As part of our long-standing commitment to offering an interesting selection of public talks on site, in partnership with local cultural organisations, we were delighted to host the Norfolk Contemporary Arts Society (n-cas) on 25 January 2023 at Norwich School.

A packed audience in Blake Studio of pupils and parents, staff, alumni and n-cas members was enthralled to hear from the new director of the Sainsbury Centre, Dr Jago Cooper.

For more than twenty years, Jago has worked for museums and heritage organisations around the world, including a decade working for the British Museum. His books, publications and research have ranged broadly across universal questions and throughout his career he has worked hard to engage a broad public audience creating exhibitions, digital platforms and broadcast media. This has included writing and presenting more than a dozen documentaries for the BBC. Additionally, he is Professor of Art and Archaeology at the UEA. The Sainsbury Centre at the UEA is a genre-defying art museum with world-class collections, always intriguing, informing and inspiring new audiences.  We were indeed fortunate to be able to attract him on site and this offered a unique experience to hear directly from him.

With passion and great lucidity, he took the audience through his ambitious vision for the much-loved Sainsbury Centre. He made reference to just how radial the building and the concept of displaying its collections were when it welcomed its first visitors in the 1970s. His view is that Norwich is both lucky and proud to have this amazing space and such important art right on our doorstep. Jago then shared his vision of how the museum will go to ever greater lengths to attract visitors and give them a memorable, immersive and exciting artistic experience in new and challenging ways. His ambitious plans are taking shape now and the wide-ranging Q&A afterwards demonstrated how captivated the audience had been with Jago’s enthusiasm and intent. Over refreshments many pledged to re-visit the Sainsbury Centre to spend time immersing themselves in the fabulous collections there.

The next public lecture on site is certain to be a popular one. It is being held on Monday 20 February in the Blake Studio where we will host the Norfolk Contemporary Arts Society again for an audience with Maggie Hambling CBE, the creator of the spectacular Scallop sculpture at Aldeburgh. See:  Maggi Hambling CBE In Conversation — ncas (n-cas.org.uk)

Immediately after that, we are very much looking forward to the Royal Geographical Society being on site again in the Blake Studio on Tuesday 21 February to hear a very topical lecture about threatened and extinct species and the drivers of biodiversity loss. See: Royal Geographical Society - Extinction: Our fragile relationship with life on Earth - Marc Schlossmann

For any further queries or to be placed on our cultural events mailing list, please contact Development Director, Jonathan Pearson (jpearson@norwich-school.org.uk).