Enfilade

Installation view of the exhibition Epic Iran (London: V&A, 29 May 2021 — 12 September 2021).

◊   ◊   ◊   ◊   ◊

A selection of upcoming online courses from the V&A:

Principles of Exhibition Making
V&A Academy Online, Tuesdays, 13.00–16.30, 13 September — 18 October 2022

Working with the V&A’s expert staff and industry professionals, you will study the process and driving ideas behind V&A exhibition-making: from concept to build and design, you will get a 360-degree insight into the major considerations when putting on a show. Focusing on six key themes—mission, audience, research, experience design, project management, and collaboration—this course will give you the skills and knowledge you need to feel more confident about putting on an exhibition of your own.

The course is intended primarily for people who are early- or mid-career in the museum/heritage sector or people interested in working in exhibitions. It will be delivered online and will be made up of live presentations, tutorials, panel discussions, exclusive interviews, and small-group workshop sessions, designed to create an engaging and interactive experience whichever time zone you are joining from. Course fee: £365. More information»

Course director Matilda Pye is an independent curator, educator, and a V&A Research Institute, Paul Mellon, Public Engagement Fellow. Since 2004 she has worked with museums and galleries in the UK and internationally including Tate, the National Portrait Gallery, Royal Museums Greenwich, and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.

François Boucher, Portrait of Madame de Pompadour, detail, 1758, oil on canvas, 29 × 22 inches (London: V&A, 487-1882).

◊   ◊   ◊   ◊   ◊

The Age of Revolutions: Art in 18th-Century Europe
V&A Academy Online, Thursdays, 10.30–16.30, 22 September — 8 December 2022

From Rococo to Romanticism, explore a remarkable period in the history of art. Expert lecturers will bring to life themes such as taste, patronage, and the art market, while you discover how artists and designers responded to an age of enlightenment and revolution.

The 18th-century art world was remarkable in its stylistic diversity, from the austere British Palladian style to the exuberance of continental Rococo. By the early nineteenth century, two leading cultural movements, Neo-classicism and Romanticism, co-existed to dynamic effect in the fields of art, design, and architecture. Throughout Europe, increasing wealth, together with better opportunities for travel, widened the market for both the fine and decorative arts. Drawing on the V&A’s collections, expert lecturers will trace stylistic developments within a wider political and cultural context, and in relation to themes such as taste, patronage and the art market. Course fee: £395. More information»

Course director Kathy McLauchlan is an art historian specialising in French painting and lecturer with the Arts Society, Morley College, and Oxford University. Guest lecturers include Justine Hopkins, specialist in 19th- and 20th-century art and design; Angela Cox, specialist in British painting; and Jacqueline Cockburn, Director of Art and Culture Andalucía and lecturer for the V&A and the Arts Society.

22 September | Introductions
• Introduction to the Course — Kathy McLauchlan
• Historical Background — Angela Cox
• Patrons and Markets — Kathy McLauchlan
• Introduction to the Museum: The Ceramic Staircase — Justine Hopkins

29 September | Institutions and Ideals
• Academies — Kathy McLauchlan
• Language of Architecture — Caroline Knight
• How to Look at a Painting — Angela Cox
• Meet and Greet

6 October | French Style
• Inventing the fête champêtre — Jeremy Howard
• Madame de Pompadour as Patron — Barbara Lasic
• Interiors — Barbara Lasic
• Spotlight Session: 18th-Century Bronzes — Kira d’Alburquerque

13 October | Fantasy and Imagination
• ‘All Spirit and Fire’: The Art of Giambattista Tiepolo — Catherine Parry-Wingfield
• Meissen and Sèvres — Susan Bracken
• Catholic Magnificence: Architecture of Germany and Central Europe — Clare Ford-Wille
• Spotlight Session: A Virtual Menagerie in Dresden 1732 — Susan Bracken

20 October | Capturing Life
• Hogarth’s Narratives — Justine Hopkins
• Painting with Feeling: The Art of Chardin — Clare Ford-Wille and Kathy McLauchlan
• French Sculptors from Pigalle to Houdon — Catherine Parry-Wingfield

27 October | Lure of Italy
• Grand Tour — Clare Ford-Wille
• Rome, Art Capital of the World — Kathy McLauchlan
• England’s Country Houses — Caroline Knight
• Spotlight Session. Palladio’s Quattro Libri — Caroline Knight

3 November | Business of Art
• Carriera, La Tour, Liotard: Masters of the Pastel Portrait — Clare Ford-Wille
• Images for All: London and the Print Market — Angela Cox
• Reynolds, Gainsborough, and the Business of Portraiture — Angela Cox
• Spotlight Session: Design for the Enlightenment — Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth

10 November | Town and Country
• The British Watercolour, from Cozens to Cotman — Angela Cox
• From Garden Architecture to Landscape Architecture: William Kent to Capability Brown — TBC
• London Entertainment and the Arts — Catherine Parry-Wingfield
• Spotlight Session: Canova’s Theseus — Justine Hopkins

17 November | Revolution
• Boullée, Visionary Architect — Barbara Lasic
• Jacques-Louis David: Revolution to Empire — Kathy McLauchlan
• Blake, Palmer, and Revolution — Justine Hopkins

24 November | Age of Napoleon
• Empire Style — Clare Ford-Wille
• Canova and the New Sculpture — Justine Hopkins
• Goya — Justine Hopkins
• Spotlight Session: Behind the Scenes at the Royal Collection, The Waterloo Chamber — Richard Williams

1 December | Romantics
• Pugin, Landseer, and the Revival of the Middle Ages — Justine Hopkins
• The Victorian Dream of Chivalry: Spectacle, Pageantry, and Bad Weather — Tobias Capwell
• The New Houses of Parliament — Justine Hopkins
• Spotlight Session: Behind the Scenes at the Wallace Collection — Tobias Capwell

8 December | Lure of the Past
• Friedrich and the Spirit of Longing — Justine Hopkins
• Géricault and Delacroix: Romantics at the Salon — Kathy McLauchlan
• Constable and Turner — Angela Cox

The Age of Glass, 1650 to Now
V&A Academy Online, Wednesdays, 14.00–16.30, 2 November — 7 December 2022

In celebration of the United Nations 2022 International Year of Glass, museum curators, historians, and artists will explore the global history of glass from 1650 to the present. This 6-week course follows a chronological structure, from the early modern methods of glassmaking in Venice, to experiments at 17th-century London glasshouses, and the celebrated Crystal Palace at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Bringing in historic and contemporary approaches to the study of glass, it shines a light on techniques, materials, makers, and markets and aims to celebrate the significant role played by glass in wider social, cultural, and historical contexts. Each week we will cover a range of themes, including materials and techniques, dining, industry, empire, historic recreation, women glass artists, and the role of gender in a largely male-dominated world. Course fee: £120. More information»

Course leader Dr Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth specialises in the histories of collecting and displaying European decorative arts, 1650–1900. She was previously V&A Curator, Ceramics and Glass, 1600–1800 and is now Lecturer in 18th- and 19th-Century Visual and Material Culture in the History of Art Department at the University of Edinburgh.

2 November | Materials, Makers, and Markets
• Introduction — Caroline McCaffrey Howarth
• Selling and Making Glass in 17th- and 18th-Century London — Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth
• Recorded Tour of V&A Glass Galleries, with live Q&A session — Reino Liefkes, Senior Curator, Ceramics and Glass

9 November | Glass Techniques
• Historic Recreation — TBC
• Live Studio Demonstration with Q&A — Bethany Wood, Glass Artist and Founder of Blowfish Gallery

16 November | The Global Story of Glass
• Transparency and Enlightenment, Race and Glass — Kerry Sinanan, University of Texas and Rakow Researcher, Corning Museum of Glass
• Artist Spotlight Session — Chris Day, Glass and Ceramics Artist

23 November | A Glassy Society
• Breaking the Ice with Glass, Canons, Blue Balls, Fountains, and Fantasy Animals in the National Glassmuseum in Leerdam — Kitty Laméris, Dutch Glass Expert
• Dining in Style in the 18th Century: The Age of Glass — Kit Maxwell, Curator of Applied Arts, Art Institute Chicago; curated the 2020–22 exhibition In Sparkling Company, Corning Museum of Glass

30 November | Glass and Industry
• Antonio Salviati and the 19th-Century Revival of Venetian Glass — Reino Liefkes, Senior Curator, Ceramics and Glass
• The New Stourbridge Glass Museum (opened April 2022) and the Growth of the British Glass Industry — Harrison Davies, Curator, Stourbirdge Glass Museum

7 December | Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women and Glass
• Pioneer Women in 20th-Century Glass — Diane Wright, Curator of Glass, Toledo Art Museum
• Artist in Focus: Maria Bang-Espersen (Watch: Maria Bang Espersen WSKG Arts & Culture short)