Reframing the Muse – curated by Ruth Millington

28 June – 14 July
Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, 4pm – 7pm
Weekends, 11am – 4pm

Nine diverse artists have been invited to create or submit work to offer a contemporary reimagining of the nine ancient muses, bringing to the fore their chosen attributes in variety of ways, from representational and iconographic to abstract. Turning tables on traditional art history, it will invite consideration of the subject’s intrinsic value and partnership with the artist who has portrayed them. The current trope will be replaced with a range of genders, races and identities seen through various gazes, including the queer and feminist.
Restoring the original power to the term muse, the exhibition will invite audiences to understand the real role of the muse as an agent of change and great source of creative inspiration, as once recognised in Ancient Greece.
Underpinning the exhibition will be Ruth Millington’s research and book, ‘MUSE’ (Penguin, 2022), in which she reframes muses as active agents.