Newcastle University

Venda Louise is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Art History within Fine Art at Newcastle University. Her principal roles include: researching, teaching and developing art history provision (for further information on research and teaching, click the tabs above).

Venda Louise's research focuses on the relationship between art and, principally, the urban realm - examining both art within cities and representations of the urban environment. She has published widely in this area and is a regular contributor to international peer-reviewed conferences. Along with her colleague David Butler, Venda Louise runs a research platform called Intersections which seeks to develop projects and events related to public art practice through collaboration with the cultural sector. She is currently turning her attention toward rural contexts and developing projects related to issues of narrative, memory and place.

Within the department Venda Louise teaches across four years of the undergraduate curriculum as well as supervising postgraduate PhD students. She is also Chair of the Teaching and Learning Committee and the department's dyslexia liaison, working with colleagues in student support to create an inclusive curriculum. In 2012 she was awarded the Vice Chancellor's Distinguished Teacher's Award for her role in developing the art history curriculum and student support mechanisms.

Since 2011 Venda Louise has been on the AHRC Peer Review Council. She is also a regular reviewer for international journals in the fields of art history, geography and art education. She acts as an external examiner for the University of Brighton, and has previously been the external examiner for Liverpool Hope University. 

Venda Louise came to Newcastle in 2006 having previously spent time as a Research Fellow in Urban Cultural Regeneration in the Department of Geography and Geosciences at Glasgow University and worked as a Lecturer in Visual Culture at the University of Central Lancashire.

Venda Louise's research interests centre on the relationship between art and the urban environment: looking both at art in the public context and representations of cities. Current strands of research are:

Art in the Public Context : examining the form, function and themes of permanent and temporary artworks in public spaces in cities throughout Europe. Research to date has concentrated upon issues of participation, community and collective memory, and I am developing a new body of work on nostalgia, narrative and place-making in contemporary public art.

Urban Photographic Surveys : analysing urban photographic surveys from c.1850 to the present day, focusing on British, American and European cities. Research is undertaken into the motivations and objectives underlying such surveys, the resultant images and what they reveal about the perception of the urban environment.

Visual Representations of Cities : exploring how the dynamic of change in the urban environment is represented in various forms of visual media.

Selected Papers Presented

2012 (with Sandy Alden) 'Feeding back to Feedforward: feedback and assessment in Fine Art' Ireland International Conference on Education, ICEE-2012, Dublin (invited paper - competitive) 

2012 (with Sandy Alden) 'Creative Differences: individuality and Learning in Practice Based Disciplines', ELSIN XII, Cardiff (invited paper - competitive) 

2010    ‘Philosophers and Fools: policy, process and public practice in changing contexts’ Creativity and Place. School of Geography. University of Exeter. (invited paper – competitive)

2010    ‘The Afterlife of Artworks: memory and place-identity in changing urban contexts’ RX Cities, Barber Institute of Fine Art, University of Birmingham. (invited paper –competitive)

2009    ‘Cultural Democracy and the Democratisation of Culture: Participative Practice and Changing Public Spaces’, Regulated Liberties: Negotiating Freedom in Art, Culture and Media. University of Turku, Finland (invited paper – competitive).

2009    ‘Northern Consciousness and National Identity: Edvard Munch in Scotland’ Northernness: Ideas and Images of the North in Visual Culture, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne (invited paper-competitive)

2007    “Cultivating the Past for a Changing Present: public art and memory in urban regeneration” Past in the Present, International Conference, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow (invited paper-competitive).

2007    “From Gethsemane to Lanark: the problem of representing Glasgow” Glasgow 1918-1980: What Happened? Research Symposium, University of Glasgow (invited paper - competitive)

2006    “Dismembering and Remembering the Gorbals: Collective Memory in the Photography of Oscar Marzaroli” Photography and the City, International Conference, Clinton Institute of American Studies, University College Dublin (invited paper - competitive).

2006    “Cultivating the Past for a Changing Present: Public Art in Urban Regeneration” Art and the City, International Conference, Institute of Art History, University of Amsterdam, 2006 (invited paper - competitive).

2005    “Public Art, Social Inclusion and the Reconstructed City”, Securing the Urban Renaissance: Policing, Community and Disorder, International Conference, Department of Urban Studies, University of Glasgow (invited paper - competitive).

2005    “Translating the City: Social Change in Glasgow in Poetry and Photography of the 1960s and 1970s “, Built Environments: Places, Constructions and Mindscapes, International Conference, Scottish Word & Image Group, University of Dundee (invited paper - competitive).

2004    “The City without an identity? Rediscovering Postwar Glasgow”, The City in Art, International Conference, Institute of Art, Polish Academy and Institute of Art History, Jagellonian University (invited paper - competitive). 

I teach across the four years of the Undergraduate curriculum as well as supervising PhD students.

I currently am module leader (ML) for, or contribute (C) to, the following courses:

FIN1007: Introducing Art History: Renaissance to Realism (C)

FIN1008: Art and Ideas: Introducing Modernism (C)

FIN2017/3027: Art Since 1945: Postwar to Protest (ML)

FIN2032/3032: Art in the Public Context (ML)

FIN3097: Art History Dissertation (ML)

FIN4023: Critical Contextual Writing (ML)

I also supervise the following PhD students:

Annie O'Donnell, AHRC studentship (principal supervisor; with Catrin Huber and John Tomaney)

Peter Merrington, AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award with AV Festival (principal supervisor; with Rhiannon Mason and Rebecca Shatwell - Director: Av Festival)

Rebecca Farley, AHRC studentship (co-supervisor; with Chris Whitehead (principal) and Areti Galani)

Jane Dudman, ESRC studentship (principal; with Lise Autogena and Peter Wright)

Anthony Schragg, AHRC studentship (starting Sept 2012) (co-supervisor; with Neil Bromwich)

and I have supervised the following students to completion:

John MacLean (AHRC funded; completion within 4 years) (principal; with Will Edmondes)

Matthew Smith (AHRC funded; completion within 4 years) (co-supervisor; with Chris Jones)

My other roles with regard to teaching include:

Head of Art History

Chair of Teaching and Learning Committee

Dyslexia Liaison 

• Pollock VL, Alden S. Creative Differences: Individuality and Learning in Practice-Based Disciplines. In: ELSIN XVII: Individual Differences. 2012, Cardiff, Wales: Tribun EU, Czech Republic.
• Pollock VL, Sharp JP. Real participation or the tyranny of participatory practice? Public art and community involvement in the regeneration of the Raploch, Scotland. Urban Studies 2012, 49(14), 3063-3079.
• Alden S, Pollock VL. Dyslexia and the Studio: bridging the gap between theory and practice. International Journal of Art & Design Education 2011, 30(1), 81-89.
• Pollock VL. Dislocated Narratives and Sites of Memory: Amateur Photographic Surveys in Britain 1889-1897. Visual Culture in Britain 2009, 10(1), 1-26.
• Pollock VL, Paddison R. Embedding public art: practice, policy and problems. Journal of Urban Design 2010, 15(3), 335-356.
• Pollock VL, Sharp JP. Constellations of identity: Place-ma(r)king beyond heritage. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 2007, 25(6), 1061-1078.
• Pollock VL. From Gethsemane to Lanark: the problem of representing Glasgow. Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History: Art & Art History in Glasgow 2007, 12.
• Pollock VL. Event: Space - a work in process. In: Warwick, R, ed. Arcade: Artists and place-making. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2006, pp.88-95.
• Sharp J, Pollock VL, Paddison R. Just Art for a Just City: Public Art and Social Inclusion in Urban Regeneration. In: Miles S; Paddison R, ed. Culture-Led Urban Regeneration. Oxford: Routledge, 2006.
• Sharp J, Pollock VL, Paddison R. Just Art for a Just City: Public Art and Social Inclusion in Urban Regeneration. Urban Studies 2005, 42(5-6), 1001-1023.
• Pollock VL. Second City or Absent City? Futurism and Glasgow’s Lack of Urban Modernism. Journal of the Scottish Society of Art History 2004, 9, 87-94.
• Pollock VL. Northern Consciousness and National Identity: Edvard Munch and Scotland. Scottish Studies Review 2002, 3(1), 58-71.
• Pollock VL. An Enlightened City and Distanced Observer: Early prospects of Glasgow by Slezer and the Foulis Academy. Journal of the Scottish Society of Art History 2002, 7, 71-79.
• Pollock VL, Alden S. Feeding forward: perceptions of feedback in Fine Art degrees. In: Ireland International Conference on Education. 2012, Dublin, Ireland: IICE (CD).