News and Views

Right hand with fingers extended and finger tips placed on a surface, the little finger raised. The drawing finishes at the wrist.
Published Date
November 23, 2022

Top Five Fears: The Darker Side of the Collection

This blog is an adaptation of our Museum Studies placement student, Shona Amer’s recent Twitter thread, where she delved into…

Self portrait of Frances Turner featuring the head of a blonde Turner looking straight at the viewer on a black background.
Published Date
March 29, 2022

Women by Women

For International Women’s Month, Georgie Hollands-Gray, a second year Museum Studies student on placement with the University Art Collection, highlights…

Bust-length portrait of a woman, head turned to the right
Published Date
March 14, 2022

Portraiture and the Art Collection

Cerys Cartwright, a third-year art student on placement with the University Art Collection explores portraiture in the University Art Collection….

Global climate stripes. Vertical stripes in various shades of blue, peach and red with each stripe representing a year from 1850 to 2020. Blue stripes indicate colder years and red stripes indicate warmer years. The right side of the artwork (towards the present day) is predominantly red.
Published Date
December 20, 2021

Show Your Stripes: the Artwork that made Climate Change data go viral

Written by Naomi Lebens, Art Historian and Curator at the University of Reading Art Collection. This blog was originally published…

Closeup of L.1 (Mirage) by John Golding. Abstract painting in shades of yellow and blue.
Published Date
September 10, 2021

Curating during Covid-19: A volunteer art student’s experience curating accessible art

Laura Rozamunda Allsopp-Huddle shares her experience volunteering with the University Art Collection during COVID-19. Earlier this year, from January to…

Closeup of an illustration from the Ladybird Book 'The Enormous Turnip'. There are four figures, a man with grey hair and a brown hat, a woman with grey hair and a yellow headscarf, a boy with a red hat and blue top, and a girl with two long dark plaits. All the figures are looking down towards the bottom left corner
Published Date
September 7, 2021

Going Global: A Student Exhibition

Our outgoing placement student, Laura May Bailey, describes her experience at the Art Collection, and curation of a new Ladybird…

Hyper-realistic painting of an explosion with debris
Published Date
August 26, 2021

Elemental: Realism in the Art Collections

Museum Studies Placement Student, Laura May Bailey, explores Realism in the Art Collection, comparing the work of Walter Richard Sickert…

Rubens to Sickert: The Study of Drawing. Featuring the top half of a cartoon of J.A. Betts with a raised hand.
Published Date
May 21, 2021

Introducing Rubens to Sickert: The Study of Drawing

Originally published by Reading Museum on 14 April 2021. The newest exhibition to arrive at Reading Museum, in partnership with…

Closeup of three figures. The central figure appears to be nude and the two other figures are dancers. The face of the figure on the right is abstracted.
Published Date
February 24, 2021

Art, Artists and Mental Health

3rd Year Museum Studies Student and volunteer, Freya, has been investigating the University Art Collection for links between art and…