2021/22
Arts and educational institutions in the UK are places that hold deep colonial affiliations and legacies today, within their ecosystems.
This collaboration with the New Art Exchange and the School of Art at the University of Edinburgh is one way to introduce voices that are systemically underrepresented and discarded within the arts and culture sector.
It is an approach to introduce other references to the curriculum when thinking about arts education in the UK today to broaden up horizons beyond colonial imaginaries and hegemonic knowledge of the art school.
Cindy Sissokho, Curator & Special Projects Producer
The School of Art is delighted to be continuing our collaboration with New Art Exchange in Nottingham, for the 2021 - 2022 academic year. This co-curation of invited speakers between the two organisations has led to many fruitful discussions about how we bring diverse artists into the academic community. Our talks have included how to expand pedagogical knowledge, how we support both emerging and established artists, thinkers, curators, directors, writers, to bring their practice to a wider audience, and to students beginning their journey of artistic discovery. This year we will present creative practitioners from an incredibly expansive field, those who work with language and performance, to political and artistic aspects of decoloniality within the arts, and theories of Black Subjectivity, Afro-pessimism and Afro-futurism.
Linda O Keeffe Head of Art
Listings
8 Oct 2021 | Beverley Bennett | Find out more >
22 Oct 2021 | Dominique White | Find out more >
5 Nov 2021 | Soukaina Aboulaoula and Lorén Elhili | Find out more >
21 Jan 2022 | Phoebe Colings-James | Find out more >
18 Feb 2022 | Fabian Villegas | Find out more >
4 Mar 2022 | Cindy Sissokho | Find out more >
View recordings on the Friday Talks channel >
Previous series
2020/21
For 2020/21, the School of Art was delighted to welcome a collaboration between the New Art Exchange (NAE) in Nottingham and the School of Art, in the development of our Friday Talk series. This series of talks were a critical part of the engagement our students have with practicing artists, curators and researchers, every year. Over the years the school has presented talks by some of the most interesting emerging and established artists, and through workshops have introduced our students to new ways of thinking about their practice. In 2019 I began a conversation with the one of the curators of NAE Cindy Sissokho and the Diorector of NAE Skinder Hundal about a potential collaboration between our two organisations. The discussions centred around who the arts were for, where was diversity represented in education and within cultural institutions, and importantly, how can universities be more inclusive and representative of the many different voices within the arts.
We were delighted to have a selection of incredible artists speaking and working with our students over the next two semesters, and were very grateful for the work of NAE in helping make this possible. Our plan is to continue to work together to make sure that art is representative of all who contribute to both the practice and theory of contemporary arts.
Unlike previous years the Friday talks did not take place on the ECA campus, instead, the lectures were made available to view online on the Friday morning of each talk and then for the rest of the academic year. Please follow the Media Hopper link to watch the videos of our speakers on each of the dates listed.
- Dr Linda O Keeffe Head of Art, ECA
NAE values art education and is keen to support students studying the arts, be that through higher education or in non-institutional environments. It is vital to offer ‘reality insights’ to support the academic interrogation, learning and research that students undertake. These insights come in many forms, from practical application to hearing from dynamic artist practitioners; the lived experiences of these artists and practitioners of colour capture and offer the full spectrum of life’s contexts.
In a society where localisation means to be global, and in the ever increasingly diverse space we enter, negotiate and engage with, we need a deeper collective appreciation of Britain’s considerable cultural knowledge, informed by and cultivated from people across the continents of the world. NAE is therefore delighted to be co-curating a series of presentations and practical sessions with Edinburgh College of Art at Edinburgh University. It is vital that such partnerships exist in order to enrich and enliven progressive educational and arts sectors.
- Skinder Hundal MBE Director/CEO of New Art Exchange
Talk listings
9 October 2020 | Barby Asante
23 October 2020 | Michaela Yearwood-Dan
27 November 2020 | Abbas Zahedi
5 February 2021 | Favour Jonathan
26 February 2021 | Maryam Wahid
12 March 2021 | Hardeep Pandhal
19 March 2021 | Shiraz Bayjoo
26 March 2021 | Languid Hands Rabz Lansiquot and Imani
2019/20
27 Sep 2019 | Victoria Morton | Coming Into the Nearness of Distance
27 Sep 2019 | An afternoon of Art and Science, Presented by Fusion: Art meets Science at the University of Edinburgh
11 Oct 2019 | Aideen Barry | Remote Control
18 Oct 2019 | Isabel Noguira
25 Oct 2019 | Melanie Jordan | Kiosks, Slogans and Social Montage
8 Nov 2019 | Celine Condorelli
22 Nov 2019 | Margaret Salmon
24 Jan 2020 | George Barber
7 Feb 2020 | David Blandy and Larry Achiampong
14 Feb 2020 | Raisa Kabir | Materialising gendered archives: weaving, language, and the global textile object
28 Feb 2020 | Tizzy Cannucci
13 Mar 2020 | Rob Mckay | Following the Flight of the Monarchs
27 Mar 2020 | Kai Sing Tan Cancelled
2018/19
28 Sep 2018 | Angelo Plessas
12 Oct 2018 | Kristen Kreider
26 Oct 2018 | Dr Deborah Jackson
16 Nov 2018 | Ruth Ewan
25 Jan 2019 | Linda Stupart
8 Feb 2019 | Marie Thompson
1 Mar 2019 | Margaret Salmon
22 Mar 2019 | Alberta Whittle
2017/18
6 Oct 2017 | Virginia Verran
13 Oct 2017 | France-Lise McGurn
20 Oct 2017 | Stuart Middleton
27 Oct 2017 | Ross Sinclair
3 Nov 2017 | Prof John Russell
10 Nov 2017 | Alex Dordoy
17 Nov 2017 | JJ Charlsworth
24 Nov 2017 | Tessa Lynch
1 Dec 2017 | Prof Amelia Jones
19 Jan 2018 | Sarah Rose
26 Jan 2018 | Owen Parry
2 Feb 2018 | Mark Titchner
9 Feb 2018 | Annette Krauss
23 Feb 2018 | David Claerbout
9 Mar 2018 | Dr Peter Hill
2016/17
The 2016-2017 Lectures were focused around the School’s research clusters: Futurity, Material, Narrative, Sexes and Temporality.
Futurity
4 Nov 2016 | Corin Sworn
11 Nov 2016 | Martin Herbert
18 Nov 2016 | Hannah Sawtell
25 Nov 2016 | Bisan Abu Eisheh
Sexes (all day event)
20 Jan 2017 | Lisa Robertson & Sophie Collins
Temporality
27 Jan 2017 | Lucy Soutter
3 Feb 2017 | Dee Heddon
10 Feb 2017 | Melanie Gilligan
17 Feb 2017 | Filipa Ramos
Material
3 Mar 2017 | Kenny Hunter
10 Mar 2017 | Cosey Fanni Tutti and David Keenan
17 Mar 2017 | David Sherry
Narrative (all day event)
24 Mar 2017 | Claire Walsh & Suzanne van der Lingen
2015/16
9 Oct 2015 | Carey Young
23 Oct 2015 | Martin Creed
30 Oct 2015 | Petra Bauer
13 Nov 2015 | Charlotte Prodger
20 Nov 2015 | Luc Tuymans
27 Nov 2015 | Doug Fishbone
4 Dec 2015 | Lindsay Seers
22 Jan 2016 | John Calcutt
29 Jan 2016 | Florian Hecker
5 Feb 2016 | Tom Gidley
12 Feb 2016 | Kevin Atherton
26 Feb 2016 | Bedwyr Williams
4 Mar 2016 | Margaret Salmon
18 Mar 2016 | Eileen Simpson and Ben White
25 Mar 2016 | Cally Spooner
2014/15
26 Sep 2014 | Oliver Chanarin
3 Oct 2014 | Forthcoming Materials of Practice: A Symposium in Two Halves
10 Oct 2014 | Bob & Roberta Smith
17 Oct 2014 | Dean Hughes
24 Oct 2014 | Carol Mavor & Megan Powell
7 Nov 2014 | Paul Seawright
14 Nov 2014 | Michelle Sank
21 Nov 2014 | Lucy Soutter
28 Nov 2014 | Lucy Skaer
16 Jan 2015 | Mark McGowan
23 Jan 2015 | Mika Hannula
27 Jan 2015 | Susan Hiller
30 Jan 2015 | Patrick Keiller
6 Feb 2015 | Agata Pyzik
13 Feb 2015 | Michael Fullerton
27 Feb 2015 | Ciara Phillips
6 Mar 2015 | Hayley Newman
13 Mar 2015 | Egill Saebjornsson
20 Mar 2015 | Andrew Hunt
27 Mar 2015 | Book Works
3 Apr 2015 | AND Publishing
2013/14
17 Jan 2014 | Modern Edinburgh Film School
24 Jan 2014 | Daniel Sturgis
31 Jan 2014 | Paul Seawright
14 Feb 2014 | John Stezaker
28 Feb 2014 | John Smith
7 Mar 2014 | Plastique Fantastique
14 Mar 2014 | Lucy Skaer
21 Mar 2014 | Duncan Campbell
28 Mar 2014 | Lucy Reynolds
