Symposium 'Unpacking the V&A Wedgwood Collection'

Join leading ceramic artists, scholars and emerging voices for a two-day symposium to explore fresh avenues of research into Wedgwood. We look forward to conversations to expand our understanding of Wedgwood and push scholarship in new directions.
This dual-site landmark conference honours Gaye Blake-Roberts MBE, former curator of the V&A Wedgwood Collection, and her contribution to ceramic research.
It will take place at the V&A Wedgwood Collection in Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent (Friday) and at the V&A South Kensington, London (Saturday).

Day 1: https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/yRyKoLYJz5/unpacking-the-vawc-day-1-friday-7-july-2023-at-barlaston
Day 2: https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/GzNZgRrDR5M/unpacking-the-vawc-day-2-saturday-8-july-2023-at-v-a-sk
Please scroll down to 'related events' to book afternoon options and the evening dinner.

A small number of bursaries for early career professionals is available (generously funded through the Paul Mellon Centre). Please send a 300-word proposal to wedgwoodvam.ac.uk outlining how attending the conference will benefit your professional development. The deadline for the early career bursaries is on Monday 5 June.

Programme:
Friday, 7 July 2023, V&A Wedgwood Collection, Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent, Darwin Suite (10:00–17:30)

10:00
Kate Turner (Acting Chief Curator, V&A Wedgwood Collection)– Welcome to V&A Wedgwood Collection
Robin Emmerson (former Head of Decorative Art Department, National Museums Liverpool) – Gaye Blake-Roberts MBE: The Story So Far

Panel 1: Beyond Josiah Wedgwood I. Re-examining the Narrative
– Chaired by Oliver Cox (Head of Academic Partnerships VARI, NAL and Archives)

Iris Moon (Assistant Curator European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art) – Phantom Urn: Wedgwood’s Disability
Nicola Scott (Curator of Decorative Art, National Museums Liverpool) – Joseph Mayer (1803–1886): Portrait of a Victorian Wedgwood Collector
Rebecca Klarner (Assistant Curator, V&A Wedgwood Collection, PhD Researcher University of Leeds) – Who Made It? Questions of Authorship, Authorising and Authority in Wedgwood’s 20th Century Design and Marketing

Bookable afternoon programme options Day 1:

2.00 – 2.45 Randeep Atwal and Lucy Lead – Extraordinary Wedgwood Women: Celebrating the lives of Mary Euphrasia Wedgwood and Lucie Wedgwood
2.30 – 3.00 Alice Walton – Impressions from a Contemporary Ceramic Maker
2.00 – 2.30 Kate Turner – Wedgwood’s Anti-Slavery medallion: A Re-display at the V&A Wedgwood Collection
2.00 – 2.45 Isabel Clanfield – Highlights of the Museum Store – A Guided Handling Session
A Wedgwood Factory Tour and Have-a-Go pot throwing sessions are also available to book

Panel 2: Impressions of the Past. Contemporary Ceramic Making – Chaired by Catrin Jones (Chief Curator, V&A Wedgwood Collection)

Matt Smith (Artist and Curator) – Remaking the Museum
Clare Twomey (Artist and Researcher) – Wedgwood: Identity & Practice
Adam Hemming (Vice President Marketing Fiskars, BA Vita) – Making Wedgwood Today

Evening at Lunar restaurant (to be booked separately)
– With dinner speakers Tristram Hunt (Director, Victoria and Albert Museum) and Aileen Dawson (Former Curator, 1660-1800, Britain, Europe and Prehistory, British Museum)

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Saturday 8 July, V&A South Kensington, Hochhauser Auditorium (10:00–17:30)

10:00
Antonia Boström (Director of Collections, V&A South Kensington)
– Welcome to V&A South Kensington

Panel 3: Narratives of Creativity, Technology, Economics and Labour
– Chaired by Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth (Lecturer in History of Art, c.1650-1900, University of Edinburgh)

Paul Greenhalgh (Director, Zaha Hadid Foundation) – Mimesis, Method, and Money: Wedgwood and his Forebears
Claire Blakey (Curator of Modern Decorative Arts, National Museums Scotland) – Wedgwood and the Industrial Museum of Scotland
Samantha Lukic-Scott (PhD Researcher, University of York) – Wedgwood and Pictorial Translation
Paul Scott (Artist and Researcher) – Wedgwood's American Transferware Patterns: New American Scenery, Archives, and Insights...

Bookable afternoon programme options Day 2:

1.45 – 2.05 Angus Patterson – Cut Steel Dress Accessories with Jasperware Plaques: A Collaboration between Josiah Wedgwood and Matthew Boulton
2.05 – 2.30 Simon Spier and Florence Tyler – Wedgwood at the V&A South Kensington

Panel 4: Global Wedgwood
– Chaired by Patricia F. Ferguson (Independent Researcher)

Kate Smith (Associate Professor in 18th Century History, University of Birmingham) – Clay, Labour and Heat: Making Ceramics in a Global World
Brigid von Preussen (Junior Research Fellow in History of Art, University of Oxford) – Model Colonies: Australian Clay, British Moulds, and the New Etruria
Raffaella Ausenda (Professor, Free-lance Historian of Italian Ceramics, Milan) – Italian Creamware "ad uso d'Inghilterra" in Northern Italy and Beyond
Rachel Gotlieb (Ruth Rippon Curator of Ceramics · Crocker Art Museum) – Viola Frey (1933–2004): Disrupting Josiah Wedgwood’s Portland Vase in Northern California

Download programme: https://vanda-production-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/2023/05/11/07/38/45/2c31fd88-c8dd-43a8-b740-1155650ea9c5/‘Unpacking%20the%20V&A%20Wedgwood%20Collection’%20–%20Programme%20public%20final.pdf