"I can connect" - the power of curating to share experiences. The Ursula Hoff Lecture 2018

This year's Ursula Hoff lecture will be given by Professor Michael Tooby, professor at the Bath School of Art and Design at Bath Spa University and an established independent curator.

Ursula Hoff's career is a vivid example of dedication to curatorial expertise. At the same time, her extraordinary life story warrants retelling and sharing, not least as a warning from history of the need to challenge racism and prejudice towards migrants.

Professor Tooby will explore how testimony has played a key role in his recent curatorial projects. His starting point will be the use of William Blake's Illustrations to Dante in a recent major UK exhibition, 'Journeys with "The Waste Land"', a link to Ursula Hoff's curatorial interests. He will discuss how this exhibition was created by the collective sharing of different life experiences and expertise by over 100 participants in its curating. He will show how this process was informed by his previous interest in testimony when co-curating faith-based and minority cultural projects in Wales, such as 'The Muslim World on Your Doorstep' and 'Hineni: belonging and identity in a Jewish community'.

The Australian Institute of Art History is pleased to assist the Ursula Hoff Institute in presenting the Ursula Hoff Lecture for 2018 and acknowledges the generous support of the S R Stoneman Foundation and Sofitel Melbourne. Professor Tooby's visit to Australia has been supported by a grant from the ANU Research School of Humanities and the Arts.

View the 'Journeys with "The Waste Land"' exhibition web page on the Turner Contemporary website.

^{'Journeys with "The Waste Land"' at Turner Contemporary in Margate with works by Henrik Hakansonn and Cy Twombly. Photo by Thierry Bal.}

^{Ursula Hoff Institute logo}