- 15 September 2026
- 5:30 – 7:00 pm
- Join us for a evening viewing and hear from the curator of Just on the Edge: Exploring the Deanna Petherbridge Archive.
- Paul Mellon Centre
This display celebrates the acquisition of the Deanna Petherbridge Archive, donated to the Paul Mellon Centre in 2022.
Deanna Petherbridge (1939–2024) was an accomplished, internationally recognised artist. Widely exhibited, she also curated major exhibitions and authored the highly influential publication, The Primacy of Drawing (2010; rev. edn. 2026). As a visiting artist and academic, she undertook numerous residencies and lecture tours, including in New Delhi, Lahore and Melbourne. Her distinguished career included serving as Professor of Drawing at the Royal College of Art in London (1995–2001), and she was awarded a CBE in 1996.
By the later stages of her career, Petherbridge had achieved many of the conventional markers of success. She had served on boards and panels, judged competitions, held various academic positions and her artwork was held by numerous national museums and galleries. Yet this institutional and public recognition did not ever dispel her sense of remaining fundamentally adjacent to, rather than fully embedded within the British art world. This display will explore the origins and nature of her feelings of marginalisation.
Just on the Edge is curated by Hannah Jones. The display brings together material from the Deanna Petherbridge Archive, accompanied by a selection of original drawings kindly lent by the Artistic Estate of Deanna Petherbridge and the Katrin Bellinger Collection.
Accessibility at a Glance at the Paul Mellon Centre
✔ Level access: A portable ramp is available to provide wheelchair access. Please ring the bell on the right-hand railings outside the main entrance at number 16 for assistance. If possible, it’s helpful to let us know in advance if you will need the ramp, so we can have it ready. Please contact us at events@paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk
✔ Accessible for large power wheelchairs
✔ One accessible toilet on the ground floor
✔ Hearing loop available (please contact events@paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk)
✖ Livestreamed
✖ Recorded
✖ BSL
✖ Live captioning
If you have any questions about access or event details, please email events@paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk