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Art History Lecture Series: A Woman’s Touch: Applied Arts and the Feminine Sphere
Location: Northampton Museum & Art Gallery
Date(s): Friday 1 May - Friday 1 June (excluding 29 May) 10.15am - 12.15pm
Cost: £6 per lecture, £25 for a series ticket, includes tea/coffee and biscuits
This series explores a group of art forms typically associated with feminine accomplishment and asks what those assumptions might have obscured. Through five examples of applied arts, we shall consider the extraordinary range, invention, and technical assurance found in practices too often treated as secondary to the grander categories of painting and sculpture. Far from being minor or merely ornamental, these media reveal complex histories of making, expression, and cultural value.
The series will offer a fresh perspective on familiar distinctions between fine art and craft, public and private, amateur and professional, showing that the applied arts are neither the province of a particular gender, nor a marginal footnote to art history, but one of its most revealing and rewarding fields.
Friday 1 May
Paper, Scissors, Done – The enduring appeal of paper cutting
Speaker: Conny Bailey
Artwork – Silhouettes
Friday 8 May
A Stitch in Time
Speaker: Miriam Gill
Artwork – Gladys Lee Smith: Applique Harlequin and Applique Firebird
Friday 15 May
Lasting Impressions
Speaker: Miriam Gill
Artwork: Olwen Jones – A selection of works
Friday 22 May
Throwing and Shaping
Speaker: Miriam Gill
Artwork: Kathleen Mitchell, Portrait bust of Bertram Eaton
Friday 5 June
Enamelling
Speaker: Conny Bailey
Artwork: Silver-gilt and enamelled cup and cover designed by Louis Osman. Assistant makers Harry Elisha and Malcolm Boyle. Enamelled by Dilys Osman
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Tickets are also available to buy direct from the museum, Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 5pm, Sunday 12 – 5pm – either in person or over the telephone 01604 526322.
Artworks and speaker details are correct at the time of publishing but may be subject to change.