Why does a university need an art collection?

Luke Syson, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, shows in this lecture how university collections can be interrogated to address questions of identity, the environment, and truth itself.

“Universities have typically viewed their art collections as, at best, a lovely add-on - the equivalent of the kitten story at the end of the news - or as a baffling extra expense. Visitors to museums like the Fitzwilliam do not always realise that they are part of the University, though they may intuit a more traditionally academic tone than is usual these days. But that is changing in Cambridge, and it is precisely by placing our great art collection at the heart of the University’s research endeavour that we hope to make the Fitzwilliam much more compelling for many more people. Exploring today’s urgent issues by close looking at the art and material culture of the past should give the collections a new power.”

The Kate Pretty Lecture Series honours Dr Kate Pretty CBE, Principal of Homerton College (1991-2013) and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge (2004-2010), responsible for international strategy, outreach, lifelong learning, and museums and libraries. An archaeologist, Dr Pretty served as President of the Council for British Archaeology from 2008-2013. The inaugural Kate Pretty Lecturer was Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor, in 2017. In 2018 Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive of AstraZeneca, gave the lecture, and in 2019 Baroness O’Neill of Bengarve.