Material Legacies of Empire

Legacies of slavery and empire are a critical current topic, and many museums and heritage organisations are actively engaging with this aspect of their history and collections, through research, interpretation and community engagement. This course will focus on the material legacy of Empire and colonialism through paintings, decorative arts and the built environment and how this can be communicated to diverse audiences. Looking closely at objects, materials and styles, we will explore how imported goods such as chintzes from the Indian subcontinent, and new goods such as tea wares from East Asia were adopted by ordinary people, as well looking at the development of elite taste. We will also consider how Europeans whose fortunes were made in the colonies used the decorative arts to proclaim their status and secure their reputation in their home countries.

A session dedicated to academic partnership will cover the different ways in which small heritage organisations can leverage academic research support and develop partnerships with the academic sector. Other presentations will showcase best practice in community engagement through the National Trust’s ‘Colonial Countryside’ project and the re-presentation and interpretation of the Clive collection of Indian artefacts at Powis Castle.

The course will include visits to the Ashmolean and Pitt Rivers museums, to view the latest curatorial practice in reinterpreting historic collections and Imperial legacies.

The final day will conclude with a workshop during which participants will be encouraged to explore how they might apply what they have learned within their own organisations.

Programme details

Day 1

9.30 am               Welcome

9.45 am               Lecture and discussion. Introduction to the course: history, trade networks, themes.

11.00 am             Coffee/tea

11.30 am             Lecture. Representing Empire: paintings, buildings and interiors.

1.00 pm               Lunch

2.00 pm               Lecture and discussion. Academic Partnerships. (Dr Rachel Delman and Alice Purkiss, Heritage Partnerships, TORCH)

3.15 pm               Coffee/tea

3.45 pm               Lecture. Community partnerships: case study of Colonial Countryside Youth-led engagement programme. (Dr Corinne Fowler, University of Leicester)

4.30 pm               Final discussion and questions

4.45 pm               Course concludes

Day 2

9.30 am              Welcome

9.45 am              Lecture. The material legacies of the Atlantic trade.

11.00 am            Coffee/tea

11.30 am            Lecture. Case studies of UK and international interpretation and interventions

1.00 pm              Lunch

2.00 pm              Visits to Pitt Rivers Museum.

4.45 pm              Course concludes

Day 3

9.30 am               Welcome

9.45 am               Lecture. The material legacy of the British Empire in India            

11.00 am             Coffee/tea

11.30 am             Lecture. The Clive collection at Powis Castle. (Dr Kieran Hazzard, University of Oxford)               

1.00 pm               Lunch

2.00 pm               Visit the Ashmolean to view ‘A Nice Cup of Tea’ and East/West Gallery.

3.00 pm               Coffee/tea

3.30 pm               Workshop: participants brainstorm research, interpretation and interventions that might be applied within their own organisations

4.30 pm               Final discussion and questions

4.45 pm               Course concludes

Fees

Payment

Payment of fees must be made in full at the time of booking.

Please note that businesses and organisations can be invoiced on provision of a Purchase Order and completed application form. These can be emailed to the CWHE Programme Administrator, email: cwhe@conted.ox.ac.uk

Tutors

Dr Amy Lim

Course Co- Director

Dr Amy Lim is curator of the Faringdon Collection at Buscot Park, a family-run country house in Oxfordshire. She has contributed to major exhibitions at Tate Britain (British Baroque, 2020, and Women Artists in Britain, forthcoming in 2024), and was lead curator of Mind and Mortality: Stanley Spencer’s final portraits (Stanley Spencer Gallery, 2021) and Most Loved Works in the Stanley Spencer Gallery (2022). She was a founder and convenor of the IHR International Partnership Seminar series, ‘The World in a Historic House’. Amy has published and lectured widely on the fine and decorative arts in Britain, and in 2022 she completed a DPhil at the University of Oxford on aristocratic art patronage in late Stuart England.

Ms Elisabeth Grass

Course Co-Director

Elisabeth Grass is an antiquarian book dealer and academic researcher in the field of colonialism and the country house. She was a historical advisor on the Nice Cup of Tea project and the Colonial Countryside initiative, she held a Fell funded internship at the Ashmolean Museum researching the imperial connections of Francis Chantrey’s sitters, was the author of the colonialism and the country house MOOC (offered by FutureLearn and the University of Leicester), and is currently project liaison for a study of Cheltenham’s links to the British East India Company. She was also a founder and convenor of the IHR International Partnership Seminar series, ‘The World in a Historic House’. Elisabeth has published and lectured on the intersection between the country house and the imperial world, and is working towards a doctorate on this topic, looking at the country houses owned by slaveholders in Britain in the long eighteenth century.

Application

Please use the 'Book' or 'Apply' button on this page. Alternatively, please contact us to obtain an application form.

Accommodation

Accommodation is available for this course at Rewley House.

Please enquire at the time of booking for availability and prices with Continuing Education Residential Centre res-ctr@conted.ox.ac.uk, please do quote the course name as a reference at the time of booking. 

All bedrooms are modern, comfortably furnished and each room has tea and coffee making facilities, Freeview television, and Free WiFi and private bath or shower rooms.

Heritage Partnerships