About the event
Before the discussion, you can join a guided tour of the Gallery’s current exhibition and James Gibbs’ spectacular Octagon Room. Tours start at 5:30 and 6:00 pm. The digital reconstruction of Pope’s Garden will be available for visitors to try from 5:30 pm when fizz and soft drinks will be available.
The panel discussion will start at 6:45 pm with a short welcome from Tim Corum followed by an introduction to the speakers by Professor Judith Hawley.
The first speaker will be Ricky Pound who will show how digital technology has brought a lost cultural treasure, Alexander Pope’s garden, back to life. He will demonstrate Professor Paul Richens’ digital reconstruction of ‘A Virtual Arcadia’ by navigating around the five-acre garden, highlighting how Pope organised areas of the landscape to be both pleasurable and sustainable. This important garden disappeared to building developments in the 19th century. Advances in digital and gaming technologies have succeeded in reanimating this lost garden, allowing a new audience to experience this space as never before and enabling us to appreciate Pope’s vision for a garden to function as a place of sanctuary, but also of entertainment, contemplation, history and poetry. The model will be available before the discussion for visitors to take the controller and have a go!
Katie Hinchliffe will talk about re-Interpreting 400 Years of History at Boston Manor. After a six-year renovation project, Boston Manor House reopened to the public in the summer of 2023. But how did the team cover the varied history of the house, spanning four centuries of stories and styles? Hear about their eclectic take on interpretation, and uncovering some of the house’s key moments shared with visitors in their wayfinding.
Richard Parry will discuss the current exhibition at Pitzhanger Manor, Alison Watt: From Light, in which the celebrated contemporary portrait and still life painter responds to Soane’s historic house and the architect’s collection and interests.
Andy Franzkowiak will discuss the Cultural Reforesting project at Orleans House Gallery. He will explain how contemporary artists have been invited to respond to the current environmental crisis in relation to the house and grounds of the Gallery and stress the role art can have in local place-making and community building.
Tickets cost £15 which includes your guided tour of Orleans House Gallery before the event.
About the speakers
Tim Corum has worked in the arts for over 30 years, principally in museums and galleries, developing museum exhibitions and festivals at Oldham, Leeds, Bristol, the Horniman in London, and now with Richmond Arts Service.
Judith Hawley is Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature in the Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London and frequently appears on BBC radio and TV. She is a Trustee of the Pope’s Grotto Preservation Trust. Her research interests range from gin to Grub Street, and she has a particular interest in the history of the amateur performance.
Ricky Pound is Manager of the Twickenham Museum and a Trustee of London Luminaries. He has managed several other Luminaries partners, including Chiswick House and Marble Hill House and Gardens, and was also Director of JMW Turner’s suburban villa in Twickenham.
Katie Hinchliffe is the Senior Visitor Experience Officer for the London Borough of Hounslow’s Historic Houses: Hogarth’s House and Boston Manor House. Coming from a background in visitor engagement and learning, Katie works across both sites in the public-facing team. She is also a freelance lecturer in social history, and specialises in historical music performance and the fashions of the late 19th century. Katie has recently become the Honorary Secretary of the Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society.
Richard Parry is Head of public Programmes at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, architect Sir John Soane’s ‘country’ house in Ealing, West London and its adjacent contemporary gallery. He was previously Creative Director at St James’s Church Piccadilly. Between 2017 and 2021 Parry was Director of Glasgow International, Scotland’s biennial festival of contemporary art. Prior to this he was Curator of the Grundy Art Gallery Blackpool and Assistant Curator at the Hayward Gallery
Andy Franzkowiak is Programmer of Exhibitions and Collections at Orleans House Gallery. He is custodian of the Cultural Reforesting project, which began in 2020 and spans the decade. Andy has led interdisciplinary programmes across the UK for over15 years and has worked as creative producer across a range of art forms with notable organisations such as Punchdrunk, Kew Gardens, Somerset House and King’s College London.
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