Event date: 4 April 2023
Review by Danusia Wurm
Hebe and Her Serpent, Maggi Hambling CBE
Harriet Loffler, Curator of the Women’s Art Collection based at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, delighted a discerning audience with an insight into her work as Curator, including the history, nature and significance of the Collection - and its future.
The superlative Collection, the largest of contemporary art by women in Europe, is a celebration of women’s agency and creativity, an art historical record and a living, evolving body of work. At the heart of its founding mission is the principle of collaboration and community in which women take centre stage.
Today the Collection includes over 600 works by leading international artists, including Barbara Hepworth, Dame Paula Rego, Maggi Hambling CBE, Lubaina Himid CBE, Judy Chicago, Tracey Emin CBE and Cindy Sherman.
Housed, not in a traditional gallery, but in the working college environment, Harriet explored the challenges this brings to maintaining the Collection, including those of deterioration, vulnerability and storage but also its advantages as an integral part of student life. She also raised issues of adding to the Collection, what criteria to adopt to reflect the collaborative nature of its origins, and whether to change from receiving donated work, to purchasing works.
Built as a “manifesto for the education of women”, the Murray Edwards (formerly New Hall) College is a fitting recipient for the Collection. The iconic brutalist building was designed by architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon , who went on design the Barbican Centre in London.
The Collection is open to members of the public and is free to visit, 7 days a week.
The ncas talk, held at the Blake Studio, was one of a series of ncas talks kindly hosted by the Norwich School.
Review by ncas trustee Danusia Wurm