Curating Public Health: Cross-Disciplinary Dialogues around the Royal Photographic Society’s Medical Group Collection, at the V&A Museum

Public health is in crisis! The arts and museum sector can do something about it!

More than a century after the advent of public health systems, looking after the ‘health of the public’ with the tools of statistical observation and top-down public policy has proved its worth, but also its limits. Too often, the ‘public’ becomes a vague and faceless mass. The administrative ‘lens’ cast over wellness and illness prompts us to visualise data where we should encounter each other’s personal experiences.

In recent years, the need to craft new tools through which to look at health and illness has gained ground, with collaborations with the arts sector becoming increasingly common. This has also coincided with the cultural sector itself interrogating its role in society. 

It is to such an intersection of trends that this Study Day at the V&A Museum aims to contribute. Bringing together Techne creative researchers, curators, artists and public health experts around a rare collection of medical photographs hosted by the V&A, the Study Day will encourage participants to interrogate the ways in which health and illness are ‘looked at’ in our contemporary society and, in the process, reimagine the future – a common one – of public health and museums. 

The event will be centred around a private viewing of the Royal Photographic Society’s archive of medical photography (not currently on display) and two workshop sessions. It also includes a complimentary guided tour of the V&A Photography Centre.

Places for Techne students will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. To sign up, please email the organising team at: Anca.Pop.2022@live.rhul.ac.uk