At the time of Wright of Derby
A salon series
- Wednesday, 4 February 2026
- Wednesday, 4 March 2026
- Wednesday, 1 April 2026
- Wednesday, 6 May 2026
About
Taking inspiration from our current exhibition, Joseph Wright of Derby: From the Shadows, Supporters’ House hosts a four-part salon series. Each salon focuses on a topic related to the changes in society that were happening when Wright of Derby was working. Experts from various fields join us to explore ideas in true salon style.
See below for all the salon topics and panel guests. Each Salon requires a separate ticket.
Holly EJ Black, Michael Durrant, David Finkelstein
In this salon we look at print culture through a historical, cultural and artistic lens. The exhibition focuses on the Enlightenment, a period in which emotional expression expanded into human reason. The dramatic increase in printed text and literacy meant that ideas in the age of the graveyard poets, the gothic and the sublime, spread far and wide.
Leading the salon will be journalist and author, Holly EJ Black; cultural historian, David Finkelstein; and Dr Michael Durrant, a Lecturer in Book History at The Institute of English Studies. Together they explore perspectives on a moment in time that changed the course of modern thought.
Holly EJ Black is a London-based journalist and Contributing Arts Editor at 'The World of Interiors' magazine. Her writing has appeared in titles including 'The Art Newspaper', 'ArtReview', the 'Financial Times', 'House & Garden' and 'Wallpaper'. She studied at London College of Printing and Chelsea College of Arts and is the author of 'Artists on Art: How They See, Think & Create'. Her latest book 'The Story of Printmaking: A Global History of Art' is published by Yale University Press, on 28 April 2026.
Professor David Finkelstein (BA, PhD, FEA, FRHistS), Honorary Professor at University College London, is an internationally recognised cultural historian, described in the 'Times Literary Supplement' as ‘one of our most distinguished historians of journalism’. He has published over 90 works in areas related to print, labour and press history, including 'An Introduction to Book History' (2012), 'Movable Types: Roving Creative Printers of the Victorian World' (2018), and the edited 'Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, volume 2: Expansion and Evolution, 1800-1900' (2020), winner of the 2021 Robert and Vineta Colby Scholarly Book Prize for its contribution to the promotion of Victorian press studies.
Dr Michael Durrant is a Lecturer in Book History (at The Institute of English Studies School of Advanced Study, University of London), with a particular focus on the English book trade in the early modern period. His first monograph explores the lives and afterlives of the 17th century printer, Henry Hills, and the place of the printer figure in the early/modern imagination. Elsewhere, he has written on Protestant devotion and book use, manuscript modifications of printed pages, the creative functions of printers' devices, printed waste, unattested books, and, more recently, the queer potentials of early modern material texts. Michael has also been involved in interdisciplinary research into the role of secrecy and trust in Shakespeare's writings, particularly his sonnets.
Dr Hannah Dawson, Dr Rebecca Marks, Jacqui Ansell
In this salon we look at the period of Enlightenment through a historical, cultural, and artistic lens. The Salon guests explore a period of time in which emotional expression expanded into human reason, and the establishment of social thought that became a backbone of much our modern, Western, thinking.
Leading the Salon will be Dr Hannah Dawson; Dr Rebecca Marks; and Jacqui Ansell. Together they explore perspectives on a moment in time that changed the course of modern thought.
Dr Hannah Dawson academic career focuses on early -modern theories of language, and their relationship to nature, society and the state, especially in the work of John Locke. Dawson was elected to a Junior Research Fellowship at Queens' College, Cambridge, and taught at the University of Edinburgh, and then New College of the Humanities, before arriving at King's College London. Dawson is a frequent contributor to live and broadcast media including, 'The Last Days of Charles' (Channel 5), 'Liberalism' (BBC Radio 4), 'How The Light Gets In Festival', and Guardian Live.
Dr Rebecca Marks (FSA) is a member of the Society of Antiquaries and specialist in Romantic visual culture, with particular expertise in British art of the long 18th century. She completed her doctorate at the University of Cambridge in 2025, following an MA in History of Art at the Courtauld, and a BA in English at Oxford. Her research explores how British artists engaged with the art of the Renaissance, and has been published in 'Classical Receptions Journal', 'Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly', 'The British Art Journal', and 'The Cambridge Quarterly'. Marks now works as an online educator and author, and is currently under contract with Penguin (Ebury) for a book on the Gothic, due for publication in 2027. She is also an affiliate of the National Gallery Creators Network (2025–26). You can find more of her work on Instagram @culturedumper, and in her weekly Substack newsletter, The Culture Dump.
Jacqui Ansell is an experienced lecturer who has devised talks and tours based around the National Gallery’s collection for many years. She lectures on art and cultural history for the Wallace Collection, National Portrait Gallery and the Arts Society and was Senior Lecturer at Christie’s Education, writing, presenting and tutoring online courses.
Peter Fellows, Dan Sperrin
In this salon we discuss something close to the heart of British identity: humour. Our Salon guests look at black comedy and melancholy through a historical, cultural and artistic lens. They look at how this particular form of emotional expression has influenced our sense of humor as a nation.
Leading the Salon will be Peter Fellows; Dan Sperrin; and a third guest, yet to be announced. Together they explore perspectives on a moment in time that changed the course of modern thought.
Peter Fellows is a multi-award-winning screenwriter, producer and director best known for his work on the HBO television programmes 'Veep and Avenue 5', the critically acclaimed feature films 'The Death of Stalin' and 'The Personal History of David Copperfield', and for 'Everything You Didn't Say', an award-winning short starring Olga Kurylenko.
In 2017, Peter was a recipient of the BAFTA Rocliffe new writing award for his screenplay, 'Dry', and he was listed as a Forbes 30 Under 30 in April 2021. His critically acclaimed Channel 4 pilot 'Disability Benefits', co-written by and starring comedian Rosie Jones, was released in May 2022 and picked up Best Newform Series at the C21 Drama Awards. The show went to series in late 2024, with Peter directing and executive producing all six episodes. Renamed 'Pushers', it was released on Channel 4 in 2025 to critical acclaim. Peter has also found success in non-fiction with his historical shows 'Vikings: The Rise and Fall' (2023) and 'Frontier' (2024) – both of which were nominated for Emmys. He’s working on a number of new television and film projects.
Dan Sperrin is research fellow in English at Trinity College, Cambridge, who specialises in literary and graphic satire of the long 18th century. Author of 'State of Ridicule: A History of Satire in English Literature', Sperrin is also a political cartoonist at 'The London Magazine' and elsewhere.
Tom Hodgkinson, Cynthia Johnston
In the last of our series, this salon focuses on the early days of industry and the contrasting concept of idleness. Conversations at the time paired these topics and interrogated and formed stigmas that still exist today. The Salon guests ask whether they work for or against each other, questioning the impact of industrialisation on society and art at the time, as well as revealing the importance of being idle as a source of creativity.
Leading the Salon will be Tom Hodgkinson; Cynthia Johnston; and a third guest yet to be announced. Together they explore perspectives on a moment in time that changed the course of modern thought.
Tom Hodgkinson is a writer and editor of 'The Idler' magazine and author of several books including 'How to Be Idle', 'How to Live Like a Stoic', 'How to Be Free' and 'Business for Bohemians'. He lives in London.
Dr Cynthia Johnston is Senior Lecturer in the History of the Book and former Director of the MA/MRes in the History of the Book at the Institute of English Studies. She has published on both medieval and industrialist book production and collecting and is currently Research Lead for the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery’s NPO (National Portfolio Organisation) project, "The Nature of Gothic' (2023-26). She is the editor of Cambridge University Press’s Elements series on ‘Book Collecting’.