This event included a series of talks and some discussion relevant to the Mima exhibition Between Dimensions: The Representation of the Object (featuring still lifes from Tate’s collection) 25th November 2011 -11th March 2012. Speakers and topics were as follows: Dr Linda Walsh, Chardin’s Still Lifes, Nature and Economics Ms Sandra Pollard, Cézanne and Cubism Professor Gill Perry, Decoration and Play in Matisse’s ‘Pink Onions’

This specialist academic conference developed themes raised in the exhibition The First Actresses: Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons. Speakers, including Professors Felicity Nussbaum (UCLA) and Joseph Roach (Yale), explored and problematised ideas of ‘celebrity’ culture and the symbolic, allegorical and discursive functions of portraits of women players.

A Ruthin Craft Centre study day in partnership with the Open University. Anni Albers (1899-1994) is one of the best-known textile artists of the twentieth century. Her influential work also included prints, wall hangings and jewellery. To coincide with the opening of two complimentary exhibitions at Ruthin Craft Centre, this study day will look at Anni Albers’ innovatory work and her remarkable legacy. Speakers will include design historians and a new generation of artists inspired by her work. Speakers: Brenda Danilowitz, Chief Curator, Josef and Anni Albers Foundation

Part 1: Introduction by Alessandro Vincentelli curator at the Baltic.

This study day explored issues raised by the Surreal House exhibition and considered the role and meanings of the theme of the house in modern and contemporary art, film, architecture and culture. Contributors included Jane Alison, Senior Curator, Barbican Art Gallery; Gill Perry, Professor of Art History, OU; Barry Curtis, Professor of Art History, Royal College of Art; Brian Dillon, UK Editor of Cabinet; Dagmar Weston, Dr of Architectural Theory, Edinburgh University; Krysztof Fijalkowski, Dr of Art History, Norwich School of Art and James Lingwood, Co Director, Artangel.

A discussion with all the speakers chaired by Gill Perry.

Over the last few decades artists have been engaging in various ways with both the ‘natural’ environment and ecological issues. This paper introduced some of the controversies and debates confronting artists, critics, historians and theorists engaged with these concerns. It explored some problems of definition, and the complex and differing ways in which art – in particular installation art - mediates these issues to a wider audience.

Discussion 1 This symposium explores the controversial status of Futurist movements in art history, and some of their ‘avant-garde’ practices. Speakers engage with various forms of Futurist art, performance and film, including the use of manifestos and demonstrations. Italian Futurism will be viewed in relation to other radical art practices across Europe. The Futurists’ disdain for traditional values and their pursuit of an ‘art of modern life’ will be explored in relation to prevailing concepts of modernity and ‘avant-garde’ utopias.