28 November 2018 1pm-2pm
G7 Pavilion Parade
University of Brighton

Ben Roberts
UoB’s new Artistic Director will be highlighting some of his work prior to arriving in Brighton, in particular recent projects at Modern Art Oxford and the Artists’ Research Centre. Before briefly introducing the upcoming launch of Brighton CCA at Grand Parade: the programme’s ethos, direction and plans for the future.

Matthew Cornford
“The Art Schools of North West England”

Matthew will give a brief introduction to his research and recent photographic survey into The Art Schools of North West England, produced in collaboration with Professor John Beck from the University of Westminster.

The art schools of the North West were a product of the region’s industrial power during the nineteenth century, institutions aimed at meeting the needs of industrialists, workers and civic leaders. Many art schools grew out of Mechanics’ Institutes and other mutual improvement organisations that provided education and training for workers. Support for industrial training was good business, but the rising middle class also had cultural ambitions and art schools, along with galleries and museums, were often conceived as agents of aesthetic cultivation.

This combustible mix of the practical and the creative, of working- and middle-class aspirations, made art schools often contradictory sites of cultural exploration and social change. The names, locations and functions of the art schools have shifted, turned and turned again with the seasons.

Image caption: Anne Hardy, Live in the Studio (residency and performance), installation view. Modern Art Oxford 2014