Past VC Talks
The vision for the VC talks
To encourage a more ambitious culture of critical creativity across the University, we introduced new series of around 10 talks that take place on selected Thursdays across the academic year, in our DSR Production Theatre.
For the series we invited outstanding and distinguished practitioners, thought leaders, researchers, and educators to talk to our community of staff and students about their latest experiences and developments in their fields of expertise, to inspire us all. The series includes speakers from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines who share topical and important ideas and debates and cover many areas of contemporary practice and culture including film, visual art, design, architecture, fashion, creative technologies, philosophy, music, and science.
Simon Ofield-Kerr, Vice Chancellor.
2023/24 Talks
What can contemporary curatorial practices learn from pre-18th century egalitarian pirate communities? Kirsty Ogg, Curator and Educator
Thursday 9 May
In this VC talk Kirsty Ogg explored ideas around non-hierarchical networks, and how the notion of care might be better practised in the art world’s systems and structures.
Through investigating her roots in DIY artist-led projects in Glasgow and Norwich, she examined what the art ecology might learn from pre-18th century egalitarian pirate communities and how ideas of radical democracy that were utilised in the Golden Age of Piracy, could be applied to contemporary curatorial and institutional practices
The Otherworlds and Underworlds of the Archives. Professor Elizabeth Price, Moving Image Artist
Thursday 18 April 2024
In this talk, artist Elizabeth Price (Turner Prize winner 2012) discussed her work in moving image art, specifically addressing her use of archival documents in relation to the history of artists’ critical interventions in archives and collections.
You can find Elizabeth’s book, Sound of the break (opens in a new window), and more on her work (opens in a new window) in the library.
Knowing your worth: The value of connection in the creative process. Ali Smith, author, photographer and musician
Thursday 14 March 2024
In this talk, Ali Smith discussed her decades-long careers in music, photography and writing, and how she used each medium to deeply explore the human condition with a focus on women’s lives.
Ali Smith is a photographer, author and musician, originally from New York but now based in the UK. The vibrant style she has brought to her writing and photography was forged in New York’s underground music scene where she played bass in the seminal punk / blues / avant-garde band, Speedball Baby.
Ali’s memoir, The Ballard of Speedball Baby, is available in the library (opens in a new window).
How I got here: Fashion, fabrics to fine art. Sakib Khan, multidisciplinary artist, curator and producer
Thursday 15 February 2024
Sakib Khan is this year’s guest curator for Queerfest Norwich shared their path to this point in a colourful and very untraditional career.
As an artist, Khan’s work aims to weave together the many different strands of their intersectional identity. They are a Queer neurodivergent person of South Asian heritage, and this intersectional identity has become an unconscious underlying influence across their work.
Hospital Rooms: Art and change in mental health hospitals. Tim A. Shaw, Co-founder of Hospital Rooms
Thursday 18 January 2024
Hospital Rooms is an arts and mental health charity that commissions extraordinary artworks for NHS mental health inpatient units across the UK. They collaborate with mental health service users and staff, and have worked with artists including Sonia Boyce, Julian Opie, Tschabalala Self, Hurvin Anderson and Nick Knight.
Tim A Shaw is an artist. With Niamh White, he is co-founder of arts and mental health charity Hospital Rooms. He is also co-founder of Making Time Arts, a social enterprise that delivers arts training to dementia caregivers; and programmes and co-curates the Dentons Art Prize, an arts award for exceptional emerging talent, now in it’s 11th round. He has been a curator on a number of projects including the public sculptures commissions for Horizon 120 in Braintree and has authored a book, Draw & Be Happy, published by Chronicle Books, Quarto, Ilex and Octopus. He is a Senior Research Fellow at Norwich University of the Arts.
Sediment spirit: Do we need to loot the planet in order to heal it? John Kenneth Paranada, Curator of Art and Climate Change, Sainsbury Centre.
14 December 2023
John Kenneth Paranada presented his interdisciplinary curatorial practice and the exhibition Sediment Spirit, which shone a light on various intersectional approaches tackling the complexities of climate change.
The talk drew on art, philosophy, ecologies, climate science, design, architecture, and the environment. It will highlight the vital role of museums and cultural spaces as a platform for interdisciplinary exchange of information and transmission of diverse knowledge, which can become a catalyst for social change.
What is intercultural practice? Dr Rathna Ramanathan, Pro Vice Chancellor, Central St Martin’s
9 November 2023
Digital connectivity, international migration and a climate and global health crises have necessitated an urgent reconsideration of our approach to art, design and communication. Rathna Ramanathan’s talk evaluated western canons and frameworks of art and design, and considered why taking an intercultural approach to creative practice is critically needed.
Dr Rathna Ramanathan is a typographer, researcher and academic known for her expertise in intercultural communication and alternative publishing practices.
Things Fell Apart, Melanie Keen, Director of the Wellcome Collection
26 October 2023
In late 2022, Wellcome Collection closed a 15-year old gallery that was never meant to be open beyond 10 years. Following the public announcement, the organisation faced an unprecedented wave of public and media criticism that flood-lit the work of museums and the role of cultural workers. This talk covered the fall out of what happened next.
Melanie’s talk was not recorded but you can hear her speak on the subject on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row (opens in a new window).
Melanie Keen is Director of the Wellcome Collection in London, a museum of health and human experience. Under her leadership, there is a strong commitment to reshaping cultural assumptions around race, disability and gender, and the human relationship to planetary health.
2022/23 talks
Thursday 1 June 2023 – Roz Bird, Chief Executive Officer, Anglia Innovative Partnerships
In this talk, Roz Bird gave an overview of the exciting science and innovation landscape at Norwich Research Park and the opportunities for creative people to get involved. As the new CEO of Anglia Innovation Partnership LLP, she shared her ambition for the amazing potential of innovators and businesses from this area to solve world problems. She described the primary purpose of her role as getting people together to collaborate.
Thursday 11 May 2023 – Nina Menkes, independent filmmaker and director.
Celebrated independent filmmaker Nina Menkes presents her new documentary film Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power.
Using clips from hundreds of movies we all know and love, Brainwashed illuminates the patriarchal narrative codes that hide within supposedly ‘classic’ set-ups and camera angles, demonstrating how women are frequently displayed as objects for the use, support and pleasure of male subjects.
A collection of Nina’s work can be found in the library – Cinematic Sorceress (opens in a new window).
Thursday 9 March 2023 – Lady Rachel Cooper OBE, Professor of Design Management
The power of design
In this talk Professor of Design Management, Rachel Cooper OBE, offered her reflections on 30 years of design research applied to cities, health and wellbeing, digital lives, sustainability and more. She explored why designers need to go beyond design, think differently and design radically.
Rachel’s books The Handbook of Design Management and Wellbeing: A Complete Reference Guide (vol II) are available as eBooks in the library.
Thursday 26 January 2023 – Eduardo Kac, Brazilian contemporary artist
From Telepresence to Space Art
Renowned artist Eduardo Kac revisits key highlights in his forty-year career, with emphasis on his current space artworks. Kac is internationally recognised for his ground-breaking work in contemporary art and poetry. His singular and highly influential career spans poetry, performance, drawing, printmaking, photography, artist’s books, early digital and online works, holography, telepresence, bio art, and space art.
Kac’s books and further resources are available via the library.
Thursday 13 October 2022 – Simon Ofield-Kerr, Vice-Chancellor at Norwich University of the Arts
What are we doing here?
A personal reflection on the critical relationships between being a Vice Chancellor, a queer theorist, a gay dad, an art historian, and a creative practitioner, which makes some proposals for what happens – at different times and in different places – when we make, interpret, analyse, historicise and teach creative practice.
Watch Simon’s talk on YouTube here.
Resources mentioned in Simon Ofield-Kerr’s talk: resource list.
Thursday 20 October – Professor Catherine Harper
‘Women, life, liberty’
As part of the Northern Irish feminist diaspora, Professor Harper’s creative practice and research – in both text and textiles – circle around concerns with land, cloth, body and memory. These are specifically in the context of Irish women’s fight for bodily autonomy, reproductive rights, and the free expression of eroticism, sexuality and identity. This talk will be situated within these interconnected areas of interest.
Students and staff can access many of Professor Catherine Harper’s articles online via the library catalogue, Discovery.
Thursday 3 November – Jonathan Grant
The New Power University: The social purpose of higher education in the 21st century
In a changing world, what is the social purpose of higher education? Combining a critique of contemporary universities, a manifesto for the future and a provocation to stimulate change, this talk will examine how higher education can flourish in the 21st century.
Reviewing his book of the same title, he will use the framing of ‘new power’, to illustrate how a different purpose for universities is necessary, through the application of a new set of values that puts social responsibility at the core of the academic mission, allowing the university to become an advocate of the policy and political issues that matter to its communities.
Students and staff can borrow Jonathan Grant’s book from the university library: The New Power University or read the ebook.
Watch the talk here: Vice-Chancellor’s Talks: Jonathan Grant, 3 November 2022 – YouTube
Thursday 1 December – Dr Jago Cooper
Artist, Art, Audience!,?,*
This talk will consider what role art museums should play in society in the 21st century. In many ways museums are stuck in a Victorian era model of why they exist in the UK. A transforming world in the 21st century provides both challenges and opportunities for some radically different ways for how museums should exist and operate.
The Sainsbury Centre was created in the 1970s as an anti-museum to fundamentally challenge museological orthodoxy. It is time to think a little about the future for an institution created with radical ambition and a different framework for relationships between art, artist and audience.
Students and staff can borrow Dr Jago Cooper’s book from the university library: Peru: a journey in time
Jago’s talk was not recorded, however, you can view his talk with the British Museum on Peru: a journey in time.
Thursday 15 December – Benjamin Zephaniah, poet, novelist, and musician.
Poetry Saved My Life
A talk by Benjamin Zephaniah, award winning poet, novelist, playwright, actor and musician.
Benjamin Zephaniah cannot remember a time when he was not creating poetry. In this talk, the celebrated writer and dub-poet will discuss how he has used poetry and other creative art forms as a means of moving away from a life which was close to death. Encapsulating this is his belief in the importance of the oral tradition, which “gives voice to those who would’ve otherwise been voiceless”.
With a career that has spanned many aspects of the arts and creative industries, it is a pleasure for us to be able to welcome Benjamin to Norwich University of the Arts, to share his thoughts and experiences with staff and students.
Students and staff can borrow Benjamin Zephaniah’s autobiography from the university library: The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah
This talk wasn’t recorded, however you can view many of his videos on his official YouTube channel: