This is a past event
Part of the University of Aberdeen King's Museum Lectures. All welcome
Dr Sally Foster, University of Aberdeen
Circulating agency: the V&A, Aberdeen Art Gallery and the multiplication of ‘Celtic Crosses’ in Scotland, 1901-1911
New Kings NK10, University of Aberdeen
19:30 hrs
With the V&A at Dundee planning to open in 2015, it is timely to reflect on its role in Scotland around 100 years ago. The sudden and short-lived creation of substantial collections of plaster casts of Scottish ‘Celtic Crosses’ for the 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition, Dundee Free Library and Museum, and Aberdeen Art Gallery are important as snapshots in time of what people thought to be important. They also tell us about attitudes to the use of archaeological material culture, not least whether as archaeology or art, and evolving expressions of Scottish identity. This is a story of how metropolitan, South Kensington and provincial visions met and consciously, or unconciously, married. The key to this is new research in archives and collections which leads to an understanding the respective agency of the V&A’s Circulation Division and its travelling officers, and of local champions.