From the alternative urbanism of Street farmers to the campaign for Covent Garden, the AA has a long history of anti-establishment cultural activity. This panel will discuss the meaning and influence of protest objects within a wider cultural framework, bringing the discussion up to what it means to collect today.
Corinna Gardner is Senior Curator of Design and Digital at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Corinna leads the V&A’s Rapid Response Collecting programme and her research focuses on product and digital design and the role they play in society today.
Eszter Steierhoffer is Senior Curator at the Design Museum in London and curator of the current Home Futures exhibition. Previously she worked as curator of Contemporary Architecture at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. Her research interest is the history of display strategies and exhibitions of architecture. She has organised a number of exhibitions with architectural foci, including Imagine Moscow (2017); Corner, Block, Neighbourhood, Cities (2015); Zoo-topia (2012); and Anatomy of a Street (2010).
Nayia Yiakoumaki is Curator and Head of Curatorial studies at Whitechapel Gallery UK, where she developed an innovative programme of research exhibitions. She annually devises the NEON Curatorial Exchange & Award, an initiative which fosters professional relationships for emerging curators, founded by NEON organization and delivered by the Whitechapel Gallery. Nayia co-directed the Athens Biennale organisation 2016 – 2017 as Director of Research and International Networks.
Thomas Hockenhull's curatorial responsibility is for the modern money collection at the British Museum, numbering more than 150,000 objects including coins, banknotes, tickets, passes, badges and credit cards. He is also co-curator of the special exhibition, I Object: Ian Hislop's search for dissent.
Image: Architects Revolutionary Council Recruitment Poster, c1975. AA Archives