If you remember it... Symposium, 4 – 5 September 2010

Ikon hosts a major symposium organised in conjunction with the current exhibition This Could Happen To You: Ikon in the 1970s. This weekend is constructed around five sessions, located at various venues around the city. Attendees can book for all or a few of these. Places are free but must be reserved by calling Ikon on 0121 248 0708.

Saturday 4 September

1.30 – 3pm This could happen to you, Ikon Gallery

Round table discussion. Managing Ikon during 1970-78. The nature of Ikon’s artistic programme. Ikon in the context of the national art infrastructure.

Panellists: Simon Chapman (Director, Ikon 1972-77), Jeanette Koch (Gallery Manager/Deputy Director, Ikon 1970-75) and Richard Stokes (Gallery Assistant/Deputy Director, Ikon 1975-79). Chair: Jonathan Watkins (Director, Ikon).

3 – 3.30pm Break. Afternoon tea available from Café Ikon (delegates’ special offer)

3.30 – 5pm Left Shift, Ikon Gallery

Round table discussion. Radical politics in the 1970s. The influence of current affairs on art practice. Feminism, gay liberation, industrial unrest, Northern Ireland, Vietnam. New media and cross-disciplinary practice.

Panellists: Vaughan Grylls (artist), Alexis Hunter (artist) and David Medalla (artist). Chair: Peter Cross (freelance writer and curator, recent project Goodbye to London Radical Art and Politics in the Seventies, a cross-disciplinary project about art and politics in London 1971-79, Berlin 2010).

6.30 – 8pmWhen the Lights Went Out, Ikon Eastside

Keynote lecture: Andy Beckett (author, When the Lights Went Out, 2009). About the book: Over five years in the making it is written with the vividness of a novel or the best works of American New Journalism. No such treatment of the seventies has been previously attempted. When the Lights Went Out unearths the stories of the forgotten political actors away from Westminster who gave the decade so much of its volatility and excitement, from the Gay Liberation Front to the hippie anarchists of the free-festival movement.

Sunday 5 September

11am – 12.30pm , Ikon Gallery

Round table discussion. Painting and the Dematerialisation of the Art Object. The influence of the School of Art. Abstraction versus realism.

Panellists: Anthony Everitt (writer, arts administrator. Chair, Ikon’s Board of Management 1970s) and Richard Yeomans (artist). Chair: Nigel Prince (Curator, Ikon).

12.30 – 2.30pm Break. Lunch available from Café Ikon (delegates’ special offer)

2.30 – 4pm Art in a shopping centre, The Pallasades Shopping Centre

Round table discussion. Ikon and the Birmingham Shopping Centre. Art and architecture in Birmingham: A brave new world? Art and accessibility.

Panellists: Jesse Bruton (founder artist), Simon Chapman (Director, Ikon 1972-77), Ian Emes (artist), Terry Grimley (former arts editor, Birmingham Post ), Walter Thomson (architect. Chair, Ikon’s Board of Management 1970s). Chair: Jonathan Watkins (Director, Ikon).

4 – 4.30pm Refreshments provided at The Pallasades Shopping Centre

Venues

Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square, , Birmingham, B1 2HS

Ikon Eastside, 183 Fazeley Street, , Birmingham, B5 5SE

The Pallasades Shopping Centre, Unit 39-40 (next door to Peacocks), 68A East Mews, Birmingham, B2 4XJ