centenary programme / Talking Around Collections

A national talks and events programme that brought artists closer to the opportunities and challenges of working with public collections and drew audiences closer to a direct exchange with many of the artists working with us as part of this programme.

The event (whether in the form of a talk, discussion, performance, lecture or some other hiatus devised within an institution dedicated to visual culture), provided a moment when an audience concentrates in silence or participates, heckles, laughs — together and as a group, in response to the focus of that event; the artist, performer, speaker...

The Centenary Programme had been devised to include many of these moments and, in selecting the artists, collaborating organisation and individuals, the priority had been to make strong and specific connections to the public collections that they will take place within or adjacent to.

The majority of these were held physically within the collections themselves, with the aim of bringing artists closer to the opportunities and challenges that collections offer, and to provide for audiences and participants, a dynamic insight that extends the experience of the artist’s work.