April 6th, 2018
‘Exhibition’ seems to be a rather slippery term these days. In the context of national museums and galleries it might conjure thoughts of huge blockbuster shows, often bringing together an impressive array of loans from across the globe. If I told you I was going to an ‘exhibition’ in London, this is probably the kind […]
April 6th, 2018
A thin, black thread wound around the wrist of Anne Fanshawe in her 1628 portrait by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger drew me to the study day at Valence House Museum, Dagenham, organised by the Understanding British Portraits network- but more of that later. As a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, I have researched […]
April 5th, 2018
The UBP Annual Seminar, held at the National Portrait Gallery in November, was my first encounter with the network. They say first impressions count the most, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. Having recently joined the National Trust as a Regional Curator with responsibility for all properties in Dorset, I am making it my priority to […]
April 5th, 2018
On the 20 September ’17, I attended the Depicting Dress workshop run by Prof. Jenny Tiramani and Vanessa Hopkins, teachers at The School of Historical Dress in Lambeth. In late spring when I had read the description of the workshop, I thought it would provide a fantastic development opportunity; a chance to improve my knowledge […]
April 5th, 2018
This collaborative workshop between the Understanding British Portraits professional network and the School of Historical Dress was led by two of the School’s teachers, Professor Jenny Tiramani and Vanessa Hopkins and took place their newly opened headquarters in Lambeth. The day commenced in the extremely well-stocked library, where Jenny and Vanessa provided a brief introduction […]
January 24th, 2018
Understanding British Portraits events never disappoint. They are carefully programmed allowing for a wide breadth of interest and professional focus. I always gain great inspiration from these sessions and translate this directly into my efforts at Ham House. A few years ago, I worked collaboratively with volunteers to develop and deliver a Portrait Tour that […]
August 1st, 2017
I attended the Decoding the domestic interior in British portraits seminar at the Geffrye Museum, ostensibly in my current role as Assistant Curator of Furniture, Textiles and Fashion at the Victoria & Albert Museum – these of course all being types of objects commonly found within portraits. Not being a portrait specialist nor someone focused solely […]
July 20th, 2017
At the end of June, a colleague and I, attended the Understanding British Portraits seminar at the Geffrye Museum. We attended as part of a newly formed specialists’ records team here at The National Archives, looking specifically at our Design, Photographs and Art Collections. As the archive of central government, the records we hold cover […]
June 19th, 2017
My application for my Understanding British Portraits Fellowship began with a simple question, ‘who are you?‘, which is what I thought the moment I saw the portrait of a young girl staring out so boldly from the canvas. Little did I know what an amazing person I had come across. The portrait of The Honourable […]
June 6th, 2017
I attended this seminar at the National Portrait Gallery, keen to develop our work with portraits at the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath. Portraits are one of our most popular subjects with schools and nurseries. I was also looking forward to seeing more of the work of Howard Hodgkin the National Portrait Gallery exhibition: Howard […]
