The 2019 Barber Institute exhibition ‘The Paper Museum’, curated by students on our MA Art History and Curating programme, has been shortlisted for the UK Museum and Heritage Award for Best Partnership of the year.
The exhibition celebrated the work of 17th century-brothers Cassiano dal Pozzo and Carlo Antonio, who embarked upon an epic attempt to document and record the major fields of knowledge of their day. Their collection represents one of the most significant attempts before the age of photography to embrace human knowledge in visual form.
The exhibition included more than 40 objects, including 17 ‘Paper Museum’ works lent by Her Majesty The Queen from the Royal Collection, some of which have never been publicly displayed before. It received excellent press coverage, including a 5 star review from Jonathan Jones in The Guardian.
The nomination for this award recognises the partnership between the University of Birmingham, the Barber Institute and the Royal Collections. The awards ceremony will be online on 22 September when they will announce the winners.
This year, our MA Art History and Curating students have helped curate the Barber Institute’s online Sights of Wonder exhibition, which features pioneering photographer Francis Bedford’s images from the 1862 royal tour of Egypt, the Holy Land and Greece.
Interested in following in the footsteps of our MA Art History and Curating students? Read our five reasons to study for a Masters in History of Art.