Coronavirus: a noun familiar to everyone today, but perhaps lesser known before the pandemic, unless you work in the field of science or medicine. COVID-19, or its longer name of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has dramatically changed society and will undoubtedly be taught in history lessons in the future. As we look […]
Established in 2012, the Centre is an interdisciplinary group based in Birkbeck’s School of Arts, led by Dr Patrizia Di Bello and Professor Steve Edwards. We aim to facilitate, exchange and showcase new and existing research on photography’s history and theory, both at Birkbeck and in the wider photographic and academic community. Please contact Alexandra […]
In January this year, the AGO acquired an exciting new painting. Made from oil on canvas in the second half of the 1700s, the portrait shows a young woman of colour standing outdoors presenting an orange blossom in her right hand. This new acquisition is an exceptionally rare portrait of an individual woman of colour […]
House of Manannan, Peel, Isle of Man, until 14 March 2021 A striking and thought-provoking collection of one hundred self-portraits of 20th Century British and Irish artists. Collected between 1958 and 1971 by Ruth Borchard, an ex-internee in Rushen Camp during WW2. View the exhibition launch and tour here >>
Proposals due by 30 November 2020; final papers will be due by 15 June 2021 History Displaced: Transitioning Historic Houses to a Virtual Experience concentrates on the unique histories and challenges of house-museums. In addition to being historic landmarks, house-museums can be sites of civic engagement and reflection; centers for activism and cultural discourse; and […]
University of Lisbon, 26–28 April 2021; proposals due by 30 Nov 2020 This colloquium intends to discuss the theory and practice of artistic, historical, anthropological, social, and political experience on the topic of portraiture, as well as the fictional dimension contained within it. Located at the intersection of several disciplinary fields, the discussion(s) and papers […]
Edited by Catharine MacLeod and Alexander Marr The essays in this special issue of British Art Studies arose in part from a two-day international conference on Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver, sponsored by the Paul Mellon Centre and the University of Cambridge, and hosted by the National Portrait Gallery to coincide with the exhibition Elizabethan […]
Submission deadline 30 October 2020
Birkbeck and the National Portrait Gallery are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded collaborative doctoral studentship through the REACH Consortium from October 2020 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme. This project examines the links between the National Portrait Gallery and historical transatlantic slavery. In particular, it seeks to understand the impact […]
Thanks to a travel grant from the Understanding British Portraits network, I was able to attend the Engaging Young People aged 14-21 with Portraits conference at Leeds Art Gallery. The conference, programmed by Sarah Shaw, Museum Tales Ltd, in collaboration with Engage and the Understanding British Portraits network, featured a diverse group of speakers who […]
