Art residencies
Artists are placed alongside archaeological sites and collections so that site-based research can feed directly into the studio and the finished work.
Projects
Projects
Art+Archaeology develops projects that bring artists and archaeologists together, from residencies on excavation sites to exhibitions, lectures and workshops that research the connections between artistic and archaeological practice.
Approach
How the projects work
Exhibitions
Research is presented publicly in gallery settings, including Touchstone at Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum and Stonehenge Riverside: The Ventral Surface at The Oliver Holt Gallery.
Lectures, seminars and workshops
Events bring practitioners together to question shared methods, including the Test Pit seminar and the Earthscapes: Geology + Geography seminar.
Selected work
Project highlights
Stonehenge Riverside
Collaborations with the Stonehenge Riverside Project led to The Ventral Surface, shown at The Oliver Holt Gallery, Sherborne, from 12th September to 13th October 2009.
Interferences and Shovel Down
Interferences exhibitions were held in 2006 at High Moorland Visitor Centre and offiCina, Beijing, China, alongside a Shovel Down National Archaeology Week event in 2005 and excavation reports.
Record
Project record
| Project | Year | Where | Form |
|---|---|---|---|
| Touchstone | 2010 | Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum | Exhibition, 2nd April – 26th June 2010 |
| Stonehenge Riverside: The Ventral Surface | 2009 | The Oliver Holt Gallery, Sherborne | Exhibition, 12th September – 13th October 2009 |
| Earthscapes: Geology + Geography Seminar | 2010 | Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Honiton | Seminar, Monday 7th June 2010 |
| Some Time Now – Brian Fay | 2007 | Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Co Meath, Ireland | Exhibition, Wednesday 17 October 2007 |
| Interferences | 2006 | High Moorland Visitor Centre; offiCina, Beijing, China | Exhibitions |
| Shovel Down | 2005 | Shovel Down | National Archaeology Week event and excavation reports |
Test Pit seminar – Birmingham City University
Drawing Time – British Archaeology, issue 101, 2008
Art+Archaeology organises projects that place artistic and archaeological practice in sustained conversation. Rather than treating the two fields as separate disciplines, the programme builds shared working environments in which research begun on an excavation site can continue inside a studio, and studio ideas can be tested against the physical evidence of a place. Residencies, exhibitions, lectures, workshops and public events all contribute to this exchange, each one a different setting in which the connections between making and digging can be examined and shared with wider audiences.
Residencies form the foundation of the programme. Artists are embedded alongside archaeological sites and collections, gaining direct access to material remains, landscapes and curatorial expertise. This proximity allows site-based observation to feed into the finished work, and encourages artists to work with the slow, accumulative logic of excavation rather than against it. In return, archaeological questions gain fresh critical attention, and the resulting works carry the texture and constraint of their origins in the ground.
Exhibitions present the outcomes of this research in public gallery settings, where the links between artistic and archaeological practice become visible to visitors. Displaying work alongside related material culture allows the relationship to be explored physically, through juxtaposition and sequence. Lectures and workshops extend the conversation further, giving contributors room to describe methods and motivations in detail, and giving audiences a chance to ask questions of the people behind the work.
A themed approach underpins the project programme, connecting residencies, exhibitions, events and publications into a coherent line of enquiry. The theme acts as a shared brief for artists, archaeologists and curators, focusing attention on particular landscapes, collections or historical periods while leaving room for interpretation and disagreement. Publications gather contributions together, ensuring that the research produced during residencies and exhibitions remains available to scholars and interested readers beyond the walls of any single venue.
Public engagement sits at the heart of this activity. Many of the sites and collections involved are open to visitors, and events are scheduled so that local communities, students and specialists can take part. By moving work out of closed research settings and into gardens, priories, museums and other public places, the programme invites audiences to encounter archaeological thinking as a living, collaborative process. The aim throughout is to strengthen connections between artistic and archaeological practice, and to make those connections durable, contested and shared.
Work with us on a project
Art+Archaeology organises art residencies, exhibitions, lectures, workshops and events. To discuss a collaboration or to join a mailing list, contact the project coordinators.