Celtic Revivals: Authenticity and Identity Conference
British Museum, January 16 – 17, 2016
Although the Celtic Revival is usually associated with the late 19th century, this conference will demonstrate how it constitutes a whole series of revivals, beginning in the medieval period and continuing into the modern. Leading art and design historians, archaeologists and curators will present the Celtic Revival as a rewriting, recreation and reimagining of the past.
Central to these discussions will be the themes of national and cultural heritage and identities, authenticity and innovation, and the network of ‘Celtic’ connections that span across time, space, media, disciplines and national/cultural borders
Conference Details and Programme
Stevenson Lecture Theatre, British Museum
Coffee and lunch provided
Conference Fee +exhibition visit £50 (£35 concessions/students)
Saturday 16 January
9:30 Registration and coffee
10.15 Introduction
10.30 The Concept of Style in Celtic Art – Colum Hourihane, Princeton University, Emeritus
11:00 TBC – Raghnall Ó Floinn, National Museum of Ireland
11:30 Break
11:45 Relics, Reliquaries, and the Presence of the Past – Karen Overbey, Tufts University
12:15 Celtic, Scotch and Stuart: Queen Victoria and Scottish Identity – Helen Ritchie, Fitzwilliam Museum
12:45 Lunch
14:00 ‘In the tradition of my race’: Evoking the Celtic past in
later medieval Ireland – Rachel Moss, Trinity College, Dublin
14:30 Medieval Gaelic manuscript miscellanies: changing cultural
contexts – Siobhán Fitzpatrick and Bernadette Cunningham, Royal Irish Academy
15:00 Celtic Revivals and Reappropriations in Art and Books 1760 –
1951 – Murdo Macdonald, University of Dundee
15:30 Coffee break
16:00 Evoking Ireland’s Celtic “Golden Age”: Textiles for the Honan
Chapel at University College Cork – Nancy Netzer, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College
16:30 Compton Chapel – Revealing the Sources of its Celtic Symbolism – Louise Boreham, Independent Researcher
Sunday 17 January
8:00 Visit to Celts: art and identity (drop in between 8 and 10am)
10:00 Coffee
10:30 The Druids and the Evergreen: authenticity and originality in
fin de siècle Scotland – Frances Fowle and Heather Pulliam, University of Edinburgh
11:30 Celtic collections: the curatorial appetite for ‘Celtic
crosses’ in nineteenth-century Scotland – Sally Foster, University of Stirling
12.00 Lunch
13:00 Gods, warriors and saints: Celts on parade in Edwardian
Scotland – Elizabeth Cumming, University of Edinburgh
13:30 The Death of Tewdrig (1848): ‘A sculpture illustrative of
Cambro-British History.’ – Oliver Fairclough, National Museum Wales
14:00 Break
14:15 The Celtic Revival in the Visual Culture of Wales – Martin Crampin, University of Wales
14:45 Ireland 1893 – 1917: Celtic Revival or Celtic Twilight?
Organised by the British Museum and University of Edinburgh
The conference is supported by The Kilfinan Trust
Medieval Art Research 