Gill Hedley is an independent curator, writer and consultant on contemporary visual arts. The menu to the left leads to different aspects of her work. On some pages blue links in bullet points open for more detail. Below are current and recent projects, with more on the archive page.
I was commissioned to write a history of the Incorporated Church Building Society which celebrates its 200th anniversary this spring.
In the confused and debt-ridden years just after Waterloo a group of influential men persuaded the government to commit substantial funds to create churches in urban areas to cope with the influx of migrants from the countryside displaced by the Industrial Revolution. Extraordinarily, a grant of one million pounds was voted, followed swiftly by another half million. Yet the same group of men decided to raise their own funds with a greater emphasis on extending existing churches and making as many seats possible free to all worshippers.
ICBS finally became absorbed in to the National Churches Trust under the chairmanship on Michael Hoare, whose family provided many of the Treasurers from 1818 onwards. Hoares Bank has commissioned the book to support the work of NCT and it is published by Umbria Press.
St. Mary’s, Market Place, Ilkeston, Derbyshire, 1855
The 13th parish church was rebuilt between 1853 and 1855 by Thomas Larkins Walker with a grant from ICBS. The chantry chapel was rebuilt to accommodate nearly 300 children while new seating, flooring, heating and lighting were installed. It is listed Grade II* by National Heritage for England. Photo credit: Erewash Borough Council.
When I worked in Southampton Art Gallery, in the mid 1980s, I came across the
collector/dealer Arthur Jeffress and planned, though never completed, an exhibition to celebrate
the bequest to the gallery in 1961 of his subversive little collection
.
After I left CAS (over eleven years ago now) and knowing a lot more about collectors, I decided to see if there was enough material for a biography. One decade and 100,000 words later, I am delighted to say that a publisher also thinks the story is worth publishing.
I am discussing an exhibition with Southampton City Art Gallery in 2020 to coincide with the book.
Oriel Ross, Portrait of Arthur Jeffress, 1927, collection Gill Hedley
Grant Museum of Zoology,
Rockefeller Building, University College London,
21 University Street, London WC1E 6DE.
Mon-Sat 1-5pm. Admission free
Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva’s latest iteration of her Making Beauty project is in London and I do urge to you to see it.
Not only is the work ethereal and remarkable but the setting – the University of London’s Grant Museum of Zoology – is a gem in which Elpi’s works sits as a provocation and complement.
The work is for sale, and not at gallery prices. I will send details of an evening event in due course, but I would recommend a quiet visit on your own first – it is a treat. Please let me know if you would like to receive a pdf of images and installation shots if you cannot get to Bloomsbury.
→ Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva's website
(www)
→ summary of Elpida's work on this site
The next showing of Ann Sutton’s exhibition, On The Grid, will be at Winchester School of Art in summer 2018. They staged her exhibition of developmental studies in series - No Cheating - in 1995.
Full details of the latest show will follow but please do put Tuesday 10th Julyin your diary for the preview party.
→ Ann Sutton's website
(www)
→ catalogue essay On The Grid on Ann's latest work (PDF)
→ installation photos of On The Grid at Gallery Oldham
→ summary of Ann's work on this site
Installation shot of On The Grid, Gallery Oldham, 2016
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