'Impact and benefits of the arts: How arts institutions relate to the public and reach out to new audiences.' Seminar

Speaker information

Dr Ulf Vierke, University of Bayreuth. Dr Ulf Vierke is a Senior Fellow for Arts in Africa. His research interests include: material culture, African arts, popular culture, photography, curatorial studies and disability studies.

Kevin Appleby, Turner Sims. Kevin has a dual role as artistic director for Turner Sims’ international concert season and general manager of the venue. As artistic director he plans the long-term artistic strategy for the venue, creating the series and programme strands across the four main areas of music activity (classical, jazz, world music, and folk); negotiating programmes and fees with artists and agents, preparation and control of budgets, and sponsorship and fundraising are key responsibilities. He represents Turner Sims at a national and international level to organisations including the British Association of Concert Halls, and Europe Jazz Network.

Professor Stephen Foster, John Hansard Gallery. Stephen Foster began his career as an artist, teacher and lecturer, and began his curatorial career as the Director of Axiom, an artist-run Gallery space in Cheltenham from 1982 to 1987. Since 1987 he has been the Director of the John Hansard Gallery at the University of Southampton, during which time the Gallery has won a substantial reputation for seminal work with artists and curators. The Gallery was designated ‘world leading’ for its curatorial research in the last Universities’ Research Assessment Exercise and has also pioneered groundbreaking access and audience development work.