straightforward chronological arrangement across four galleries. This presentation will consider the recent project to redisplay and re-interpret the Pre-1600 Gallery along more thematic lines, and outline how this approach might be applied to or developed across the other galleries. Among the aspects to be discussed will be how we have worked and will work with community groups and other stakeholders to help establish our visitors’ needs.

The Art of Inclusion: Embedding Wellbeing at the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge 
Michelle Moubarak, Head of Culture, Leisure and External Development, Mitch Robertson, Museums and Programme Manager, The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, Canterbury
Reflecting on a decade of Health and Wellbeing initiatives at the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, this presentation will outline the museum’s journey in understanding the power of objects and the role civic museums play in the wellbeing of their communities. From creative workshops to community curators the Beaney explores their commitment to inclusion across all aspects of the museum.

The full programme for the day can be found here: Reinvention and Redisplay Programme

To register, please complete the registration form below and return to Bryony Smith, Researcher/Co-ordinator: Understanding British Portraits at bsmith@npg.org.uk.

A limited number of travel bursaries are available to enable delegates to attend the event: please complete this section of the registration form if you wish to apply.

Reinvention and Redisplay Registration Form

Image: Reinstallation of works in the National Portrait Gallery © David Parry

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