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Fame and celebrity interrogated through representations of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Curated with Avi Lifchitz (then UCL Professor of History, now Associate Professor at University of Oxford), this exhibition featured rare items from Õ¬ÄÐÊÓƵ Art and Book collections to mark the 300th anniversary of the birth of one of the most controversial authors in the history of philosophy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).Featuring first editions of Rousseau’s works, including On the Social Contract (Du contrat social, 1762), frontispieces and translations, the display highlighted his unique and interdisciplinary characteristics as a philosopher who not only wrote on politics, economics and education, but also composed music and wrote best-selling novels. A collaboration with UCL Centre for Transnational History, the British Museum and the Voltaire Foundation, the accompanying public programme included an international conference marking Rousseau’s tercentenary and a special performance of his rarely produced opera Le Devin du village by UCL Opera Club. For related publications, see Avi Lifschitz, Engaging with Rousseau: Reaction and Interpretation from the Eighteenth Century to the Present, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016).This is part of UCL Art Collections’ commitment to interdisciplinary research-impact collaborations. For more information or expressions of interest to collaborate contact museums@ucl.ac.uk

Emerging artists re-visit Õ¬ÄÐÊÓƵ art collections, reflecting on the themes of time and place.The sixth annual UCL Art Museum/Slade collaboration ran in conjunction with the UCL English Department's 2014 One Day in the City, a festival celebrating London, literature and art.The selected participants were invited to respond to the extensive collections of the UCL Art Museum whilst engaging with the importance of time, place, London and literature, as well as other sources of inspiration relevant to One Day in the City. The resulting pieces included four time-based media works, a light box installation as well as an array of oil paintings, intricate drawings, etchings and a bronze cast. Many of the featured artists have gone on to forge prolific artistic careers, exhibiting internationally and publishing research, such as Helena Hunter, Jonathan Kipps, Olga Koroleva, Katja Larsson, Maxima Smith, Milou Van Der Maaden & Ping Zheng, with some like Kipps, Larsson and van Der Maaden returning to collaborate with us for the exhibition RE-LAUNCH in 2015.The full list of featured artists includes: Lea Collet, Freddie Duffield and Sarai Kirshner, Robbie Fife, Benjamin Heiken, Helena Hunter, James Kelly, Jonathan Kipps. Anna Klimentchenko, Olga Koroleva and Katja Larsson, Neena Percy, Maxima Smith, Lara Smithson, Cheryl Simmons, Milou Van Der Maaden & Ping ZhengDuring One Day in the City (Friday 13th June 2014), to compliment the group exhibition, several of the artists engaged visitors with interactive installations, live events and other creative activities.More information about the exhibition is available on the UCL Art Museum blog, here and here.For more information about the UCL Art Museum/Slade Collaboration series, see here.This is part of UCL Art Collections’ commitment to interdisciplinary research-impact collaborations. For more information or expressions of interest to collaborate contact museums@ucl.ac.uk

Emerging artists respond to  Õ¬ÄÐÊÓƵ art collections. In the inaugural UCL Art Museum/Slade Collaboration, 14 students from the Slade were invited to respond to the artistic heritage of the Slade that resides with UCL Art Museum and includes works of art from the Renaissance period onwards. Chosen works from the collection included Japanese prints, maps and 16th century etchings and engravings. The Slade artists engaged with, and re-interpreted these works in order to create their own contemporary responses, which were exhibited in the UCL Art Museum and in a virtual exhibition online.Many of the featured artists have gone on to forge prolific artistic careers, exhibiting internationally and publishing research, such as Andrea Greenwood, Hyo Myoung Kim, Kate Keara Pelen, Janne Malmros and Amanda Wasielewski, with some like Malmros and Pelen returning to collaborate with us for the exhibition RE-LAUNCH in 2015.The full list of featured artists includes: Emma Connor, Patricia Delgado, Erin Gutierrez, Andrea Greenwood, Hyo Myoung Kim,  Janne Malmros, Junko Otak, Stephanie O'Connor, Kate Keara Pelen, Ryan Riddington, Alex Springer, Patricia Townsend, Amanda Wasielewski and Jayne Wilton.For more information about the UCL Art Museum/Slade Collaboration series, see here.

18th century Italian landscape revisited.Award-winning artist Liz Rideal was in residence at UCL Art Museum during the Legacy: Richard Cooper Jnr and the Artist's Album exhibition from January to June 2017. Rideal’s Leverhulme Fellowship entitled Splicing Time focused on Rome and the Roman Campagna. She created and discovered connections between contemporary and archived photographs, prints, maps and artworks held in archives and collections, particularly that of the British School at Rome.Further information and images are available on the artist's website.Rideal's objective was to create images, curate period photographs and organise these into an interactive digital map of Rome and the Campagna. She drew together academic and contemporary strands of data in order to visualize layers of time by interfacing with Google maps using hyperlinks and geographical references.Richard Cooper Jnr’s prints illustrate the eighteenth century enthusiasm for the Italian landscape seen while on the Grand Tour. Originally gathered in albums this practice provides the perfect vehicle for new work by Rideal, relating to the album format and the picturesque. Click here to learn more about Rideal's project.

Unlocking the potential of a unique collection through curatorial research and engagement Spotlight on the Slade Collections (2015-2018) UCL Art Museum received a Curatorial Research Grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in 2015 to help support a research curator for three years to catalogue the Slade Collections, an important historic resource comprised of over 3,000 paintings, drawings and prints. The primary aim of the project was to unlock the considerable potential of the collection by cataloguing it and researching it to faciliate widening access in the future with a high-quality visual and textual resource about this unique archive via an improved online catalogue. This research enabled us to establish that 45% of the Slade Collections comprise of work by women artists. As a result we have become a research hub for discussions around women artists past and present and gender equality in the visual arts. To this end we are in the process of developing a sustainable collaborative research network dedicated to the subject of women artists. For more information on this project please contact museums@ucl.ac.uk. Spotlight on the Slade Collections was led by Helen Downes, Paul Mellon Research Curator at UCL Art Museum 2015-18.New findings from the research.Outcomes were shared through a series of events, conference papers, workshops and the exhibition Prize & Prejudice in 2018.This research continues to inform UCL Art Collections collaborations, most recently our Rightsholder research project launched on the occassion of the Slade 150th anniversary.About the Slade CollectionsUCL Art Museum’s Slade Collections form a unique document of English art school practice in the modern age. Many of the key figures in British art studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, and the School's annual prize system has provided UCL with important examples of the early work of artists such as Stanley Spencer, Augustus John, Walter Sickert, David Bomberg, Winifred Knights, Paula Rego, Craigie Aitchison and Euan Uglow. The Slade was the first art school to admit women on equal terms and the collection is strong in the work of women artists. The collection’s inclusion of lesser-known artists also provides a valuable counterpoint to the collections of national museums. UCL Art Museum continues to receive prize works from current Slade students, making the Slade Collections a living resource that continues to document contemporary art school practice.While the Slade Collections are widely used for teaching and research and are extremely popular with visitors, access to this core collection is severely hampered by lack of information about the artwork and limited online catalogue entries. This project enabled the Art Museum to carry out essential collections research, enrich the online catalogue and improve its search functions to open up access to information about Slade artists and artwork.'Slade Women Artists' workshop with British Art Network (2017)The Spotlight on the Slade project prompted a series of events, displays and collaborations, which took place against the backdrop of the 2018 centenary of the Representation of the People Act. One important example was the 'Slade Women Artists' workshop on 9th May 2017 when UCL Art Museum hosted the fourth meeting of the Tate British Art Network Sub Group British Women Artists, 1750-1950 . Piloting a participatory workshop model, and experimenting with new ways of capturing specialist knowledge in relation to a primarily stored collection, the meeting provided a platform for sharing research and debating and examining methods of curating women’s art.  Through participant research, presentations and a group task, the workshop successfully generated research into 17 neglected Slade women artists and facilitated debate around possible exhibition methods. You can read a blog post about the workshop here.

Creative writing and reading is a source of inspiration and a framework for many activities at UCL Art Museum.Each year, we host sessions of First Story which brings secondary school students in the museum to work with talented, professional writers to foster creativity and communication skills.The Art of Reading (2013) was a series of drop-in reading groups curated by UCL researchers who discussed aspects of their fascinating research in Art, Science and Humanities through reading, performance, drawing, talks and other activities.The event was part of Something Else for the Weekend: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/festival-of-the-arts/something-else-for-the-weekendWatch this space for upcoming creative writing and reading projects.