The Art Fund What's On

Art Happens is an events series organised by The Art Fund exploring contemporary art and related themes. It offers the opportunity to learn more about art in a relaxed, informal setting. Experts lead the discussions, which take place over a glass of wine.

In the past, we've invited a variety of artists, curators, musicians, journalists and architects to host events at distinctive venues across London, including Chinawhite, the Wellcome Trust and the T Bar.

To book for an event: Please call 08700 503 688. For general enquiries, contact the Events Department on 020 7225 4875.

If you would like to subscribe to our Art Happens e-newsletter, please send your details to arthappens@artfund.org.


Art & Medicine: Can Design Save your Life?

Achievements and innovation in design are changing, improving and challenging the worlds of medicine, health and well-being.  The debate will explore the ways in which the design and medical worlds intersect and ask whether design really can save your life?

Journalist, author, and curator Henrietta Thompson will chair the debate with panellists Ken Arnold, Head of Public Programmes for Wellcome Collection, who has commissioned displays from some of the best young British designers; Jim Dawton, Director of Pearson Matthews, known for the innovation and development of breakthrough healthcare products; rising star designer, Sally Halls; and Sunand Prasad, President of the Royal Institute of British Architects and Senior Partner at leading healthcare architecture firm, Penoyre & Prasad.

Wellcome Collection is one of the four shortlisted projects for The Art Fund Prize for Museums and Galleries 2008. There will be a chance to visit its three exhibition galleries, which explore the connections between medicine, life and art.

This event is being held in conjunction with Museum and Galleries Month, the UK-wide celebration of museums and galleries which takes place in May, and whose theme this year is 'Ideas and Innovation'.
 

Ken Arnold

 

Ken Arnold has worked in a variety of museums on both sides of the Atlantic. He joined the Wellcome Trust in 1992 after completing his Ph.D. on the history of museums. He now heads the Trust’s Public Programmes department, which runs a variety of events and exhibitions in Wellcome Collection, a new venue that explores the links between medicine, life and art, and has commissioned displays from the best young British designers for the windows of the Wellcome Trust's headquarters at 215 Euston Road. He regularly writes and lectures on museums and on contemporary relations between the arts and sciences. His has published much including Cabinets for the Curious (2006). He is married and lives in London with his wife and two sons.

Jim Dawton

Jim Dawton, Director of Pearson Matthews, known for their innovation and development of breakthrough healthcare products, from a portable, lightweight case for osteoporosis drug to smaller, faster, more accurate blood glucose meters to one-handed plaster applicators.

Sunand Prasad

 

Co-founder of Penoyre & Prasad in 1988, Sunand has played a central role in the design and delivery of the practice’s 300 plus projects.  He is closely involved in guiding the design philosophy of the practice and the design development of projects. His experience encompasses education, healthcare, housing, the arts, commercial development, sustainable design and masterplanning.  Sunand is currently President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), previously the Vice President for Policy and Strategy, chair of the Climate Change Board and founder of Constructive Change.  He is a trustee of Architects-for-Aid and a member of the Mayor of London’s 4th Plinth Commissioning Group.  

Sally Halls

 

Sally Halls developed an interest in medical design at the Royal College of Art, whilst working on her award winning graduation project which looked at how incubators could be humanised to allow more contact between mother and child. Sally now works at the Helen Hamlyn Centre where her portfolio includes product, service & communication design as well as the development of design strategy in the health sector. She was part of a team that redesigned the resus:station , a resuscitation trolley which went on to receive two Medical Futures Innovation Awards:  Best Medical Device, and Overall Winner in the Anaesthesia and Critical Care category. She has since worked with the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) to produce industry wide guidelines on the design of injectable medicines, and is currently improving the design of infusion devices.

Henrietta Thompson

 

Journalist, author, curator and editor Henrietta Thompson writes regularly about architecture, design and technology for Arena, Business Life, the Independent on Sunday, Monocle, Wallpaper*, the Guardian and the Architects Journal. Henrietta is author of Phone Book, the first book to be published internationally about mobile phone culture and design, and Simply Contemporary. As a curator, Henrietta¹s exhibitions include the annual 100% Norway, and Hearwear (V&A 2005) among others.  She is currently writing a series of books about new resourceful design with Thames & Hudson.

Doshi Levian, Stethoscope 2004Wellcome CollectionMuseums and Galleries Month 1-31 May 2008

 

Date: Thursday 29 May
Time: Drinks 6.30pm, Talk 7.00pm
Location: Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, NW1
Nearest tube: Euston Square
Tickets: £12, includes a glass of wine


Recent event highlights include:
 
  • White Cube’s Tim Marlow led a heated discussion of the proposition All Modern Art is Leftwing at the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, with Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry, Guardian writer Munira Mirza and controversial portraitist Jonathan Yeo.
  • Street Art vs. Fine Art: Time Out Art Editor Ossian Ward and Street Renegades author Francesca Gavin joined artists Pure Evil and Part2ism to discuss the changing nature of Street Art and its place within the contemporary fine art world.
  • London vs. The Suburbs: Acclaimed musician Billy Bragg, along with author Iain Sinclair, poet Tobias Hill, and artists Susanna Edwards and Richard Wentworth debated the relationship between London and suburbia at the Museum of London.
  • Martin Creed, Tom Service and Gillian Moore examined the cross-fertilisation of art and music in the unique surroundings of Chinawhite
  • Leading experts in interactive media Matt Adams, Ross Cooper, Lauren Parker and Stefano Roveda were Interrogating Interactive Art at the T Bar
  • A preview of the Wellcome Trust new public venue and a healthy discussion of The Art of Medicine, featuring Christine Borland, Siān Ede, Mark Lythgoe, and Guy Noble.
  • Behind the scenes Private View of Christie's Nordic Art & Design Sale, with insight from art experts Sophie Hawkins and Simon Andrews.