I am delighted to have become a member of two groups researching women artists. The first is the Hepworth Research Network. This is a partnership between the Hepworth Wakefield, Department of History of Art at the University of York and the School of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Huddersfield. The cross-disciplinary network will explore material practices of sculpture, including that of Barbara Hepworth (1903-75) and her contemporaries. The network’s website has just launched and can be found . You will find my entry if you scroll down the People page.
Pier Arts Centre, Stromness: Gift of Margaret Emiliar Gardener 1979 (c) Bowness
Scottish Women and the Arts Research Network
The second group is the Scottish Women and the Arts Reseach Network, or ‘SWARN’. Its aim is to encourage and promote research into the work of historic women artists, designers, makers and collectors in Scottish collections. Member partners include the Arran Arts Heritage Trail, Glasgow School of Art and the Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture. Its website has also just launched and can be found here. You will find my entry if you scroll down the Member page. SWARN is supporting a series of events marking the centenary of Joan Eardley’s birth, one hundred years ago today! You will find them tagged on twitter as #Eardley100 and #SWARN.
Museums & Galleries, Edinburgh: Purchased 1962 (c) Estate of Joan Eardley
Barbara Hepworth and Joan Eardley
The major exhibition, Barbara Hepworth: Art and Life, opens at the Hepworth Wakefield on 21 May 2021. I shall be giving a keynote paper, ‘From the Highlands to Hampshire: Collecting Joan Eardley’, at the Joan Eardley: New Perspective symposium on 2 June 2021, organised by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. Free tickets can be booked here. I hope you can join me as I share the outcome of researching women artists.
For more on Joan Eardley, you might like this post and for more on modern Scottish women artists, you might like this one.
