Venue: Function Room, Laing Art Gallery.

Description: Part of a series of talks and lectures on Wednesday lunchtimes inspired by different themes within Family Matters: the Family in British Art exhibition.

Free, no need to book.

For more information, please visit the Laing Gallery Website

Date and time: Friday 1st June 2012 18:00pm – 21:00pm

Venue: Tate Britain

Description: This Late at Tate explores new territories in art, fashion, music, and design. Taking inspiration from the Tate collection and the Migrations exhibition, young Londoners will curate an evening which reconsiders history, movement, transition and a sense of belonging.

Free, no need to book.

For more information, please visit the Tate Collectives Website.

This week we have been focusing on inheritance and thinking about artworks and artists that use this theme to represent a variety of view points on the family.

Donald Rodney’s work ‘In the House of My Father’ uses genetic inheritance as a tool to comment on his identity as a British-born artist whose parents emigrated from Jamaica, as well as a platform to address his own mortality and illness.

The work shows Rodney’s own hand holding a small sculpture of a house, constructed from pieces of his own skin removed during one of many operations to combat sickle cell anaemia, an inherited disease that affects people of African, Caribbean, Eastern Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Asian ancestry. Unlike many traditional family portraits that suggest strength and fertility in family lines, the tiny house cradled in the artists hand is delicate and vulnerable, showing a side of inheritance that is unavoidable and fragile.

Rather than reinforcing the image of a strong bloodline, this work prompts the viewer to ask questions about the role inheritance plays in our identity and the way in which we live our lives.

Working within a similar theme, Taryn Simon has produced a body of photographic and text works attempting to map blood lines and their differing narratives.

Talking about her 2011 exhibition at Tate entitled ‘A Living Man declared Dead and Other Chapters’, the artist explains her interest in the effects of chance and blood on the stories of our lives.

The resulting works detail the relationship between family inheritance and external forces such as power, religion and governance to influence our lives.  These works prompt the viewer to consider the dynamic play that both family and chance take in shaping our everyday lives.

Let us know whether you think inheritance or chance has the most powerful effect on individual identity. We’d love to hear from you!

Date and time: Saturday 21 April 2012 12:00pm – 2:30pm

Venue: Millennium Gallery, Museums Sheffield.

Description: Inspired by the exhibition, The Family in British Art, Sheffield Hallam University Applied Theatre students explore the trials and tribulations of family life. “Family is what you choose it to be, blood ties can be everything and nothing.”

No need to book

For more information, please visit Museums Sheffield’s Website.

Date and time: Wednesday 25 April 2012 1:00pm – 1:45am

Venue: Millennium Gallery, Museums Sheffield.

Description: Join Dr Barbara C Morden for ‘A Family Well Disposed’, a free talk on relationship and status in the English Conversation Piece. A type of informal group portrait, the ‘Conversation Piece’ became popular in the 18th century and has set the conventions for representing families in portraiture right through to the present day.

No need to book, just drop in

Contact: 0114 278 2655 or email learning@museums-sheffield.org.uk

For more information, please visit Museums Sheffield’s Website.