Who Gets Remembered in Art and Why? with Alona Pardo, Director of The Arts Council Collection

Some of the decisions that shape art history never make it into the official record. They happen in conversations, through relationships, and because somebody is prepared to champion an artist before the market or the wider art world has decided they matter.

My guest today is Alona Pardo, Director of the Arts Council Collection and a Turner Prize jury member. Before taking responsibility for this extraordinary national collection of more than 8,500 works, she spent thirteen years at the Barbican, curating major exhibitions including Masculinities, RE/SISTERS, and Dorothea Lange’s The Politics of Seeing.

We talk about how artworks actually enter public collections, why archives can be unreliable witnesses, what happens to a work after it’s acquired, and Alona’s ambitious plans to bring the Arts Council Collection together in Coventry.

At the end Alona also reveals the secret hope she has for what she might achieve during her tenure. I for one would like to see it happen.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Public collections are living archives. They bring historical works back into cultural discourse through the lens of today, helping us think and feel our way through the complexities of our time.

Official archives can be unreliable witnesses. They depend on what was deemed important enough to record at the time, so part of the narrative always gets left out. Informal conversations, negotiations, and backstage advocacy are all critical to shaping art history.

True curatorial practice avoids a singular authorial voice, actively inviting challenge and collaboration from artists, writers, and scholars to expand and deepen how stories are told. Encountering structuralists and French feminism at university empowered and galvanised Alona. It shaped a lot of what she studied, her purpose and the direction of her career.

BEST MOMENTS

“The best works that I've ever encountered are works that kind of hit you in the stomach and really, really live with you and stay with you.”

“What I was most interested in is when you put two artworks together, how they begin to feed off each other… how they begin to expand the conversation.”

“For artists, that’s a useful reminder to keep thinking about the stories and ideas surrounding your work, and to keep giving people ways into it.” “An artwork is made in a particular moment, but it lives in many times.”

ABOUT THE GUEST https://www.instagram.com/alona_pardo/

HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.

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