The School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies: past, present and future

In the first in a new ARTFUL talks series, Abigail Harrison Moore (Professor of Art History and Museum Studies at the University of Leeds) will locate us in the spaces where we work, make and think.

Art is a ‘social medium that is vital to humanity’.

Professor Abigail Harrison Moore will explore the past, present and future of the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies and its important role in innovating and celebrating practices of art education for over 70 years.

In terms of the past, established in 1949 as the Department of Fine Art, Leeds led the way as an English university offering degrees in fine art practice. Under the auspices of the first appointed Professor of Fine Art, Maurice de Sausmarez, and his deep connection to Herbert Read, the Department changed the practice and theory of art and art education.

Abigail will track our histories from the approval of the first degree in fine art, through the work of Griselda Pollock, Fred Orton and Tim Clark to create a new social history of art in the 1980s, the development of Cultural Studies in the 1990s and Museum Studies in the 2000s, to the project to deliver our first bespoke building in 2017.

In terms of the present, Abigail will briefly explore a project to make accessible our archives that include letters where Read and de Sausmarez speak about the importance of art education. Abigail will examine how our teaching and research practices today still speak to the social and political project that they began in the 1940s. She will introduce you to an initiative to support art teachers working today to feel valued and confident in their classrooms, and to be able to teach a diversity of art histories.

Since 2017, Abigial has led a partnership which has been building and supporting a network of art and art history teachers across the UK – Art Teachers Connect -- which now has over 250 members teaching over 49,000 pupils a week. Through a Postgraduate Certificate, art teachers are enabled to research and evidence the impact their own educational practices, bringing us back full circle to Read’s belief in the power of art education.

…in order to make art it is necessary to grasp the history of ‘that’ art – to see one’s action as historically informed.

About the speaker

Abigail Harrison Moore is Professor of Art History and Museum Studies in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies where she has worked for over 30 years. She has also taught in a wide range of educational settings, including schools, museums and prisons.

She is a campaigner for access to education in the arts and humanities, helping develop the curriculum for art history and art. She leads a range of projects for teachers and pupils, including Art Teachers Connect; the Discover ARTiculation Challenge and Discovery Days, and a national EPQ programme.

Her monograph, Fraud, Fakery and False Business (Continuum, 2011) considered the antiques market in 1920’s England. She currently leads an international project focused on illuminating women's roles in histories of energy and, with Ruth Sandwell, co-edited In a New Light: Histories of Women and Energy (McGill-Queen’s University Press) in 2021. 

Abigail currently combines these two strands of her research and practice, working with Leeds Museum’s Preservative Party to co-produce histories of women and energy in the home. She is a member of the National Portrait Gallery Board of Trustees and an Association for Art History Fellow.

More information

This event is part of ARTFUL – a new series of public lunchtime talks organised by the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies.

The aim of the series is to bring together students, postgraduate researchers and staff to showcase our culture of vibrant research and creative practice across the school and beyond. Taking place on Mondays during termtime, speakers will include researchers, artists and practitioners.

Whilst primarily aimed at our school community, anyone interested in the series is welcome to join us. There is no need to book – please just turn up.

Full details of the ARTFUL talks series can be found on our events pages.

For more information, please email Mark Thorley at M.Thorley1@leeds.ac.uk.

Directions to the venue

See the campus map for location of the Liberty Building.

Directions (facing away from Parkinson steps): Follow the path to your right then turn right underneath the link building. Go all the way through campus until you reach the Clarendon Road entrance. Cross over at the traffic lights onto Moorland Road. Follow the road down. The Liberty Building is on your left.

Go through the main entrance and go straight ahead though two sets of double doors. Lecture Theatre LG.06 is situated on the lower ground floor. 

Accessibility information for the lecture theatre can be found here.

Image

Art teachers taking part in an activity as part of a three-day art teachers residential on the University of Leeds campus, organised as part of Art Teachers Connect. Photo by Andy Lord. © University of Leeds.