As part of the current research and development stages of Wewioraprojects’ Tall Tales programme, both Helen Wewiora and artist-in-residence Ruth Barker, have been exploring the Tavistock Centre; the London based touring venue for the proposed forthcoming Tall Tales exhibition programme.
”The Tavistock Centre is home to The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and is the largest outpatient clinic in Europe offering psychological treatment to adults, adolescents, children and families and also provides training to professionals working in this field. Unknown to many though the Tavistock Centre is also the home to a a rich library collection as well as a large art collection that reaches into its hundreds. The art collection is not only overwhelmingly vast but also varied. Permanently hung throughout the Tavistock Centre, in its corridors and public spaces as well as teaching rooms and offices, the Tavistock Centre’s art collection feels almost part of the fabric of the building, as well as the every day life of all those that inhabit the building. A dedicated and hard working librarian and curator, Karma Percy, leads the collection and mounts temporary shows. Karma works tirelessly to care for the collection and the legacy of its founder, a rather visionary clinician Caroline Garland. As myself and Ruth explored the collection what struck us was not only the integration of the works into the day to day life of the centre, almost as if the collection had an unspoken life of its own as well as a set of relationships with the centre’s communities, but also the many routes via which the works have found their way into the building, often donated by artists, galleries and collectors.”
To find out more about just some of this vast collection, a hidden gem of art history, then you can follow the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/galleries/collections/the-tavistock-and-portman-nhs-foundation-trust-2460
Image C. Annabel Obholzer from the Tavistock and Portman Collection
Wewiora & Booth - Curatorial Projects 