Reframing Animals

A one day workshop exploring the intersections between art history and animal studies

Friday 6 September 2019 - Wolverhampton Art Gallery

This one day workshop aims to provide a space for researchers in this emerging field to get together and explore key questions of method, ethics and future directions.

In collaboration with participants, the organisers (Dr Sam Shaw and Dr Kate Nichols) will circulate key questions and readings in advance. There will not be formal conference papers. This is a free (but uncatered) event. To register, please email [email protected] by Friday 12 July 2019, explaining in less than 200 words your interest in this field. We will be in touch via email in July to collate pressing areas for discussion and suggested key readings in advance of the workshop.

The workshop coincides with two related exhibitions at Wolverhampton Art Gallery: the Natural History Museum's touring Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and Reframing the Wild: Humans, Animals and Art 1750-1950, curated by Shaw and Nichols. This explores the relationships between humans, animals, and art works from 1750 to 1950, drawing on Wolverhampton’s collections of animal painting, ivories, traps, photography and decorative art objects. It provides historical background to Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and asks: how have humans shaped understandings of the wild through art works? And how have animals contributed towards artworks?

Image: Magic Lantern Slide: A Man and a Pig (1860-1880) (c) Wolverhampton Art Gallery