Richard Long, Mud Sun, 2025. © Richard Long. Photo credit: The National Gallery, London. All rights reserved

The three-day conference addresses how artworks in the ‘expanded field of clay’ can be made accessible to current and future audiences.

These works may be ephemeral, site-specific, participatory, or live, thereby posing significant challenges for museums.

It takes place in the context of important recent work on collecting performance, installation and live art (Tate, 2018-22; Hölling, Feldman & Magnin, 2023-4), and on the politics and practices of museum collecting (Jones, 2021; Krmpotich & Stevenson, 2024) and therefore supports interdisciplinary dialogue extending beyond clay practice.

Conference keynotes include Florence Peake (artist) and Louisa Buck (art critic and author); Alun Graves (Senior Curator, Ceramics and Glass 1900–now, V&A) and Keith Harrison (artist); Daniel F. Herrmann (Ardelan Curator of Modern and Contemporary Projects, National Gallery) and Deborah Smith (curator consultant); Phoebe Cummings (artist) and Ben Roberts (Director of Artists’ Research Centre); Emily Stone (specialist in public programming) and Alexandra Hodby (Head of Programmes, Yorkshire Sculpture Park); Hanna B. Hölling (Research Professor, Bern Academy of the Arts) and Pip Laurenson (Professor of Conservation, UCL); Clare Twomey (artist) and Martina Margetts (writer/curator).

The full programme of provocations, papers, and panel discussions raises a range of curatorial, museological and artistic perspectives on the subject, with other speakers/panellists including Natalie Baerselman le Gros, Christie Brown, William Cobbing, Lily Crowther, Rupert Faulkner, Jules Pelta Feldman, Tessa Peters, Anders Herwald Ruhwald, Nicole Seisler, and Ashley Thorpe. For updates to the programme please visit https://cream.ac.uk/ceramics-research-centre-uk/

The conference is being held as part of the three-year AHRC-funded research project, Future Ecologies of Clay. The research is being undertaken by the Ceramics Research Centre-UK, University of Westminster, in partnership with the V&A (Grant number UKRI748).

Conference Schedule:

Wednesday 24 June, 12:00 – 18:00
Thursday 25 June, 9:30 – 17:30
Friday 26 June, 9:00 – 16:00

Register here.