Courtesy the Master, Fellows, and Scholars of Downing College, Cambridge.
WE ARE HERE: WOMEN IN ART AT CAMBRIDGE COLLEGES
Please note: this event has been CANCELLED
Fri 6 March 2020 - Sun 24 May 2020
The Heong Gallery
In 1946, two paintings made their way into college art collections, causing bemusement and some outright hostility. The portrait of Lady Margaret Downing by Thomas Gainsborough and that of ballerina Lydia Lopokova by Duncan Grant were given to Downing College and King’s College respectively, two years before women won the right to receive degrees from the University of Cambridge and a full twenty-six years before hitherto all-male colleges began to accept women into their membership. Both women are part of college lore, Lady Downing as the doughty nemesis of the Trustees instructed to set up Downing College and Lopokova as an overlooked member of the Bloomsbury circle so enmeshed in King’s College’s recent history. They graced the walls of both colleges well before women won the right to enter the halls as full members.
College art collections are relatively unfamiliar to outsiders. They comprise a mixture of gifts and commissions, reflecting the patronage of founders and alumni as well as memorialising heads of house and fellows. Women’s colleges, despite the uphill struggle to attain parity, took care to look the part of a legitimate Cambridge college, providing the earliest images of female role models available to the women of the university. Today, over three decades after all colleges voted to accept women, the visual representation of women and the appearance of art by women have both proceeded apace, albeit unevenly in different colleges.
Forty years after Downing College accepted its first female undergraduates, 'We Are Here' tells the story of women in college art over the twentieth century, through works that help transform colleges into more inclusive spaces for women and interrogate what it is to be a woman at the University of Cambridge.
PARTICIPATING COLLEGES Churchill College • Darwin College • Downing College • Girton College • Jesus College • King’s College • Murray Edwards College • Newnham College
ARTISTS Cathy de Monchaux • Dame Elisabeth Frink RA • Thomas Gainsborough • Duncan Grant • Lady Christiana Herringham • Lubaina Himid RA • Claerwen James • Mary Kelly • Henry Lamb • Juliette Losq • Melanie Manchot • Louise Nevelson • Kate Nicholson • Winifred Nicholson • Yelena Popova • Gwen Raverat • Sophie Seita • Alison Wilding RA
Cost: FREE
Enquiries and booking
No need to book.
Enquiries: Dr Prerona Prasad Website Email: gallery@dow.cam.ac.uk Telephone: 01223334800
Timing
12:00pm-5:00pm Wednesday-Sunday every week from Friday 6 March 2020 until Sunday 24 May 2020
All times
Fri 6 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sat 7 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sun 8 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Wed 11 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Thu 12 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Fri 13 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sat 14 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sun 15 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Wed 18 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Thu 19 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Fri 20 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sat 21 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sun 22 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Wed 25 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Thu 26 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Fri 27 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sat 28 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sun 29 March 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Wed 1 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Thu 2 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Fri 3 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sat 4 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sun 5 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Wed 8 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Thu 9 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Fri 10 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sat 11 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sun 12 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Wed 15 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Thu 16 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Fri 17 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sat 18 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sun 19 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Wed 22 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Thu 23 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Fri 24 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sat 25 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sun 26 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Wed 29 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Thu 30 April 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Fri 1 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sat 2 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sun 3 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Wed 6 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Thu 7 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Fri 8 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sat 9 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sun 10 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Wed 13 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Thu 14 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Fri 15 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sat 16 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sun 17 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Wed 20 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Thu 21 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Fri 22 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sat 23 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |
Sun 24 May 2020 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM |