Curators, campaigners and designers explore the significance of the poster to the past, current and future British political debate
10 October 2014
People's History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester M3 3ER
Time 09:30 - 17:15
Duration 7 hours 45 minutes
Cost £25 / £15 concessions
Posters have been used in every general election of the 20th century. In the run up to the general election 2015, curators, campaigners and designers will explore the significance of the poster to the past, current and future British political debate.
Topics will include the history of posters, design as activism, the management and manipulation of billboards, subversions and internet spoofs and the influence of new media on how political posters are conceived and deployed.
Confirmed speakers include Jeremy Sinclair, founder of Saatchi & Saatchi and creator of many of the Conservative Party’s most famous adverts, and Peter Kennard, Senior Research Reader in Photography, Art and the Public Domain at the Royal College of Art, best known for the images he created for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the 1970s-80s.
Come and debate posters at the People’s History Museum (PHM), organised in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum (V & A) and Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU).
Suitable for adults and young people
9.30am – 10.00am
Registration with tea and coffee
10.00am – 10.05am
Welcome and introduction
Louise Sutherland (PHM) and Margaret Timmers (V & A)
10.05am – 10.30am
An Overview of the British Political Poster
James Thompson (Senior Lecturer in Modern History, University of Bristol)
10.30am – 11.45am
Posters and the archive: The political meaning of poster collections
Chris Burgess (Curator, PHM), Monica Cash (Deputy Librarian, Linen Hall Library, Belfast) and Cathy Ross (Honorary Research Fellow, Museum of London). Discussion Chair: Catherine Flood (Curator Prints, V & A)
12.00pm – 1.00pm
Organising Election Campaigns
Conservative Party Campaigns: Jeremy Sinclair (Chairman at M&C Saatchi. Jeremy Sinclair was one of the founders of Saatchi & Saatchi who has regularly devised political campaigns for the Conservative Party)
Labour Party Campaigns: Speaker TBC
Discussion Chair: Margaret Scammel
1.15pm – 2.15pm
Lunch provided
2.15pm – 4.15pm
Art and Design as Activism
Suzy Mackie and Pru Stevenson (See Red Woman’s Workshop), Ross Colquhon (Designer and member of Artists and Creatives for Scottish Independence), Noel Douglas (Occupy Movement) and Clifford Singer (MyDavidCameron.com). Discussion Chair: Matilda Pye (V & A)
4.15pm – 4.35pm
Refreshments
4.35pm – 5.00pm
Art as a political weapon
Peter Kennard and Cat Picton Philipps
5.00pm – 5.15pm
Closing Words
Dominic Wring
5.15pm
Close
Booking Requirements: Booking required via Eventbrite
http://www.phm.org.uk/whatson/politics-posters-protest-british-politica…