New collaboration sees Museum Studies students access vast Arts Council Collection
Boundaries will be crossed and relationships formed in a new exhibition by University of Leicester students that will feature internationally celebrated artworks.
The exhibition is part of a new collaboration between the School of Museum Studies’ MA Art Museum & Gallery Studies (AMAGS) and the Arts Council Collection - a national loan collection of modern and contemporary works by 2000 artists.
‘Lines of Flight’, which will be held in the School of Museum Studies building from 30 June until 27 October, started with an opportunity that was also a challenge: choosing a maximum of twelve works from a collection of nearly eight thousand.
The eight artists exhibited range from experimental pioneers of the 1960s to a generation who made their names in the 1990s. The works are all exceptional, but highlights include three rarely exhibited works by the celebrated Brazilian artist Lygia Clark, and a spotlight on American-born and London-resident artist Liliane Lijn, a pioneer of kinetic art. This spotlight on Lijn features additional works loaned to the students by the artist herself.
Dr Isobel Whitelegg, Programme Director for the MA Art Museum & Gallery Studies, said: “Working collaboratively, our students selected works from the Arts Council Collection and over the academic year they have followed all of the 'real-life' processes involved in organizing a loan-based exhibition - researching works and establishing a logic for their selection, making formal loan requests, devising exhibition design and interpretation. This practice-based and experiential learning has proved invaluable both in terms of gaining professional insight and learning to work as a team."
The School of Museum Studies’ MA Art Museum & Gallery Studies is an art-specific companion to the School's long-established MA Museum Studies, and is one of only two such courses nationally who work in partnership with the Arts Council Collection.
‘Lines of Flight’ takes place from Friday 30 June until Friday 27 October 2017 at the School of Museum Studies, 19 University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RF. It is free, and open to the public Monday-Friday, 9.30am-5pm.
They are not the only ones exhibiting at the moment – AMAGS students are also currently curating 'Art School: Experiments in Time and Space' at the Gallery at Demontfort University.