Drawing Diversity 2026-2028

The University of Reading Art Collection has appointed an artist whose work explores space travel and imagined futures as its new Artist in Residence.

The mission of Anurita Chandola FRAS will be to make the University’s historic drawings collection more accessible to underrepresented pupils at a local secondary school.

Anurita will spend three years working with pupils at Maiden Erlegh School in Reading, leading workshops that give students access to and taking inspiration from some of the hundreds of artworks in the collection, which includes original drawings by Rubens and Walter Sickert.

The residency, funded by a grant from the Group for Education in Museums (GEM) and the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars’ Enriching Lives programme, uses the theme of ‘drawing diversity’ to explore stories missing from the University’s Western drawings collection.