Free Event

Essential information

Type
Location
Date and times Wednesday 20 and 27 April | 2pm-2.45pm
Prices Free

‘The Art That Made Us’ Festival starts in April, with events taking place across the UK throughout the month. The festival complements the broadcast of a major new BBC television series exploring our creative history. Museums, libraries, archives and galleries are opening their doors to tell the stories behind their astounding collections.

At Royal Museums Greenwich, we will host two events in the Queen’s House exploring ‘Global Issues, Local Impacts.’ Join curators, creatives and researchers to explore key events and phenomena that have shaped artworks from the 1600s to today. How have artists responded to social and environmental challenges? What can art tell us about our past, our present and our future?

Event programme

Art That Made Us: Rising Seas

Wednesday 20 April, 2pm –2.45pm

Speakers: Sarah Hardy, Director, The De Morgan Foundation and Dr Katherine Gazzard, Curator of Art (Post-1800), RMG.

Join us to explore how Evelyn de Morgan’s The Sea Maidens (1885–86) can be reinterpreted as an allegory for the effects of climate change. This journey will take us from Hans Christian Andersen’s story of the Little Mermaid to the destruction of coral reefs. Part of the BBC Art That Made Us Festival. 

Art That Made Us: Climate Migrations

Wednesday 27 April, 2pm – 2.45pm

Speakers: Joseph Ijoyemi, Artist and Co-Founder, The Collective Makers and Dr Hannah Lyons Assistant Curator of Art, RMG.

This ‘In Conversation’ event in the Queen's House will explore social dislocation, climate change and the legacies of colonialism through Kehinde Wiley’s painting Ship of Fools (2017). Join curators and special guests to learn how Wiley's work serves as a metaphor for historical and contemporary migration. Part of the BBC Art That Made Us Festival.

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