Innovative Patronage in the Arts. The Dura Society
Innovative Patronage in the Arts. The Dura Society. Join us for an engaging evening of discussion and connection as we will explore innovative and sophisticated approaches to patronage, alongside the role of women in the arts.
Panellists:
Chila Kumari Singh Burman - feminist practice examines representation, gender, and cultural identity. Challenging stereotypical assumptions of South Asian women in the UK, she works across a wide range of mediums including printmaking, drawing, painting, installation and film. A key figure in the British Black Arts movement in the 1980s, Burman often uses self-portraiture as a tool of empowerment and self-determination. She was selected as the fourth artist to complete the Tate Britain Winter Commission in 2020, and has since gone on to complete a number of high profile commissions at FACT, Liverpool; Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool; Liverpool Town Hall, Liverpool and Covent Garden’s historic market stall building, London. In 2017, she was awarded her Honorary Doctorate and Honorary Fellowship from the University of Arts in London, and in 2022 she was awarded an MBE for her services to the arts. Burman has exhibited both nationally and internationally. While her works are held in a number of notable public collections.
Kate Gordon - Kate Gordon is the founder and CEO of London Art Studies, the online arts education platform. Having produced arts programming for Carlton TV and CNN, Kate founded London Art Studies in 2011 and moved the business online in 2018. LAS has won many awards including: The Good Web Guide’s “Excellence in Education” and the world’s best online art experience in The Webby’s (People’s Voice Award). The new website for young people (7-18+) “the Academy” was nominated for a Webby in 2022. Educated at St Paul’s Girls' School, Amherst College USA and University of Moscow, Kate co-founded the Association of Women in the Arts (AWITA) in 2016. She was also a columnist on London’s Evening Standard newspaper 2016-2020. She chaired the fundraising group ‘Foreign Sisters’ in 2017/2018, and remains a Senior Arts Advisor to Cancer Research UK. Kate sits on a number of advisory boards including Art History Link-Up, LAPADA and Chelsea & Westminster Hospital’s Art and Design Advisory Group. She is a Trustee of The Art Academy, London and was a member of the Tate Patrons Executive Committee (2014-2018). In 2020 Kate became Chair of Serpentine Patrons. She is a speaker/moderator for panels including Masterpiece and most recently, in November 2022, lectured at Sotheby’s Institute of Art and the University of Cambridge. She is also a member of AIVA.
Anna Dempster - Anna M Dempster is a Fellow at Wolfson College. Her career spans both leading academic and cultural institutions, where her research interests in risk and uncertainty, trust and transparency and the creative process have been tried and tested in both theory and in practice. She was previously Head of Academic Programmes at the Royal Academy of Arts, London where she developed and led a new and innovative portfolio of educational programmes, in subjects ranging from art practice (traditional and digital media), cultural and art history, as well as art business and management - with a sustained focus on the role of artists. She was responsible for a range of national and international partnerships including with leading museums, galleries and universities enabling institutional, academic and scholarly engagement, commercial enterprise as well as research Anna holds a BA / MA Hons and MPhil degrees in History from the University of Cambridge – with a specialisation in Cultural History – and a PhD in Management Studies, specialising in Strategy, from the Cambridge Judge Business School.
