'Questions of Collecting' talks resume...and a request for docents!

Good to see such a lively blog for the students in Art Gallery and Museum Studies! Of course, I've been impressed with the engagement of the students and staff on this course for some time.

Our jointly-organised series of talks 'Questions of Collecting' shows this well. After a hiatus over the winter holidays, we're picking up where we left off: Helen Rees Leahy (Director of the Centre for Museology at the University of Manchester) will be giving her talk '"All the Finest": Furnishing the Frick, 1914-15' at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery tomorrow evening, from 6pm. Next month, we welcome our very own Mark Westgarth to the stage! He'll be giving a talk entitled '"A contest between two pairs of eyes": dealers and collectors' on 24 March, from 6pm. The Gallery will remain open until 8pm after the talks, so it's also a great opportunity to see the collection and exhibition of new work by Trevor Bell after hours. I hope to see many of you tomorrow at the Gallery.

Finally, I'd like to drop in a request to any students wishing to get involved in the Gallery as student docents. This would involve researching and delivering short (1/2 hour) gallery talks to our visitors on a Wednesday lunch hour. We currently offer free lunchtime talks on the current exhibition, most Wednesdays from 1-1:30, but we'd like to offer talks on works in the collection as well. If you'd be interested in developing your research and public speaking skills by delivering one of these talks, please feel free to email me directly to express your interest: l.bloom@leeds.ac.uk.