Exploring the past, present and future of art on television

The way art is presented on television will be debated at an event in York to mark 40 years since the first broadcast of a landmark documentary series

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Broadcast in 1969, Civilisation, presented by Kenneth Clark, was the first documentary in colour shown on UK television and proved to be hugely popular. Its format of a single presenter travelling to different locations to illustrate their points became a template for documentary makers.

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Presenters, producers, art gallery curators and academics will gather in York later this month to discuss how television’s coverage of art has evolved over the last four decades and consider how the commissioning of art programming will develop in the future.

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The event, After ‘Civilisation’: The Past, Present and Future of Art on TV, is organised by the University of York’s Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past (IPUP).

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This is a great opportunity for arts policy makers, academics and programme-makers to offer their different perspectives on television’s relationship with art

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Professor Helen Weinstein

Professor Helen Weinstein, Director of IPUP, said: “This is a great opportunity for arts policy makers, academics and programme-makers to offer their different perspectives on television’s relationship with art in a rapidly changing media landscape.

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“It is particularly timely in the light of the recent decision to bring the South Bank Show, ITV’s flagship arts programme, to an end next year which raises fundamental questions about the future of art on mainstream television.”

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The speakers will include Dr Nigel Spivey, who presented the series How Art Made The World, and Matthew Collings, presenter of This is Civilisation. There will also be contributions from Jan Younghusband, head of arts and music at Channel 4 and Clare Bevan, producer of Simon Schama’s Power of Art series.

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After ‘Civilisation’ has been organised with the support of the Department of History of Art, the York Museums Trust and The Linbury Trust. It will be held at The Hospitium on Wednesday 27 May.

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It is a free event and designed so that participants can pop in and out during their working day.

Tags: Art Professor, Art Programming, Art Series, Clare Bevan, Departme, Different Perspectives, Documentary Makers, Documentary Series, Dr Nigel, Fundamental Questions, Kenneth Clark, Landmark Documentary, Last Four Decades, Mainstream Television, Matthew Collings, Media Landscape, Nigel Spivey, Simon Schama, Uk Television, Younghusband

This entry was posted on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 22:00 and is filed under Art Room, TV and Film . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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