Dear Members and Friends,
It has been a great pleasure to be involved with and attend the 49th ARLIS UK & Ireland Conference generously hosted by the Architectural Association in London 26-27 July.
The feedback from the 150 + attendees has been so overwhelmingly positive, with some saying it was the best ARLIS UK & Ireland conference they have ever attended (in spite of the sweltering heat), which should make the Conference Working Party really proud.
The Conference Working Party, chaired by Nick Brown, really did a most amazing job, much of it in their own time at weekends and evenings, from designing the conference website, selecting and organising the papers, liaising with speakers, sponsors, venues and suppliers, designing, preparing and displaying printed material and finding excellent designers and printers for the programme and tote bags, dealing with last minute emergencies, and not to mention the proof reading and uploading of presentations and preparation of lanyards, conference packs, registration desk…and our Hon Treasurer, Carly Sharples, (Norwich University of the Arts), has been always at hand to address all financial needs.
The 2018 CWP have been: Rachel Brett (British Library), Nicholas Brown (Christie’s Education), Alexandra Duncan (Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London), Laura Elliott (Goldsmiths, University of London), Gustavo Grandal Montero (University of the Arts London), Cathy Johns (Royal College of Art), Harriet Lam (City and Guilds of London Art School), Rosaline Love (Royal Horticultural Society), Stephanie Moran (INIVA), Hayley Webb (Sotheby’s Institute of Art), Laura Williams (University of Huddersfield).
Well done all and thank you so much!
Grateful thanks must also go to those CWP’s employers, who allowed their staff some time for this purpose.
The keynote speakers and established and young professionals shared a wide range of perspectives and experiences which included less beaten tracks such as curating, cataloguing and using zine and artist books, teaching and learning in material collections, artists' residencies in libraries, writing for publication, and so much more, as can be seen from the beautiful conference programme.
All of this and the opportunity to network with colleagues who came to attend and present from all over the UK, Ireland, North America, Europe and further afield, would have not been possible but for the generosity of the organisations that offered their venues for all our events. Joining the Architectural Association who provided our main conference venue, Christie’s Education hosted and sponsored the pre-conference reception, and Central Saintt Martins (UAL), made their premises available for the Thursday conference reception, sponsored by Bloomsbury Digital Resources, where I had the privilege of conferring on Clive Phillpot the Honorary Membership Award on behalf of the Society.
The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art kindly hosted a parallel library visit with the Architectural Association Library as part of the conference programme, and Central Saint Martins kindly offered visits to their library and museum to complement the evening reception on Thursday. Many colleagues hosted library visits in their institutions on Saturday, putting in the extra time. They took place at: The British Library; Goldsmiths, University of London, Library; The Women's Art Library; The London Library; National Gallery Library, SOAS University of London, Library and Brunei Gallery; Tate Library; Warburg Institute Library; Banner Repeater; Bishopsgate Institute Library; The Feminist Library; INIVA, Stuart Hall Library; The London Library; National Poetry Library and Hayward Gallery Library. To all, a very huge and grateful thanks.
I’d like to thank the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art for awarding us an Educational Programme Grant, and our sponsors, Bloomsbury Digital Resources, Christie’s Education and Art History Research net, and the exhibitors, Artifex Press, Cambridge University Press, Casalini Libri, the Feminist Library, Intellect and Lund Humphries, not only for their support but also for giving delegates the opportunity to learn about their new publications and resources.
Thank you so much to all the delegates who enthusiastically attended in such good numbers.
I have two regrets: one is that since the conference had parallel sessions I was not able to attend every single one, and that the conference was so well attended that I did not manage to meet and get to know everyone.
I had the great pleasure of announcing at the end of the conference that our 50th anniversary conference in 2019 will take place in Glasgow, so watch this space for future announcements.
Meanwhile this year’s conference has given us much to think about and use.
Thank you all for making this conference such a success.
I wish you all a very good summer,
Carla
Carla Marchesan
Chair, ARLIS UK & Ireland, https://arlis.net/
Librarian and Tutor MA Sustainable Urbanism
The Prince’s Foundation and Royal Drawing School
+44(0)20 7613 8507
19-22 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3SG
princes-foundation.org / https://www.psta.org.uk/ royaldrawingschool.org
Visit the official page of ARLIS UK & Ireland http://www.arlis.net/Home. Subscribe to https://arlismatters.wordpress.com/, to receive regular posts on art library and archive matters; news, print and digital art and design resources, artists’ books, recent and upcoming events and exhibitions, ARLIS/UK & Ireland publications, job listings and professional profiles.
|