Dominic Willsdon, The Avant-Garde and its Publics  Speaker: Dominic Willsdon, Curator, Public Events at Tate Modern, tutor in aesthetics at the Royal College of Art, and faculty member of the London Consortium. Avant-garde art is often seen as being at odds with the general public, and deliberately so. Avant-garde artists are seen as making images and objects that are wilfully esoteric, even elitist, and contemptuous of common concerns. But the history is more complicated.

Paul Wood, Conceptual Art and the Neo-Avant-Garde  Speaker: Paul Wood, Senior Lecturer in History of Art at The Open University.The political conditions of the 1930s followed by the Second World War either destroyed or significantly undermined the historical avant-gardes. Yet by the mid-1950s apparently comparable tendencies were re-emerging on an international scale. The relationship of this so-called ‘neo’-avant-garde to radical politics has been the subject of considerable art-historical debate. So too has its relationship to the Conceptual Art of the late 1960s.

Steve Edwards, Martin Gaughan and Gail Day, Plenary 1  This discussion forms part of the study day that explores concepts of avant-gardism, and the ways in which these have been deployed to historicise and interpret twentieth century art.

Dada to Surrealism: Continuity  Speaker: Martin Gaughan, writer and former Head of the History and Theory of Art at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff .This talk traces some of the issues which informed work in the different Dada centres, establishing their origins and concerns, and considering how the relationships between the different moments can be characterized.

Steve Edwards, USSR in Construction  Speaker: Steve Edwards, Research Lecturer in History of Art at The Open University. This talk looks at Russian art from just before World War 1 until the middle of the 1930s, considering the relation between Constructivist art and the politics of the period. In the wake of the 1917 revolution many avant-garde artists identified with the aims of the Bolshevik regime. Some artists took up teaching or administrative roles in the new state and many tried to find appropriate ways to respond to the transformation of social relations.

Gail Day, Theories of the Avant-Garde  Speaker: Gail Day, Senior Lecturer in art theory and history at Wimbledon School of Art and an editor of the Oxford Art Journal.This talk sets up the day's discussions by considering the interrelated concepts of the 'avant-garde' and 'neo-avant-garde'.

Sophie Howarth, Ian White and Claire Bishop, Discussion 2  The speakers consider how changing Utopian ideologies have motivated artists, architects, designers and filmmakers in Europe and America over the last hundred years. The topics covered include the pioneering first wave of abstract art in the early twentieth century, visions of Utopia in avant-garde film, and post-modern explorations of the concept of Utopia by contemporary artists

Ian White, Cinema, Cinema, Utopia  Ian's talk considers representations of Utopia in classic and experimental cinema asking how these reflect not only the general idea and operating principles of an avant-garde but also how they mimic the way in which the cinema auditorium itself functions. Further Reading Close Up 1927-1933, ed. James Donald, Anne Friedberg, Laura Marcus (Cassell, London 1998) The Great Art of Light and Shadow; Archaeology of the cinema, Laurent Mannoni (University of Exeter Press, Exeter, 2000) A History of Experimental Film and Video, A.L. Rees (British Film Institute, London 1999)

Sophie Howarth, Introduction 2  This study day explores Utopian beliefs in the power of culture to transform both the individual and society at large.

Tim Benton, Sophie Howarth, Paul Wood, Gill Perry and Achim Borchardt-Hume, Discussion 1  This study day explores Utopian beliefs in the power of culture to transform both the individual and society at large