Monday 27th April
Loot! A guided walk presented in conjunction with PLATFORM
Venue: Starting at Fenchurch Street Station - Further details given with booking confirmation
Time: 11.30-1.30
Loot! A walk around the East India Company, the world's first transnational corporation, with interdisciplinary group PLATFORM (www.platformlondon.org)
What can we learn about contemporary trade, human rights, and justice from the odyssey of the East India Company? Why is there almost no trace of this behemoth? Investigation, discussion, and tracking with Jane Trowell, starting at Fenchurch Street and ending at Bank.
Organised by The City Centre at QMUL. Numbers limited to 20, advance booking essential
Does Culture Matter?
Venue: Skeel Lecture Theatre, People's Palace Projects [map]
Time: 1.30 pm
Against a backdrop of radical shake-ups to cultural funding and support, and an international financial crisis, in which cultural services are vulnerable to reductions in public spending, our panel asks how culture is valued and what it can contribute. Speakers are drawn from a range of influential thinkers and practitioners from the sector, chaired by Paul Heritage, Professor of Drama and Performance, Queen Mary, University of London, and Artistic Director, People's Palace Projects. Speakers include:
- Keith Khan - Head of Culture London 2012, award-winning artist, and co-founder of motiroti.
- Stefano Harney - Reader in Strategy and Director of Global Learning, School of Business and Management, Queen Mary, University of London
- Stella Hall, Creative Director of the Culture 10 Programme in Newcastle Gateshead and chair of many major committees for the Arts Council and Regional Arts Boards.
Useful Discomfort: Direct Action, Art, and the Urgency of Slowness
Venue: GO Jones Building, Room 602 [map]
Time:
3.45pm
Useful Discomfort: Direct Action, Art, and the Urgency of Slowness. Presentation and discussion with interdisciplinary group PLATFORM (www.platformlondon.org), whose work over twenty-five years has moved between the street, the office, the river, the fence, the field, cyberspace, and the art space. What does it mean to keep creating work that demands social change and environmental justice in a world where it is all too easy to be driven by emergency? Discussants include David Pinder, Department of Geography, Jen Harvie, Department of Drama and Sophie Hope, B+B Curators. Organised by The City Centre at QMUL.
Encounters - Mike Leigh
Venue: Skeel Lecture Theatre [map]
Time: 6.30pm
This event will provide a unique opportunity for Queen Mary's growing population of film and drama students, as well as staff and visitors, to see one of the UK 's leading artistic directors discussing their work.
Mike Leigh is one of Britain's most important directors and writers in theatre, television and film. He is now best known for his work in cinema, including 1993's Naked, 1996's Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake of 2004 and 2008's Happy-Go-Lucky. But his film work came of age in BBC television's 'Play for Today' strand, most famoulsy with Nuts in May in 1986 and Abigail's Party in 1977. His roots are in the theatre: in the 1960s he worked in theatre for young people in Birmingham and as an assistant director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Whatever his media, though, Leigh's trademarks persist: the actor-led method of devising scripts, the close social observation, the honesty and the humour.
This lecture will be introduced by Sue Harris, Head of Film Studies, Queen Mary, University of London
This event is now fully booked. Spaces MAY be available on the night and these will be allocated on a first come first served basis once those with tickets have taken their seats.
This event is now fully booked