Midlands Art Papers 5 (2022)
Midlands Art Papers is a collaborative online journal, working between the University of Birmingham and 13 partner institutions to research and explore the world class works of art and design in public collections across the Midlands.
Editorial: Art, Empire and the Commonwealth Games
To mark the arrival of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, this special issue of Midlands Art Papers explores the connections between art, manufacture and empire in collections across the region.
Kate Nichols editorial
South Asian pottery and Kipling connections
Curator of Arts Samantha Howard explores connections between the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery’s collection of South Asian pottery, India and Stoke-on-Trent through these objects' association with the art school administrator John Lockwood Kipling.
Samantha Howard article
Enter two zoos
Storyteller Alison Solomon responds to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts exhibition Miss Clara and the Celebrity Beast in Art, 1500-1860 (November 2021 to February 2022), drawing connections between colonialism and the exhibition of people and animals.
Alison Solomon article
Art and the Commonwealth Games at Wolverhampton Art Gallery
For our special issue, Maddy Clark has created a Midlands Art Trail of works held at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, themed around the Commonwealth Games. This trail will take you on a journey exploring connections between art, imperialism and its legacies, and sporting cultures.
Trail
In conversation: Tara Munroe on the lost Leicester Casta paintings
In 2009, Tara Munroe – curator and creative director of Opal 22 Arts and Edutainment – found five remarkable paintings in the store rooms at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery. MAP special issue editor Kate Nichols spoke to Tara earlier in 2022 to find out more about these images and their connection to society today, how they ended up in the Midlands, and how Tara plans to curate them.
Tara Munroe article
The Nyasa Bicycle: a history of technology and Empire
Object in focus
Historian Nathan Cardon traces the histories and legacies of technology and empire through a wooden bicycle from Malawi at Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum.
Nathan Cardon article