Pudding Seminar: Laura Dennis (Newnham Curator), ‘Curating the Art Collections at Newnham’

Newnham’s art collections began in the earliest days of the College. The collection continues to grow through gifts and bequests, as well as commissions and acquisitions. Art can be seen throughout the College including College Hall, meeting rooms, the Buttery and Iris Cafe, and along Newnham’s famous corridors. Additionally, some sculpture is placed outdoors. The cases in the Entrance Hall and Supervision Room Corridor also show changing displays from the collection.

In this Pudding Seminar, Newnham’s Curator Laura Dennis will introduce the College’s art collections and her work with the Valuable Possessions Committee.  The Seminar will focus on some of the highlights of the collection and will reveal the behind-the-scenes work that goes into the care and display of art in College.

Laura Dennis joined Newnham as Curator in 2018 having previously worked in galleries and museums. The exhibitions she curated explored diverse subjects such as Edwardian radicals and the Garden City movement, the abstract painter Richard Smith, and animals in craft in an exhibition aimed for children. Prior to this she worked for ten years curating contemporary art commissions for architecture and public spaces, including St John’s College Oxford, the London Olympic Park, Guy’s Hospital, the Crown Estate, and Transport for London. Laura studied History of Art & Architecture (BA) at the University of Bristol, and Curation (MA) in her hometown at Norwich University of the Arts. Laura’s MA exhibition Afteryears was drawn from the Arts Council Collection and considered the British art scene in the ‘Age of Austerity’ that followed WW2.

All staff, students, senior members and alumnae are warmly invited to attend the Newnham Pudding Seminars. For more details please visit https://newn.cam.ac.uk/research/pudding-seminars/ or email Jessie Sklair (js222@cam.ac.uk) or Hana D’Souza (hd425@cam.ac.uk)