This series of lectures brings together contemporary artists, scholars and museum professionals to reflect on the impact of pandemics – both in the past and in the present – on the ways in which we create, engage with, and think about art and art-making. During the series, we will consider the longer history of art and diseases, the ways in which contemporary artists have reckoned with and worked through the COVID-19 pandemic, and the implications and new possibilities that opened up as we were forced to reimagine the form and function of our public collections amid lockdowns and enforced closures. We will look to the past – from the Black Death to the Third Plague – to provide context to our present as we begin to imagine what the future might look like for artists, collections and the publics that they serve.
In the final session of our series, contemporary artists Jade Montserrat and Abbas Zahedi will reflect on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on art and art-making and the broader themes of care, health, community and wellbeing that are woven through their practices.
