It was an honour to be asked by the British Council’s Director of Arts in China, Rehana Mughal to participate in the discussion about the future of museums on IMD. I was joined by Esme Ward, Director of Manchester Museums and Helen Jones of the Science Museum Group. The event was broadcast by Sina Weibo in China. Clip below. Continue reading International Museums Day: British Council Sina Weibo Event in China
International Museums Day is on 18 May 2020 and in celebration of the theme equality and diversity, I curated an online exhibition on the topic – Diversity, Inclusion and Innovation – for ArtUK’s new Curations platform. A selection of works from the exhibition below. ICOM UK is hosting a series of activities in partnership with British Council which can be found here. As a black … Continue reading International Museums Day 2020: Diversity and Inclusion
I was invited to give closing remarks at The Messy Edge which was part of the Brighton Digital Festival in October. The Messy Edge highlights the perspectives and voices of those who are marginalised in the digital revolution. Bill Thompson, who leads R&D at the BBC, framed the day by highlighting the messy edges, not only between our online and offline lives, but the very boundaries … Continue reading The Messy Edge at Brighton Digital Festival
I have written frequently about technology and innovation in the arts over the years and as of last week this topic has become my full time job. I joined Arts Council England (ACE) as its first Director, Arts Technology and Innovation. In this role, I’ll have the pleasure of working with arts organisations to help embed digital transformation and promote the development of new types of … Continue reading New Horizons: Arts Technology and Innovation
The Frankfurt Book Fair is commonly referred to as the biggest book fair in the world. While I don’t know if that’s actually true, I can confirm it is BIG. Clearly the publishing industry is trying to spread its wings and explore the interconnections between literature, other forms of culture and creativity and digital technology. To that end, the Fair hosted The Arts+ Future of Culture Festival which is dedicated exploring and supporting the future of the creative and cultural industries. The Arts+ asks questions such as: “How is our living environment and communication changing as history is being written increasingly in data and pixels – that is, not just by people, but by creative artificial intelligence?” and “How is our understanding of culture and creativity, of human beings themselves as well as their legacy changing? What will be our (intellectual) legacy to the generations to come? Who will cultivate and curate it – and how?”
Continue reading “The Arts+ Future of Culture Festival: Highlights & Reflections”
Mind you, I only had one day to look around. Here’s what caught my eye: (1) Joey Yaque, (2) Ai Weiwei, (3) Robert Longo, (4) Thomas Saraceno, (5) Michael Rakowitz, (6) Sanford Biggers, (7) Olfur Eliasson, (8) Tony Oursler, (9) Robert Longo, (10) Titus Kasher, (11) Rathin Barman, (12) Oliver Lanc. Continue reading The Best of Art Basel 2018
I visited the two main sites of the Berlin Biennale 10 this weekend: KW Institute of Contemporary Art and Academie der Kunst. The first artist I encountered was Firelei Baez and her work does not disappoint: she overlays historic maps, architectural drawing and statistical charts with vibrant images which uncover issues of colonialism, forced migration, and trauma. For me the most powerful and memorable work in … Continue reading A First Look at the Berlin Biennale 2018
The following commentary originally appeared in ICOM UK weekly news The tragic events of Charlottesville, instigated by the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, highlights the important role we as museums and heritage professionals play in preserving, interpreting and displaying public history. Myself and Edmund Connolly, Head of Communications for ICOM UK, thought it might be useful to highlight some … Continue reading Continuing the Conversation: Statues, Monuments and Difficult Histories
