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The Henry Moore Institute is closed for refurbishment until Summer 2024. Henry Moore Studios & Gardens is closed over winter and will reopen on Thursday 28 March 2024.

See & Do

Workshop

Family Collections and Scattered Archives

14:00–17:00

Henry Moore Institute, Leeds

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Archival material for women working sculpture is often geographically dispersed between different collections and institutions, with large quantities of material remaining with family members and heirs in private collections.

In this workshop, we will examine the important role played by family collections and archives in researching sculpture by women and the challenges posed by dispersed or missing archive material.

Speakers include Thalia Allington-Wood (daughter of sculptor Julia Wood), Will Rea (grandson of sculptor Betty Rea) and Rosamund Lily West (former Research Curator for the Pioneering Women at the Heart of the Royal Society of Sculptors project).

This event is open to all with an interest in the subject. There will be opportunities to gain practical advice on best practice in collections care and conservation and we particularly welcome those who are in possession of archival material or are in the process of putting together their own archive.

Programme

 

14:00

Welcome and introduction from Rosamund Lily West

 

14:15

Will Rea: Presentation about the work of Betty Rea

 

14:35

Thalia Allington-Wood: Presentation about the work of Julia Wood

 

14:55–15:15

Discussion chaired by Rosamund Lily West

 

15:15–15:30

Break

 

15:30–16:30

Archive handling session in the Research Library, looking at material from the Archive of Sculptors’ Papers

 

About the speakers

Thalia Allington-Wood is Lecturer in Art History at The Warburg Institute, University of London. Her research is interested in the materiality and environments of art objects, particularly early modern sculpture, in relation to their making and reception, as well as issues of ecology, gender and historiography. She completed her PhD at University College London (UCL) in 2019 and her research has been supported to date by awards from the AHRC, the Society of Architectural Historians, the Sixteenth Century Society and fellowships at UCLA and Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard University. Prior to joining the Warburg Institute in 2021, Thalia held teaching and research positions at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, UCL and Oxford Brookes University. She is currently completing a book on the Sacro Bosco at Bomarzo and has peer reviewed articles published in the Open Arts Journal and Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes. Prior to working in academia, Thalia had a career in museum education, curatorial and research at institutions including London’s Design Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. She is the daughter of the artist Julia Wood and manages her artistic estate.

Will Rea is Senior Lecturer in the Art History of Africa at the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds. Trained as an anthropologist at the Sainsbury Research Unit, Norwich, he initially came to Leeds as Henry Moore Fellow in Sculptural Studies and successfully ran the MA in Sculptural Studies for ten years. His main research focus is on the masquerade traditions and carving practices of the Northeastern Ekiti Yoruba. He is completing a monograph on the former and starting a major research project with the British Museum on the individual carvers of the mid-twentieth century. He is currently lead consultant curator on the JK Randle Yoruba Heritage Museum currently being developed in Lagos. He leads the Variant Modernism: British Art of the Twentieth Century course at the University of Leeds, as well as courses on anthropology and art and classic and contemporary traditions of Africa.

Rosamund Lily West is a curator, writer and historian. Having previously worked as Paul Mellon Research Curator at the Royal Society of Sculptors, Rosamund currently works as Documentary Curator at London Transport Museum, a role which involves documenting contemporary London. Rosamund is also writing up her part-time PhD, ‘The ‘concrete citizens’ of the London County Council’s housing schemes, 1943 to 1965’ on the London County Council’s post-war public sculptures at Kingston University.

Researching Women in Sculpture

 

Researching Women in Sculpture reflects upon women’s contribution to the field of sculpture, investigating archival and collecting practices that have historically obscured work by women and suggesting strategies for how these might be addressed moving forward.

 

Find out more about this Research Season