Join us for a conversation between three serial dissenters and artists, Robert Williams, Steve Varden and Tony Heaton. This event is a part of Tony’s exhibition, Serial Dissenter in the Peter Scott Gallery until 27 March. This panel discussion will be followed by a reception in the gallery at 5pm.
We will be addressing the interaction of art and dissent and exploring how the artistic practices of these artists deepen our understanding of how dissent threads throughout our everyday lives, often in surprising, and humorous ways. After a panel discussion, we will open the conversation out to the audience.
Artists will be joined by Jocelyn Cunningham, Director of Lancaster Arts and Sarah Martin, the Curator of the exhibition.
After the discussion, we will celebrate dissent as expressed in Tony Heaton’s exhibition, Serial Dissenter in the Peter Scott Gallery with refreshments.
Tony Heaton OBE is an artist working primarily in sculpture, and a disability rights activist, who has been at the forefront of the Disability Arts Movement. His solo show, Serial Dissenter is in the Peter Scott Gallery from February 13th to March 27th.
He is also a former student of Lancaster University, majoring in Sculpture and studied Social Administration, Psychology, and the Visual Arts, all of which have been important in his work as an artist and arts administrator. He has exhibited nationally and internationally and has work in both public and private collections. He is the initiator of the national disability arts collection and archive, NDACA and has honorary doctorates from both the University of Leicester and Buckinghamshire New University.
Tony was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2013 for services to the arts and disability arts movement.
Steve Varden is a Creative Chameleon (actor, writer, musician, composer, performer, artist etc.) and is a member of the Lancaster Arts Board. Amongst a wide variety of practices, Steve is an integral part of the Paraorchestra. Steve happens to have athetoid cerebral palsy; the fact that some people may think that heis capable of doing very little empowers him to have a go at doing whatever he pleases.
Robert Williams is an artist, academic and researcher. An alumnus of Lancaster University and at Leeds University, his international practice includes projects with close interdisciplinary collaborators encompassing interests in impossible relationships between materials such as ghosts, radiation, alchemy and science, myth and folklore; exploring themes such as Forteana, damned science, unreliable taxonomies and speculative narratives. He is Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cumbria.
