In edition: artists’ multiples in an academic library

The artist's multiple is difficult to define, but could be described as an original artwork produced in an edition of two or more. At Chelsea College of Art and Design, the artists' multiples collection was developed to give students first-hand experience of original work by artists, something that is rarely included in the special collections of art libraries. This article examines the history and development of this unique collection of objects, and how it has enabled the library to play an active part in the life and work of the academic community it serves

Creating typecasts: exhibiting eugenic ideas from the past today

This paper reflects on the experience of curating the exhibition and events programme around Typecast: Flinders Petrie and Francis Galton at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London during 2011. Typecast explored ideas around race and archaeology, heredity and eugenics in the early twentieth century. After independent consultation, I decided to write about the exhibition from my own perspective and publicly identify myself as curator. As part of my own response, I drew parallels with contemporary events and issues today. This paper incorporates a discussion of: •the implications of using my personal identity; how situations could have been handled differently, •the myth of neutrality, especially around contentious issues, within museum and media institutions, •anonymous responses from visitors and identified critical voices; ethical responsibility in dealing with provocative issues, •how wider discussion in a public realm was facilitated

"Defensive instrumentalism" and the legacy of New Labour's cultural policies

The paper identifies “defensive instrumentalism” as a main feature that has characterised New Labour's cultural policies, and which constitutes an important aspect of its legacy. Yet, resorting to instrumental arguments to defend the arts and to make a case for their usefulness is hardly an invention of New Labour. However, in the past, such defensive arguments were built into a more constructive and creative attempt to elaborate a coherent theory of art and an intellectually sophisticated view of the effects of the arts on individual and societies. What the paper argues, then, is that instrumentalism under New Labour has retained its longstanding defensive character, but was deprived of the attendant effort to elaborate a positive notion of cultural value

Conditions for learning: partnerships for engaging secondary pupils with contemporary art

This article examines the findings of the London Cluster research, 'Critical Minds', in which the Institute of Education, University of London (IoE) worked in collaboration with Whitechapel Chapel Art Gallery (the lead London gallery), Bow Arts, Chisenhale Gallery and Space -The Triangle, and four east London comprehensive schools. By collaborating with art departments and by focusing on learning within the gallery context, the research team questioned whether the perceived constraints of traditional art and design pedagogy can be overcome by changing the conditions in which learning takes place. The following analysis focuses on these conditions as outlined in the research report's recommendations. © 2007 NSEAD/Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Goat Music

1 audio disc : 33 1/3 rpm. + 1 booklet (16 unnumbered pages : illustrations . Title from slipcase. Project co-ordinated by Marina Vranopoulou for the Deste Foundation. Goat music is the documentation for David Shrigley\u27s film, Laughterhouse, about goats whose cries sound like humans .. Comprising a picture disc and an artist\u27s book, and published in a limited edition of 1000, Goat music includes recordings of the goats in the film as well as the soundtrack Shrigley composed to accompany the opening performance in Hydra. --Publisher\u27s website.https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/specialcollections_artistsbooks/1577/thumbnail.jp

A virtual oasis: Trafalgar Square’s Arch of Palmyra

This paper considers the destruction of the Arch of Palmyra in Syria in 2015 and its temporary reconstruction a year later in London’s Trafalgar Square. Attention is paid to an adjacent pedestal known as the Fourth Plinth, with a particular focus on a proposed monument by the Iraqi-American conceptual artist, Michael Rakowitz (born 1973). His works provide the basis for a discussion of public memorials and art’s commemorative function; the preservation, destruction and politicisation of heritage; the role of technology for the purposes of documentation and reconstruction; notions of authenticity; ethics and legal issues surrounding the global trade in cultural artefacts