Susan Lambert
BA (Hons) History of Art
Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London
Head of Museum of Design in Plastics (MoDiP)
Susan’s current research explores the role of plastics in design and their impact on life and lifestyles. Susan was awarded Museum, Libraries and Archive Council funding in 2007-8 for a project ‘Making the Most of Your Plastics’, organising and running four workshops each supported by an external partner. The workshops were held at the Design Museum, London (October 2007), supported by The 20th Century Society; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (November 2007), supported by Modern Materials in Museums: Scotland Group; Wakefield Museum (December 2007), supported by the Social History Curators Group (December 2007) and Tate Liverpool (January 2008), supported by UK Centre for Materials Education. Susan collated and published (May 2008) the workshop findings ‘Making the Most of Your Plastics’ http://www.collectionslink.org.uk/find_a_network/subject-specialist/plastic
In February 2008, Susan delivered a conference paper ‘Plastics: Why Not?’ at the Extreme Collecting Conference at the British Museum, a collaboration between University College London and the British Museum funded by an AHRC Workshop Award. Susan’s recent curatorial projects at the MoDiP Gallery include, ‘Ways of Seeing Plastics’, (May – November 2007 and jointly curated with Pam Langdown); ‘Eat In or Take Out: Plastics for Portability’ (November 2007 – February 2008 and subsequently shown at Poole Museum and curated with Pam Langdown and Louise Dennis); ‘The Plastic Invasion’ (March – September 2008 and curated with Pam Langdown and Louise Dennis). Other research activities include vetting for authenticity and quality the Watercolour and Contemporary Works on Paper Fair held at the Royal Academy, London (2008). Susan also manages and is a member of the Museum, Libraries and Archives Plastics Subject Specialist Network and is a member of its Steering Group.
Display of objects from the Museum of Design in Plastics (The Arts University College at Bournemouth) showing anthropomorphic design in a corkscrew, manufactured by Alessi, 1991; a vegetable peeler manufactured by Bugatti, c.2000; a transformer manufactured by Hasbro Bradley, 1985; a powder bowl manufactured by Betterwear, c.1950s.