#birkbeckvoices

Dr Sarah Thomas from Birkbeck's Department of History of Art examines the powerful impact of slave-ownership on some of Britain’s key cultural institutions, and how the brutal system of colonial slavery infused the world of aesthetics and taste during the first half of the nineteenth century. In particular, she looks at the impact of the £20 million paid by the British government to former slave-owners to compensate for their loss of income on the abolition of slavery on artworks, collections and cultural institutions. She will be discussing these ideas further at a Big Ideas lecture on 5 July 2018 at Birkbeck's Stratford campus. Free places can be booked here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/birkbecks-big-ideas-the-art-of-compensation-slavery-and-british-culture-stratford-tickets-43164879316