On Art Becoming Public

On Art Becoming Public is a research project around exhibition histories hosted by the Paul Mellon Centre (PMC) and convened by Claudia Di Tosto (PhD candidate, University of Warwick). The aim of the project is to provide a space for discussion and reflection about the role of exhibitions, the becoming public of art as described by Dr Lucy Steeds (University of Edinburgh), within the production of British art history.

Following the online reading group that ran from September to March, this hybrid one-day symposium further expanded the discussion around methods and approaches to researching exhibition histories through four conversations between two panellists and a chairperson.

As part of On Art Becoming Public, the writer and filmmaker Juliet Jacques was commissioned to make a new short film. The film, which focuses on the International Surrealism Exhibition held at the New Burlington Galleries in London in 1936, premiered during the symposium. A brief conversation between the convenor of the project and Juliet Jacques followed the screening.