Led by V&A staff as well as independent researchers, the Lunchtime Lecture programme explores varied aspects of the V&A’s collection and displays in more detail. Lectures take place in the Museum on Wednesdays during term time, 13.00 – 13.45. 

To see the upcoming programme please visit: vam.ac.uk/whatson/programmes/lunchtime-event

V&A Lunchtime Lectures

Paul Lowe and Jennifer Good examine the legacies of photojournalism’s past, and how these might shape its potential futures as photography opens up to new technologies, priorities, forms of connectivity and changing media environments.

Paul Lowe is an award-winning photographer and Course Director of the Masters Programme in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.

Jennifer Good is senior lecturer History & Theory of Photojournalism & Documentary Photography at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.

This talk took place on Wednesday 10 January 2018.

vam.ac.uk/collections/photographs

Understanding Photojournalism

Artist in Residence Neil Brownsword discusses the ceramics industry of his native Staffordshire as his primary subject, observing its people and production systems. He has sought to challenge the marginalisation of craft skill in industrial contexts, and to highlight the danger of specialist knowledge being lost. 

Neil Brownsword is an artist, senior lecturer and researcher at Buckinghamshire New University. 

This talk took place on Wednesday 17 January 2018.

vam.ac.uk/info/museum-residency-programme

Factory: Place and Practices

With the growing speed of urban development in our cities jostling against a desire to preserve the best of the past, we ask the experts how their organisations prioritise, protest for and successfully preserve our ‘at risk’ built heritage.

Join us for a lively discussion with representatives from The World Monuments Fund, The 20th Century Society and Historic England to hear about how we preserve exceptional elements of our built heritage, and why.

This talk took place on Wednesday 24 January 2018.

vam.ac.uk/info/culture-in-crisis/

Culture in Crisis: Listing to Last - Preserving the UK’s Built Heritage

Light is an invisible medium, yet it informs all that we see. Join Mark Sutton Vane as he discusses how light can enhance the experience of museum visitors and help tell the stories being presented, whilst being mindful of the need to protect sensitive artefacts from over exposure.

Mark Sutton Vane is an international lighting designer and founder of Sutton Vane Associates. He has worked on projects including the Crown Jewels, the Olympic Park, the Magna Carta and the V&A European Galleries.

This talk took place on Wednesday 7 February 2018.

vam.ac.uk/collections/europe

The Art of Museum Lighting

Although once in the shadow of her brother the great dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, Bronislava Nijinska in now recognised as a great choreographer in her own right. The presentation looks at her career and in particular her contribution to dance in Britain celebrating the acquisition of an important collection for the V&A.

Jane Pritchard is Curator of Dance at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

This talk took place on Wednesday 7 March 2018.

vam.ac.uk/collections/theatre-performance

Bronislava Nijinska: An Adventurous Woman in Twentieth Century Dance

Why do we still find a multi-coloured Parthenon so unsettling today? Why was the Eiffel Tower such a target for hatred when it was first built? Is the Sagrada Família a work of genius or kitsch? Why has Le Corbusier, one of the greatest of all architects, been treated as a villain? Jonathan Glancey examines the critical legacy of both well-known and either forgotten or underappreciated highpoints in the history of world architecture. Take a fresh look at the reputations of the masterpieces and great architects in history.

Jonathan Glancey is an architectural critic and writer and author of 'What’s So Great About the Eiffel Tower?'

This talk took place on Wednesday 14 February 2018.

vam.ac.uk/collections/architecture

What's so great about the Eiffel Tower?

Dan Vo helped found the permanent volunteer-led LGBTQ Tour at the V&A in 2015, and promotes diversity, equality and inclusion in the UK museum sector as a Museums Association Transformer and Stonewall Person of Colour Role Model.
 
His talk entitled ‘Wizard of Oz: Ceramics, Speedos and Kites, Oh My!’ is a tribute to Peter Travis AM, a gay designer, ceramicist and beloved teacher of art and design. Travis was the first Australian artist to have work purchased by the V&A, and one of his brightly coloured giant kites once hung proudly in the museum. Travis is probably best remembered for his revolutionary design for Speedo in 1961: his swimming briefs affectionately nicknamed the budgie smuggler.
 
The podcast begins with an introduction to the volunteer-led LGBTQ Tours at the V&A, held on the last Saturday of each month at 4pm.

This talk took place on Wednesday 28 February 2018.

vam.ac.uk/info/lgbtq

Wizard of Oz: Ceramics, Speedos and Kites, Oh My!

Ireland’s rich social and cultural heritage has been explored for millennia through the medium of art. Although most well-known for its contribution to the written word, this lunchtime lecture will demonstrate the unique and fascinating history of Ireland’s artistic treasures. Using examples from the V&A’s collection, join Jenny Phelan, Programme Manager for Courses, to explore a selection of Irish artists currently on display, their cultural identity and the works they produced.

Jenny Phelan is Programme Manager for Courses at the V&A.

This talk took place on Wednesday 21 March 2018.

collections.vam.ac.uk/

Irish Art in the V&A

Steve Strange was one of the most flamboyant personalities in the London club scene that launched the New Romantic movement of the early 1980s. With his band Visage, Fade to Grey remains one of the most enduring songs of the era. In 2016, the V&A acquired Strange's archive from his family. In this illustrated talk, Keith Lodwick will talk about the contents of the archive and some of the objects that made Strange such an influential figure.

Keith Lodwick is Curator of Theatre & Screen Arts at the V&A.

This talk took place on the 23 May 2018.

Steve Strange: From Blitz Club to Top of the Pops

September 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the Theatres Act (1968), which abolished state-censorship of the stage throughout the UK. Join Simon Sladen as he introduces the V&A’s Censored! Stage, Screen, Society at 50 display, charting the evolution of censorship from 17th Century to present day.

Simon Sladen is Senior Curator in the Theatre and Performance department at the V&A.

This talk took place on Wednesday 28 November 2018.

Discover more about the V&A: vam.ac.uk/collections

Censored! Stage, Screen, Society at 50

Kate Retford will draw on research from her new book (The Conversation Piece, 2017) to explore the intimate ties between the eighteenth-century British conversation piece, and the material world of the Georgian era. One of the key characteristics of these innovative small group portraits, which became fashionable from the late 1720s onwards, was the amount of space and detail they devoted to settings and objects - to the saloons and drawing rooms in which the figures were posed - to the fireplaces, tea tables, ceramics and paintings which surrounded them. This talk will explore the meanings of these painted rooms, and ask: what can they tell us about actual homes of the period?

Kate Retford is Professor of History of Art at Birkbeck University.

This talk took place on Wednesday 23 May 2018.

Discover more about the V&A: vam.ac.uk/collections

The Material World of the Conversation Piece

Artefacts in the European galleries help us to gain an insight into the political ideals of the day as well as perceptions on status. This talk includes a reflection on some artefacts as well as the use of music, poetry and literature to offer contrasting perspectives.

This talk took place on Wednesday 2 May 2018. 

Find out more about our European collections: vam.ac.uk/collections/europe

Idealism and status through imagery, poetry & literature

As the scale of displacement around the world grows to levels not seen since the 1940s, how are artists responding to the challenges of representation, advocacy and community engagement? Surveying work by a selection of artists from both refugee and non-refugee backgrounds, Tom Green from Counterpoints Arts will invite the audience to consider a range of creative responses. Counterpoints Arts is a leading national organisation in the field of arts, migration and social change. They manage Refugee Week (18 – 24 June), now in its 20th year.  

Tom Green is the Project Manager Platforma, an arts and refugee network supporting and developing arts by, about and with refugees and migrants from marginalised communities. Platforma is managed by Counterpoints Arts in partnership with organisations across the country.

This talk took place on Wednesday 20 June 2018.

Find out more: www.platforma.org.uk/about/

The Arts, Refugees & Migration: New Work, New Approaches

Svetlana Lloyd, a Dior model during the 1950s, gives a fascinating and detailed account of what it was like to be part of the famous couture house at the time, how the collections were created, the organisation of the House, as well as the man himself, Christian Dior.

Find out more: https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/dior-designer-of-dreams

Modelling for a legend | Svetlana Lloyd on Christian Dior

Take a journey through the history of skateboarding – from the California surf beaches of the 1960s and skateparks of the 70s, to contemporary street skating worldwide. Explore its relationship with public space, entrepreneurship, artistry and social enterprises along the way, and discover how it’s being used as an empowering tool for girls in Kabul, Afghanistan. 

Iain Borden is a Professor of Architecture and Urban Culture, and Vice-Dean Education at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, and well as an urban theorist and active skateboarder for over 40 years.

This Lunchtime Lecture took place on 5 June 2019. 

Find out more: https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/architecture

Catch up on the Lunchtime Lecture series: https://soundcloud.com/vamuseum/sets/v-a-lunchtime-lecture-series

Skateboarding and the city: a global phenomenon | Iain Borden

Sonja Harms has been making extravagant clothes for Grayson Perry since 1996, having dressed actors, singers, dancers, herself, closet transvestites and performance artists. Embarking on a traditional German apprenticeship as a dressmaker, learning pattern drafting for women and men, and waitressing in a transvestite bar on weekends, Sonja tells us about her love for crafting alternative identities and her fascination with the performativity of gender.

This Lunchtime Lecture took place on 6 March 2019.

Find out more: https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/fashion

Thumbnail image: Reclining Artist (small), print, by Grayson Perry, published by Paragon Press, 2017, England. Museum no. E.749-2017. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Gender, performance and transformation | Sonja Harms

What might we find by investigating the life stories of objects? By looking at what they’re made from, rather than just who made them... There’s a lot more to the gendered history within the V&A’s collections than you can read in the labels – if you know how to look for it.

We're joined by Kit Heyam, research fellow on ‘Gendering Interpretations’ (a collaborative project between the V&A, Sweden’s Vasa Museum, and the Universities of Plymouth and Lund) as they uncover the hidden histories of underrepresented and forgotten women in Early Modern Europe, through our objects. Hear the story of the women who used classical mythology to fight for their right to education and meet the resilient indigenous Taino women of the Caribbean, all through beautiful pieces in our collection.

Take a look at the objects featured and find out where to see them: 

Snuffbox: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O91899/snuff-box-unknown/

Plate: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O161138/plate-fontana-workshop/

Hat: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O107794/cap-unknown/

Invisible women: uncovering gendered history in the V&A’s Early Modern collections | Kit Heyam

Dame Mary Quant is a trailblazing, revolutionary designer, known for bringing the mini skirt and affordable designer style to the high street. She forged a dynamic, new identity for young women and created the first lifestyle brand with her extensive range of daisy logoed products, which were sold around the world.

Join V&A curators Jenny Lister and Stephanie Wood for a behind-the-scenes look into the Mary Quant exhibition, and explore the story behind the Quant brand.

Find out more: https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/mary-quant

Mary Quant: Fashion Revolutionary

How has the design of the car shaped the world as we know it? 

Join Brendan Cormier, curator of 'Cars: Accelerating the Modern World', as he tells us how the exhibition was developed, whilst revealing key objects and the stories behind them. From a historic desire for speed, to mass manufacturing and the impact of so many cars on the roads today, find out what valuable lessons the car holds for the wider world of design. 

See the objects featured in this talk, on our website: 

Take a further look inside the exhibition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jVY1qFEiXY
https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/cars

Inside the 'Cars: Accelerating the Modern World' exhibition | Brendan Cormier

Step inside the magical world of the Tim Walker and find out how the Wonderful Things exhibition took shape. Guided by Curator Susanna Brown, get a unique insight into the extraordinary creative process of one of the world’s most inventive photographers – from the objects at the museum that sparked his imagination, to the quirky shoots and spectacular exhibition design itself.  

Find out more about Tim Walker: Wonderful Things: www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/tim-walker

Wonderful Things: the making of an exhibition | Susanna Brown

As the world's leading museum of art and design, the V&A enriches people's lives by promoting the practice of design and increasing knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of the designed world. 

V&A Lunchtime Lectures

VAMuseum