Please join us for the next Transnational Studies seminar/workshop:

Wednesday, 11 February 2015

4.00pm-7.00pm Venue: 65/1177

Impact and benefits of the arts:

How arts institutions relate to the public and reach out to new audiences

Iwala Collection Iwalewa

Uriel Orlo exhibition at Hansard Gallery

Andy Sheppard in concert

This workshop is introduced by short presentations from three directors of institutions of the visual and performing arts, all of which have the dual role of serving the university community to which they are affiliated, as well as the general public in their respective cities.

Ulf Vierke is the Director of the Iwalewa Haus, a leading centre for contemporary African Arts , Stephen Foster is a Professorial Fellow and Director of the  John Hansard Gallery and Kevin Appleby is the  Concert Hall Manager and Artistic Director of Turner Sims,  renowned international centres for the visual and performing arts  at the University of Southampton. They will offer insights into the ways in which they select programmes and evaluate events (e.g. exhibitions, concerts, symposia etc.), and what types of criteria they use in building bridges between different kinds of audiences.

Dr Ulf Vierke has been  the director of the Iwalewahaus, a leading centre for contemporary African Arts  since 2010 and of DEVA, the central archive and database system for African Studies at the University of Bayreuth. Since its establishment in 1981, the Iwalewahaus has been a venue for a series of renowned exhibitions of non-European art, particularly the contemporary art of Africa and the African diaspora. Ulf teaches African arts as well as cultural studies, museology and disability studies. As a curator, his major focus is on photography and contemporary media art with a regional focus on East Africa and Lusophone Africa. His most recent research interest is on the archive and its digital future.

Kevin Appleby has been Concert Hall Manager and Artistic Director of Turner Sims Southampton since 2000 and in 2013 was named Concert Hall Manager of the Year at the ABO/Rhinegold Awards. He devises the venue’s annual 60-concert series encompassing classical music, jazz, world music and folk, and its outreach programme. Kevin is a member of Southampton University staff and sits on the University’s Arts Strategy Group. He is also a Trustee of Orchestras Live and Chair of Southampton Music Hub, and in 2014 was a member of the showcase selection jury at the international jazzahead! convention in Bremen, Germany.

Stephen Foster has been the Director of the John Hansard Gallery since 1987, and in 2012 was also awarded a Professorial Fellowship from the University of Southampton. Over this time the Gallery has won a substantial reputation for seminal work with artists and curators, and many innovative thematic exhibitions. The Gallery was designated ‘world leading’ for its curatorial research in the last Universities’ Research Assessment Exercise. John Hansard Gallery has also pioneered groundbreaking access and audience development work. It was a founding partner of the Hampshire-wide audiences project Gallery Go (1999-2004), and since 2007 has developed a successful programme of Arts Award delivery, working with young people in partnership with Wessex Youth Offending Team.