Displaying items from UCL Special Collections, this exhibition examines the actions and reactions attending the women's suffrage movement from the 1860s up to the Representation of the People Act 1918. Satirical commentaries including Laurence Housman's Anti-Suffrage Alphabet are set alongside campaign literature and petitions for and against legislative change.
This lecture discusses how writers such as Arendt, Orwell, Simone Weil, Dorothy Thompson, and Samuel Beckett responded to the mass displacements of the last century, and anticipate many of the issues we confront today. Sceptical about the ability of human rights to legislate for refugees, yet committed to universal justice, these writers challenge us to imagine new terms for placelessness in modern times.
Dare to join us on Wednesday 23 May and explore Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, an epic thriller brought to life through immersive performances, talks, workshops and activities. Listen to chilling ghost stories by candlelight as you tread carefully through Victor Frankenstein’s lab, learn about the scientific and medical innovations of the period, and play with a historical vampire slaying kit from the 19th-century.
Charles Dickens: Man of Science aims to reveal Dickens not only as a scientific enthusiast, but as the key communicator of science in the Victorian age. Displaying his writings alongside artefacts, instruments, and texts of the developing sciences, we share the story of Dickens’s friendships and scientific passions
Commissioned by the Foundling Museum, Jodie Carey has created three new site-responsive installations in response to the Foundling Hospital story. Displayed within the exhibition gallery and amongst the historic Collection, these monumental pieces are imbued with a sense of remembrance and emotional trace.
On 1 June, in a parking space in East London, North London, Richard Woods create Upgrade – a month-long site-specific installation that engages with issues of housing and urban regeneration.
Universal Music, the UK’s leading music company have partnered with the National Portrait Gallery for an exclusive insight into the music business with Rebecca Allen, President of Decca Records and singer-songwriter Imelda May, one of biggest-selling UK female artists of the year. The discussion is aimed at anyone wanting to break into the music industry – on and off stage - and will include the opportunity to meet both Rebecca and Imelda.
A major new commission by artist Fiona Crisp that uses photography, moving image and sound to approach the material environments where scientific experiments that challenge the limits of our imagination are carried out.
Over a weekend in June, musicians and poets spanning genres from classical and folk to contemporary, world and hip hop come together for a programme of concerts, live music, talks, workshops and readings. This year we’ll be celebrating how poetry and lyrics have articulated great moments of change throughout history, experiencing the legacy of famous classic poets on composers and songwriters, hosting a party premiering new poetry commissions inspired by one of hip-hop’s biggest names, and much more...
In honour of Open Garden Squares Weekend, chef Mickey Reedy has put together a 4 course menu of vegetarian delights inspired by the most delectable of gardens: the kitchen garden!