Mothers of Invention: Women Artists and Makers, 1600–1920
Friday 7 November – Friday 5 December
10.15am-12.15pm
Northampton Museum and Art Gallery
£6 per talk or £25 for the whole series
Includes tea, coffee and biscuits
Booking essential
Accompanying Northampton Museum and Art Gallery’s exhibition of works by women artists in the collection, this lecture series explores the breadth of women’s artistic vision and creativity. Across the seventeenth to twentieth centuries, we consider how women expressed identity through design and making. Professional portraitists of the Early Modern period and ceramic designers reveal the different routes by which female creativity could achieve recognition and financial independence. Moving into the early twentieth century, we trace the networks women artists forged, and the distinctive perspectives they brought to symbolist, surreal, and dream-inflected themes..
Friday 7 November
Rosalba and her sisters: professionalism and portraiture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
Artwork: Lewis Watson, 2nd Earl of Rockingham, Rosalba Carriera, 1675-1757. On display in the exhibition
Speaker: Miriam Gill
Friday 14 November
Sampled selves: sewing and self-expression
Artwork: Nineteenth century samplers from the collection
Speaker: Miriam Gill
Friday 21 November
Crock Stars: The Women who shaped British pottery design
Artwork: Broken Egg, Wendy Hoare
Speaker: Connie Bailey
Friday 28 November
Artwork: Reveries and Idylls: Women artists and the world of Dreams
Artwork: Ma Tristesse est la nuit d'ete, Catherine Grubb
Speaker: Miriam Gill
Friday 5 December
Beatrix to Carrington: Promise, potential and curtailment of women artists c. 1890 to 1920
Artwork: The Malverns, Dame Laura Knight
Speaker Connie Bailey
Speakers are correct at the time of going to press but may be amended due to unforeseen changes due to availability or subject expertise.
Tickets are also available to purchase direct from the museum, either in person or by telephoning 01604 526322 during opening hours Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 5pm and Sundays 12 - 5pm.