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Contemporary Art in the Heritage Experience

Date
-
Date
Monday 29 - Tuesday 30 July, 2019

Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU

In recent decades, contemporary art commissioning has become a key aspect of heritage site programming with national organisations and individual sites investing in artists as a way of developing new opportunities for public engagement with heritage.

For many artists, temporary commissions for heritage properties is an increasingly important strand of their practice. Yet despite significant developments, and organisational support from the arts and heritage sectors, there is little understanding of the contemporary arts in heritage field.

Contemporary Art in the Heritage Experience is a two day conference taking place 29-30 July 2019, delivered as a critical part of the Mapping Contemporary Art in the Heritage Experience project. It provides a platform to discuss the broader character of contemporary art in heritage and the impact of such projects on their producers and audiences, sharing knowledge of this practice across the sector for those engaged in or wishing to develop this area of practice.

The conference will focus on the key themes of Creation and Encounters. See here for details of the call for papers, presentations and ‘visual or audio formats’ (such as posters and short films) from artists, curators, heritage professionals, academics, researchers and research students.

For more information please follow updates on the project website and follow us on Twitter: @mcahe_NU

Mapping Contemporary Art in the Heritage Experience (MCAHE) is a collaborative research project between Newcastle University and the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds.

This three-year research project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and delivered in collaboration with UK heritage partners The National Trust, English Heritage, Arts & Heritage, The Churches Conservation Trust, the Contemporary Visual Art Network and Arts Council England.

The project includes four commissions by award-winning UK artists, Fiona Curran, Mark Fairnington, Matt Stokes and Andrew Burton and two works commissioned in collaboration with partners by Susan Philipsz and Marcus Coates.

Image of Fiona Currans work at Gibside: Your Sweetest Empire is to Please. Courtesy Colin Davison Photography.