Grace Before Jones and Jimmy Robert: Expanded

We’ve loved presenting our Grace Before Jones: Camera, Disco, Studio and Jimmy Robert: Akimbo exhibitions.

Unfortunately, due to government guidelines around coronavirus, we will not be re-opening the exhibition. Whilst you might not be able to visit physically, we’ve been finding ways to explore the themes of the exhibitions online through virtual reality scans, talks, family activities and even shop products.

Virtual Reality

Explore our exhibitions in VR scanned by V21 Artspace.

Grace Before Jones explores the life, work and collaborations of the iconic singer and her wide-ranging influence across design, music and fashion.

Akimbo is the largest-ever presentation of Jimmy Robert in the UK, drawing together sculpture, installation, film, video, text, and works on paper from the past 20 years.

Talks

A picture of four people meeting over zoom.

Our exhibition curators and other specialists discuss our Grace Before Jones exhibition.

Talk: Grace Before Jones

Creating an Exhibition: Grace Before Jones

Jimmy Robert discusses his exhibition in these talks and interviews.

An Interview with Jimmy Robert

Artist Talk: Jimmy Robert

In our Grace Jones: Musings series, listen to contemporary voices that rehearse, record, and resound Jones’ contributions to black and queer imaginaries, looking at the role of music and performance in creating communities of affect and resilience.

The Musing series includes: Irenosen Okojie, ‘Grace Jones’ Nudibranch. Listen. Mark Fisher, ‘I, The Object’. Listen. Desta Hailé, ‘Black Beauty Model Agency’. Listen. Ricardo Montez, ‘Keith Haring’s Line: Race and the Performance of Desire’. Listen. Tavia Nyong’o, ‘I Feel Love: Disco and its Discontents’. Listen. Douglas Crimp, ‘DISSS-CO (A Fragment): From Before Pictures, A Memoir of 1970s New York’ Listen. Tim Lawrence, ‘Life and Death on the Pulse Dance Floor: Transglocal Politics and the Erasure of the Latinx in the History of Queer Dance’ Listen.

Family Activities

Little artist, aoife, and associate artist Sian Watson-Taylor mirroring each other's movements in the style of Jimmy Robert.
A cut out activity called stylish silhouettes leaving an interesting pattern in the shape of trousers.

Experiment with performing, creating fashion statements, and have a party in these family activities inspired by our Grace Before Jones exhibition.

Activity: Kitchen Karaoke | Activity: Hula Hoop Disco | Family Explorer Activities | Activity: Dress Rehearsal | Activity: Dress Grace

Inspired by our Jimmy Robert exhibition, in these activities explore ideas of movement and performance, visibility and invisibility, and unusual ways to display art.

Activity: Object as Art | Family Explorer Activities: Mirror Movements | Activity: Hidden Portraits | Activity: Stylish Silhouettes

Shop

A Grace Jones' coaster with a graphic design and stars.
A range of books from left to right. Foregrounded the closest to the camera is Grace Jones' book 'I'll Never Write My Memoirs'.

Each season our shop stocks new products to reflect our exhibition season.

We've recommended a selection of books related to our Grace Before Jones exhibition, which you can read here.

Check out our exhibition poster and to browse more products on our online shop click here.

Your support is vital

A small one-off or regular donation helps us present free exhibitions, events and education programmes across the city, up and down the UK, and around the world.

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