Museums & Exhibitions
"Don't Ask for the Mona Lisa": Exhibitions Collaborations between Academics and Art Galleries
"Don't Ask for the Mona Lisa": Exhibitions Collaborations between Academics and Art Galleries
AAH Museums and Exhibitions Workshop 18th March 2010, University of Leeds
For full details and to book places, see http://www.aah.org.uk/museums-and-exhibitions
Tickets are strictly limited, and early booking is recommended.
Tickets cost £30 for non-members, £18 for AAH members.
Funded by the Association of Art Historians and organised by the Museums and Exhibitions Group of the AAH, the seminar will be in Leeds at Devonshire Hall on March 18th 2010, and is entitled Don't Ask for the Mona Lisa: Exhibition Collaborations between Academics and Art Galleries. The Group is currently putting together a set of guidelines aimed at academics who wish to collaborate with a museum or gallery in putting on an exhibition or display but may not know how to go about it and it is hoped that the event will feed into this publication.
The seminar will focus in the morning on three collaborative papers, where curators and academics will reflect on their experience of working together on exhibitions. The day will conclude with a round table discussion, with curators, academics and representatives of the key funding councils participating. Registration will begin at 10.30am and the day will conclude at 4pm, and there is space for an audience of 40.
With the increase in funding initiatives aimed at encouraging knowledge transfer and collaboration, the event is aimed at academic art historians who have had little or no experience of organising exhibitions and is meant to be practical above all. It aims to explore questions such as; Can particular academic research projects influence exhibition planning? Who contacts who; the researcher or the gallery and who has the initial concept? Should the aim be to fit into a wider set of themes proposed by the Gallery in its programme planning? How do you prepare the proposal; should it consist of a written proposal or a formal presentation? Should you use illustrations and suggestions for exhibits as part of your proposal? Does the gallery and the researcher develop their own views of how the exhibition might look, or is this the role of a designer at a later stage? Does the proposal have to progress through several stages before it is finally accepted? How long does this process take? How long does it take from having the proposal to the opening of the exhibition? At what stage do you agree the allocation of responsibilities between the curator and the researcher for producing the exhibition? How much is the average overall budget for producing an exhibition? What are the benefits/limitations/problems of working in collaboration with researchers from outside of the gallery?
We are hoping to attract an audience of both curators and academics and the afternoon session will aim to be as interactive as possible in order to assist colleagues in exhibition planning, funding application preparation and developing collaborative partnerships.
Speakers:
Prof David Jackson (University of Leeds) with Edwin Becker, Head of Exhibitions, Van Gogh Museum - Exhibition project: 'Christen Kobke: Danish Masters of Light'
Prof Catherine Karkov (University of Leeds) with Ellen Tait, Curatorial Assistant-Exhibitions, Henry Moore Institute (now at National Railways Museum) - Exhibition project: 'The Boat and the Cross: Church and State in early Anglo-Saxon Coinage'
Prof David Hill (University of Leeds) with Terry Suthers(TBC), (former) Director, Harewood House - Exhibition project: 'Turner in the North'
Roundtable participants:
Dr. Christiana Payne, Oxford Brookes University
Dr. Gemma Blackshaw, University of Plymouth Corinne Miller, Head of Arts and Museums, Wolverhampton Arts & Museums
Dr. Patricia Allmer, Manchester Metropolitain University