The Pet/The Wounded Dove, Rebecca Solomon, 1872, watercolour, WD383
“Art Unlocked is an online event series brought to you by Art UK in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies. Each week, different museum and gallery curators and directors from across the UK will deliver a 30-minute talk on selected works from their collection.”
Dr. Harry Heuser, our Senior Lecturer in Art History, is giving a talk about Victorian painters Rebecca and Simeon Solomon and their relationship with queer Welsh collector George Powell.
Free tickets for this online event are available here:
(The ‘Register’-button will take you to the eventbrite-website.)
I serendipitously happened upon the School of Art’s vacancy for a Curatorial Assistant in the late spring, having just completed the taught portion of my master’s degree course in Information and Library Studies a few weeks prior. I jumped at the opportunity to learn new skills and gain work experience relevant to my interest in cultural heritage. Beginning in mid-June, I spent a month working in the School of Art assisting the departmental staff in a variety of ways.
One of my first major tasks was assisting my supervisor Phil Garratt in hanging a number of works, selected from the extensive collection recently donated by Derbyshire County Council Schools Library Service, in the School of Art’s seminar room. This first involved screwing mirror plates into frames to ensure they could be securely attached to the wall – a relatively benign task for someone who felt a little daunted to be handling some of the more valuable works! We then worked together to hang the works around the room.
Room 206Room 206Room 206
The We Live with the Land / The Land as Other exhibition was in the process of being set up during my placement. Neil Holland guided me through the process of hanging artworks, first my finding an appropriate eye line and making sure works were suitably spaced. After this, I applied some finishing touches by giving the mirror plates on the frames a coating of paint to match the walls – a simple touch that helped make the wall displays look much more presentable.
We Live with the Land / The Land as Other exhibition
In my third week, I was introduced to the rudiments of mount cutting by Neil. I was able to cut my teeth on a small mix of lithographs, engravings and digital prints which needed to be mounted. This was a challenging job that demanded a mixture of dexterity, precision, and focus, and involved the use of a variety of tools and equipment that were completely new to me. As tricky as the work could be, it was great seeing a finished product which was created through my own work from first measuring out the large pieces of card used to create the mounts, right through to framing the prints at the end.
Mount cutting-toolsMount cutting-toolsFreshly mounted
In the run up to one of the department’s open days, Phil and I set to preparing one of the large studio spaces on the first floor for the exhibit of various works by faculty and students, both past and present, to show off to prospective students. This was a great chance to handle works in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and formats. This included multiple audio-visual works which required the set-up of monitors and speakers (and more than a little trial and error!) to achieve a desired result.
This was an incredibly satisfying project, as I could see the studio space slowly take shape as the it was filled and more works were put on the walls, and it was fascinating to get an insight into Phil’s thought processes as he considered which artworks could work in a specific space or configuration. It was nice to see a couple of the prints I had mounted a few days prior on the walls too!
Getting ready for Open DayGetting ready for Open Day
There were various other smaller jobs I helped with through the placement, including helping Phil to hang works in corridors in preparation for the open day; helping Louise Chennell to prepare the ceramics gallery in the Arts Centre for the arrival of Paul Scott’s exhibition on New American Scenery; organising prints in the store room; and updating the biographies of ceramicists whose works could be found in the university’s extensive ceramics collection.
Archival boxes in the storage area
Mirror plate
Attaching mirror plates
Glazing gun
Mount cutter
Painting mirror plates
The entire month was a brilliant experience, and it was a pleasure meeting and working with all of the friendly staff in the department. A special thanks are due to my supervisors Phil and Neil who spent so much time guiding me through my work. I ended the placement with a new confidence that I was fully capable of working in a cultural heritage environment, performing an array of different tasks. Being able to describe my time at the School of Art also looked great on my job applications and CV coming out of my degree course! I would recommend this placement to any students, undergrad or postgrad, who feel like they might benefit from the experience.
Our first day consisted of observing in detail works from the Derbyshire Schools Library Service collection and writing down their inscriptions and other various notes before unframing the works. As we were removing the works from the frames, we found a Frances Hodgkins collotype behind a Robert Tavener lithograph. This was a great result for the first day, and a lucky start to the internship! Continue reading →
We are very happy to announce that four of our students, Billie Ireland, Sally Maclachlan, Saorise Morgan and Flora McLachlan, have successfully taken part in the Gwenllian Ashley Art Prize competition.
The topic was ‘Climate Changed’, and the competition was designed to provoke creative responses to climate change from students at Coleg Ceredigion, Carmarthen School of Art, Coleg Sir Gar and the School of Art of Aberystwyth University, launched by the charity Art+Science.
The School of Art Museum at Aberystwyth University is the recipient of a significant and valuable collection of some 200 artworks gifted by Derbyshire County Council Schools Library Service.
Left to right Neil Holland, Prof Robert Meyrick, Phil Garratt
Two Aberystwyth School of Art graduates, Ruth Hogg and Suzzy Murphy, have work on show at the Celf o Gwmpas ‘Discovery’ exhibition in Brecon Arts Centre until 27th January 2020. Encompassing themes from gender, environmentalism and mental health, the work on show portrays the artists’ discovery of new things about themselves and their practice over the last year. The network was founded in 2016 and since then has gone from strength to strength and is now funded by Arts Council Wales. Jane Mason is an artist and curator of the Discovery Exhibition. Continue reading →
Johann Baptist Zwecker (1814-1876). The Lady of the Mountain. Watercolour, mid 1860s. Aberystwyth University School of Art Museum. (George E. J. Powell Bequest, 1882)
As Britannia is to Britons, Italia is to Italians, and Germania is to Germans, so too is Fjallkona – The Lady of the Mountain – to Icelanders. Yet all but a handful of scholars know that the first ever female personification of Iceland was commissioned from a German artist by a Welsh patron. Continue reading →
Iracibility of Robins, Of a Feather – an Avian Alphabet, Colin See-Paynton
Zephyr of Long-tailed Titmice I, Of a Feather – An Avian Alphabet, Colin See-Paynton
Walk of Wagtails, Of a Feather – An Avian Alphabet, Colin See-Paynton
Round of Wrens, Of a Feather – An Avian Alphabet, Colin See-Paynton
(Click on images to enlarge them.)
There are few greater pleasures than spending an hour, or two, perusing and discovering works of art; gorging on colours and textures, meditating on concepts new and old. To hold, to witness the art in the form of an object, not merely a reproduction or an illusion on a screen, transforms a potentially passive experience into an intimate and engaging one. I eagerly anticipated enjoying such delights during my summer internship at the School of Art. Continue reading →
An exciting new collaboration between Aberystwyth University, Art UK and the Penparcau Community Forum is set to explore the sculpture collection of George Powell of Nanteos. The project is the result of a grant awarded by ArtUK as part of their Sculpture Around You programme which aims to engage communities with their sculptural heritage. Continue reading →
Aberystwyth University School of Art Museum & Galleries 