Join us at King’s College London on Wednesday 24 June 2025 to collectively and proactively rethink commissioning art in public to embrace the often unconventional ways and public spaces in which women artists work.
The conference is convened by Claire Mander, theCOLAB The Artist’s Garden and Dr Kate McMillan, King’s College London (artist/academic and author of three Freelands Foundation Reports on the Representation of Women artists in the UK).
It brings together prominent thinkers and doers including art historians (Natalie Rudd), writers (The White Pube), commissioners (Claire Doherty/Situations and Bridget Sawyers/Tideway), local authorities (Westminster City Council), artists (including Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press RA) and institutions (Yorkshire Sculpture Park/National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington DC). They will explore how to put neglected public spaces back into use, adopt new commissioning models, create frameworks for accountability, and measure impact to achieve greater gender parity in the field of art in public.
The conference format will be disrupted by a new series of site-specific commissions. They are ‘The River’s Stomach (Songs of Empire)’ an audio-visual intervention by Dr. Kate McMillan into the Strand Lane Roman Baths; ‘Your meaning not your materiality (YMNYM)’, a performance lecture by Florence Peake and a walking performance by Daisy Collingridge that leads us to The Artist’s Garden, the site of the group exhibition: MARY MARY. As the world’s first sculpture garden dedicated to the work of women artists, it is where the idea for the conference began and provides a fitting backdrop to continue discussions.
The conference will take place between the Anatomy Lecture Theatre and the Anatomy Museum, at King’s College London. A full conference timetable will be shared in April.
[Tickets are offered in return for donations to theCOLAB charity of either £25 (standard) or £12 (student / low income). All tickets include tea, coffee and a vegetarian lunch served on the campus. All proceeds are direct contributions to the administrative costs of the conference incurred by theCOLAB (Reg. Charity No. 1209046) and for no other purpose. Tickets are limited, book early to avoid disappointment!]