Making Women’s Art Matter: New Approaches to the Careers and Legacies of Women Artists

‘Making Women’s Art Matter’ will explore methodological and critical questions about the process of recuperating the work of women artists. We aim to collectively put forward and assess new approaches to evaluation and dissemination of their careers and legacies. Key questions include describing desirable critical models, the possibilities of subjective and empathetic enquiry, receptions of mature female artists, and the problematic of canon in relation to positioning and legacy.

We will address these topics in a series of focussed panels themed around contemporary practice, curatorial methods, building legacies, feminist strategies, supportive networks and performance. Our dynamic selection of speakers range from post doctoral to professorial, and include both scholars and practitioners.

There is an overall emphasis on engaged discussion throughout, and we have eschewed a keynote lecture in favour of a roundtable discussion.

On Thursday evening we will visit the Whitechapel Gallery for a curator’s tour of their current exhibition: ‘Guerrilla Girls: Is it even worse in Europe?’.

Banner image credit: Vanessa Bell, A Conversation, 1913-1916, Oil on canvas. © The Samuel Courtauld Trust\1961 Estate of Vanessa Bell, courtesy ofHenrietta Garnett