Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

The Edward James Archive is an outstanding resource available to staff and students at West Dean College, England. Containing the correspondence and personal collection of College founder and arts patron, Edward James (1907-1984), the archive features cultural figures such as Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Leonora Carrington, Aldous Huxley, and Kurt Weill, amongst others. Student’s are asked to interpret the material, use it as a point of departure, to be fanciful - to be ambitious. The works created form a public exhibition that invites the audience to encounter the archives through the mediation of the artwork - offering new possibilities to the artist and viewer alike. The methodology and rationale of this project will be discussed in this paper. Hughes will introduce the archive project as an expanded way of learning - as a resource that enables the student to explore the boundaries of practice-led research and create new work that supports an embedded approach to art history.