Tag Archives: material culture

The Sherborne House Macready-Dickens screen

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The Centre for Victorian Literature and Culture at the University of Kent is pleased to announce the launch of its website for display of the Sherborne House Macready-Dickens screen at https://www.kent.ac.uk/macready/index.html

The Macready-Dickens screen is a four-leaf, folding scrap-work screen that was created at Sherborne House, Dorset, by William Macready and Charles Dickens (according to family report) in the 1850s. The screen was donated to the Trustees of Sherborne House by Sir Nevil Macready. It has just been restored and conserved and will shortly go on display at the Sherborne Museum. Covered with almost 500 images cut from prints, it provides a unique window onto the world of nineteenth-century theatrical, literary, historical and political cultures. Approximately 70% of the images have so far been identified.

The website has been created to provide for public display of the screen. It enables users to study individual images in detail and provides research information about them where it is available. It forms an ongoing resource for anyone interested in Macready, Dickens or the ways in which Victorian objects relate to the lives of those who owned or made them.

For further information, please contact Professor Cathy Waters at c.waters@kent.ac.uk

CFP: Object Matters: Making Memory: material and visual culture of commemoration in Ireland c.1800 – 2016

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CFP: ‘Object Matters: Making Memory: material and visual culture of commemoration in Ireland c.1800 – 2016’

13-15 October 2016

National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square, Dublin 2

Funded by the Irish Research Council ‘New Foundations’ Scheme

Deadline for proposals 12 July, 2016

Proposals of c.300 words accompanied by a short CV are invited for 20-minute papers related to the material and visual culture of commemoration in Ireland from c.1800 to the present day. Please email to makingmemory@ncad.ie.

This cross-disciplinary conference will address how objects, images, artworks, buildings, spaces and bodies have worked and been understood in the creation and maintenance of public and private memory in Ireland since c.1800. While topics might include key personages and events such as World War 1, the Irish Civil War and the Manchester Martyrs, we also encourage proposals that address the commemoration of lesser-known histories.

Commemorative culture might encompass events such as ceremonies and parades, artefacts such as souvenirs or artworks, institutional practices such as collecting and exhibiting, particular sites such as commemorative buildings, graveyards and ceremonial spaces, and private modes of visual and material remembrance such as domestic mnemonic objects.

The conference should contribute to our understanding of how ideas about the past have been visualised, manufactured, articulated, materialised, distributed and performed.

Proposals are welcomed from researchers and practitioners across various fields including Art practice, Archaeology, Anthropology, Geography, Architectural History, History of Design, Material Culture, Visual Culture, Memory Studies, Museum Studies, Art History, History of Media, Cultural History, Sociology and Critical theory. A publication is planned based on the conference proceedings. For the proceedings of the first Object Matters conference Making 1916: material and visual culture of the Easter Rising, see http://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/products/60501.

Deadline July 12, 2016. Participants will be notified by July 22.

Conference Convenor Dr. Lisa Godson, National College of Art & Design

Conference Administrator Kate Butler, BL

Supported by the National College of Art and Design + University College Dublin Centre for Creative Arts and Critical Cultures / National Gallery of Ireland/Irish Museums Association / Irish Architecture Foundation / GradCAM

Enquiries and proposals should be directed to: makingmemory@ncad.ie

Researching visual, print and material culture in the UK?

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ArtResearchersGuidesLibrarians and archivists around Edinburgh, Dublin, Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff and South Wales, and Liverpool (coming in October 2016) have put together guidebooks that take researchers to treasures such as letters between Cruickshank and his publishers,  centuries-old sketches featuring Kirskstall Abby, and photos of the Cottingley Fairies.  There are botanical illustrations so realistic you feel compelled to stroke petals and illuminated maps, manuscripts and charters with the paintings of Queen Elizabeth I, whose elaborate signature officially classifies as a work of art itself.  Many of these gems are not online.

“These are handy, well designed little booklets,” says art historian, Mark Westgarth, “loosely drawing on the format of the ubiquitous city tourist guides.  They are portable, user friendly and fit in a coat pocket.”

“All these cities have fantastic collections on architecture, design and history broadly defined, but researchers don’t know how to get their hands on everything they might need — this guide helps solve that problem,” says Rose Roberto, book historian at the University of Reading and series editor.

Introductions to each guide have been written by leading scholars such as Christine Casey and Ben Read.  Through a visual narrative, all guides point the way to libraries and repositories with unique and under used resources.  Indexed by over 80 subjects, all guides include citywide maps, navigation icons, and a time-saving subject index to collections and colour images of each place.

“What makes these guides useful is the map and index.  If you’re doing research on fashion history, for example, the visual index shows which places have the right material, and whether it’s a book, archives, or audiovisual format,” says Racher Myers, former design librarian at Leeds University.

Published by the Art Libraries Society of the UK and Ireland (ARLIS), these  pocket sized guides range in price from £4.50-£8.00 each.  The books are available as a set or individually from the ARLIS website, http://arlis.org.uk/periodicals-libraries-sources/publications as well around the different cities featured in the Art Researchers’ Guide series.