Fri 12 Jun 2026, 2 - 5pm
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | 11am–6pm |
| Wednesday | 11am–6pm |
| Thursday | 11am–9pm |
| Friday | 11am–6pm |
| Saturday | 11am–6pm |
| Sunday | 11am–6pm |
Access requirements
Whitechapel Gallery is committed to making all of our events as accessible as possible for every audience member. Please contact access@whitechapelgallery.org if you would like to discuss a particular request and we will gladly discuss with you the best way to accommodate it.
Information about access on site at the gallery is available here https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/visit/access/
This includes information about Lift access; Borrowing wheelchairs & seating; Assistance Animals; Parking; Toilets and baby care facilities; Blind & Partially Sighted Visitors; Subtitles and transcripts; British Sign Language (BSL) and hearing induction loops; Deaf Messaging Service (DMS).
About This Event
This event takes place in the Assembly Room at Whitechapel Gallery, located on the ground floor.
This event lasts approximately 3 hours. Attendees are encouraged to take as many breaks as they need during the event.
You must book a ticket to attend the event.
This event is suitable for those over the age of 16
We are unable to provide British Sign Language interpretation for this event
We are unable to provide live closed captioning or CART for this event.
An audio recording of the event can be obtained by emailing publicprogrammes@whitechapelgallery.org following the event.
Transport
To the best of our knowledge, there are no planned disruptions to local transport on the date of the event.
Our nearest train station – Aldgate East Underground (1 min) is not wheelchair accessible. The closest wheelchair accessible stations are Whitechapel (15 min), Shoreditch High Street (15 min) or Liverpool Street (15 min).
Free parking for Blue Badge holders is available at the top of Osborn Street in the pay and display booths for an unlimited period. Spaces are available on a first come, first served basis.
Live Recording
Please note: we audio record all events for the Whitechapel Gallery Archive and possible future online publication via Soundcloud.
Join us for a book launch and discussion about art, society and arts education.
During the 1980s, Jenni Lomax led a pioneering Community and Education Programme at Whitechapel Gallery – working in close collaboration with artists, educators and local communities to develop exciting new approaches which continue to inspire and influence practitioners today.
This event marks the launch of a new book by Lomax, In the Company of Art: Community Education at the Whitechapel Gallery, 1979-1989.
To celebrate the book’s publication, Lomax will be joined by co-editor Dr Matthew Holman, together with other contributors and collaborators, to examine key practices and projects from the 1980s, as well as the era’s social and political context that shaped this work, and the connections with contemporary arts education.
There will also an opportunity for audience questions and contributions, alongside refreshments and a book signing.
Edited by Jenni Lomax and Matthew Holman, In the Company of Art: Community Education at the Whitechapel Gallery, 1979-1989, will be published by Whitechapel Gallery in June 2026. This publication has been generously supported by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
The book is designed by Zoe Guttenplan, and features contributions by Jenni Lomax, Matthew Holman, Nicholas Serota, Veronica Ryan, Alison Herman, Sofia Victorino, Sacha Craddock, Richard Martin, Jasmin Bhanji, Faith Osideko, and Jenny Pengilly.
The inspiration for the book arose from the exhibition Exercising Freedom: Encounters with Art, Artists and Communities, staged at Whitechapel Gallery in 2020-21. Exercising Freedom was co-curated by Sofia Victorino and Nayia Yiakoumaki, with Jenni Lomax, supported by research by Rose Gibbs and exhibition production by Candy Stobbs.
Jenni Lomax is a curator, writer and mentor. She is Director Emeritus of Camden Art Centre, London, where, from 1990 to 2017, she established an influential and forward-thinking programme of international exhibitions, artists residencies and community education projects. Before Camden Art Centre, from 1979 to 1990, she developed and headed up a pioneering community education and public programmes at Whitechapel Gallery.
Throughout her career Lomax has been involved with a range of art schools across the UK as a visiting lecturer and external examiner. She has been a member of selection and judging panels for numerous awards and exhibitions including the Turner Prize, Arts Foundation Award, Jerwood Drawing Prize, the Nissan Art Prize, The John Moores Painting Prize and Freelands Awards. Currently she is a member of Tate Liverpool Advisory Council and is a Trustee of the Henry Moore Foundation and Raven Row.
Lomax was awarded the Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2007, received an OBE for her services to the Visual Arts in 2009, and the Order of the Polar Star in 2017.
Matthew Holman is a writer and art critic. He completed a PhD in curatorial history at University College London, and has held fellowships at Yale University, the Smithsonian, the Courtauld Institute (Terra Foundation for American Art Fellow), the Paul Mellon Centre, and the John F. Kennedy Institute in Berlin (Leverhulme Trust). Holman’s first book, Frank O’Hara and MoMA: New York Poet, Global Curator (Bloomsbury), is out now. He has written for major exhibitions and artist publications, including for the catalogue of Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (September 2026), which focuses on major retrospectives of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1958 and 1965 respectively, and has contributed essays on artists including Frank Auerbach, Willem de Kooning, and Françoise Gilot. Holman is Lecturer in Modern Literature at the University of Hertfordshire, teaches on the public programme at the Courtauld, and is currently leading an AHRC-funded project on arts education in Hoxton with Peer Gallery.
