Arts of Place

A meeting-point for all who care what we make of our surroundings.

Welcome

“Arts of Place promotes work on cultural histories of landscape, locality and environment. We want to foster rich understandings of places past and present. Our events and mailing list are open to all. Please do join us.”
–
Alexandra Harris and Jessica Fay, University of Birmingham

Find out more

Julie Brook joins us for summer residency

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Richard Mabey on Gilbert White of Selborne

A Weinrebe Lecture in collaboration with Oxford Centre for Life-Writing
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‘In Pursuit of Spring’: an exhibition at Black Swan Arts, Frome.
Somerset artists respond to Edward Thomas’s account of his journey westward to meet the coming spring. The project uses the Little Toller edition of Thomas’s book, with introduction by Alexandra Harris.
FIND OUT MORE AND DOWNLOAD A CATALOGUE

Features

Explore our writing, talks, collaborations, and opportunities
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Julie Brook: Arts of Place Summer Artist-in-Residence

We welcome land artist Julie Brook for a summer residency at Arts of Place.

Practical drawing with Julie Brook

Opportunity: join a free workshop to rethink place perception with one of Britain’s most questing artists

Call for Papers: William Cowper, Art and Afterlife

A two-day seminar on William Cowper taking place in Olney, where the poet lived and produced his most important work.

The Lives of Naturalists

Weinrebe Lecture: Richard Mabey on Gilbert White of Selborne

Edward Thomas: Out of Place

Conversation: Andrew Hodgson and Ralph Pite consider the radical strangeness of Thomas’s writing

Dereliction and Healing among Coal Spoils

Essay: Michael Malay reflects on the hidden ecosystems that thrive on the sites of disused collieries.

A Street in a Global Pandemic

Gallery: Photographer Martin Stott has been capturing images from lockdown life.

A Month in the Country

Re-reading: Hermione Lee returns to J.L. Carr’s classic novel

Profiles

Meet our collaborators

Alexandra Harris

Professorial Fellow in English at the University of Birmingham.

Jessica Fay

Teaching Fellow in Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth-Century Literature, University of Birmingham

Will May

Associate Professor in English, University of Southampton

Fariha Shaikh

Lecturer in Victorian Literature, University of Birmingham

See more profiles

What’s on your bookshelf?

Arts of Place members and friends offer a trove of short reflections on items from their bookshelves that have shaped their thinking about place. From classic pieces of nature writing, to contemporary works of criticism and theory, via local history, poetry and novels, we are creating an archive of book recommendations that will help enrich our perspectives.

Browse the bookshelf

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Featured image: David Cox, The Cross Roads, oil on panel, 1850, Birmingham Museums and Art Galleries.
Find out more in our Bookshelf entry on Common Land in English Painting, 1700-1850