The �鶹��Ƶ Institute’s MA Art History and Conservation of Buddhist Heritage annually sends its students to Asia for a two-week study trip, offering the opportunity to encounter objects in situ. This year, our destination was Japan. In March, we travelled as a group through Nara and Kyoto, with additional free time taking me to Tokyo, Kōyasan, and Osaka.

We began in Nara with a visit to Tōdai-ji, a UNESCO World Heritage site housing the monumental Daibutsu (Great Buddha). Seeing this colossal bronze figure in person, rather than in reproduction, highlighted the scale, materiality, and devotional power of early Japanese Buddhist sculpture. The temple complex itself was interesting as it served as a tourist destination rather than devotional, with lots of foreign visitors taking selfies in front of the Buddha. This greatly contrasted with some of our later visits.

Our time in Nara also included the infamous deer park, where we were nibbled and bowed to by the free-roaming animals, as well as visiting local Shinto shrines. The shrines in Japan ranged from small cupboards on the pavement to huge temple complexes, and even shinto bells or prayers within Buddhist temples, and they often house very specific and interesting deities! One shrine in particular piqued my interest, as it was dedicated to those working in ice-related industries, such as ice cream or refrigeration, who offer blocks of ice to the enshrined deities. This coexistence of religious traditions in Japan was evident throughout the country with Shinto practices tending toward the needs of the living, and Buddhist traditions focusing on death and rebirth, often operating side by side.

A particularly moving experience for us took place at Hase-dera, where we participated in an ancestry memorial ceremony. The day we attended was one of two per year when visitors are offered the opportunity to physically touch the feet of the huge 30ft, wooden Kannon statue, and it was just our small group there. This atmosphere created a rare and intimate embodied engagement for us with the sculpture, which, in the West, are almost always kept at a distance or behind glass in a museum context. To make physical contact with it, in prayer, was incredibly moving.

While in Kyoto, myself and a peer undertook a pilgrimage hike at Fushimi Inari. We visited in the evening, expecting a small temple with some photo opportunities, but were greeted by thousands of vermilion torii gates spanning up the mountain, and a Shinto priest, who chanted with us and blessed us under a sacred waterfall. This was an incredible and deeply spiritual experience which set us up for our journey to Kōyasan for the weekend.

Mount Kōya is regarded in Japan as a sacred, living landscape. We stayed at Fumon-in, where we ate, slept, and prayed alongside the monks, while also exploring the surrounding village of more than one hundred other temples. Among these was Okunoin, where the founder of Shingon Buddhism, Kōbō Daishi, is believed to remain in eternal meditation. The atmosphere here felt markedly different from the cities. Rather than busy with tourists, the site was quiet except from pilgrims, and the ways of engaging with the statues reflected this ongoing devotional presence. No images were allowed to be taken of the sculptures, as they are consecrated and believed to hold the deities’ spirits.

Kōyasan also housed a remarkable museum, displaying both replicas and original works within an immersive soundscape, offering a striking contrast to the more conventional presentation of permanent collections in London. After introducing ourselves as students at the �鶹��Ƶ Institute, the staff even invited our opinions on their curatorial approach and spoke with us about their conservation practices within the galleries.

Once we were back in Kyoto, we visited sites such as Ryōzen Kannon, a modern yet deeply evocative monument dedicated to war victims with a combination of styles from Christian church windows to Tibetan prayer wheels, before concluding our group itinerary with a quiet visit to Seiryō-ji. This lesser-known temple, with its serene atmosphere, offered a reflective end to the study trip. A shared farewell lunch provided an opportunity to consolidate our experiences as a group.

Following Japan, our cohort dispersed in different directions: I returned to London, while others continued on to destinations including Vietnam and Korea. The trip as a whole deepened our academic understanding of Buddhist art and conservation, but also emphasised the importance of context, ritual, and lived experience in shaping the meaning of these works beyond being material artifacts within a museum.

Further information

Born in Iran, Professor Sussan Babaie attended the University of Tehran’s Faculty of Fine Arts until the revolution of 1979, when she moved to the USA to study for a Master’s degree in Italian Renaissance and American Arts. She then completed a PhD at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, focussing on the arts of Islam. Sussan has taught at the �鶹��Ƶ Institute since 2013, where she is now Professor in the Arts of Iran and Islam, teaching on the MA History of Art Special Option Empires of Art: Early Modern Asia, 1500-1900.

You can read Sussan’s contributions on the topic below:

In August 2024 I received an email saying my application to be part of the next East Wing Biennial team had been successful. What followed was two years of working with the most incredible people on a dream project.

The East Wing Biennial is the �鶹��Ƶ’s student-led exhibition of professional contemporary art. In 1991, then-student Joshua Compston was dismayed by the empty walls of the teaching rooms at Somerset House. In response, he established the East Wing Collection to bring the Institute’s student body into direct contact with works of contemporary art.

Over the last three decades the exhibition has grown and shifted. The cultural landscape has changed (as they tend to do), 34 classes of students have passed through the halls of the Institute, and even those halls have moved from Somerset House to Vernon Square. However, the ethos of the project has remained the same. Connection, collaboration, community. The exhibition continues to reflect the concerns and creative ambitions of the �鶹��Ƶ’s student body. It offers students the opportunity to shape curatorial narratives, gain hands-on professional experience, and engage directly with the art of their time.

After an initial briefing with the outgoing team, we were ready and raring to go. Madeline Cheeseman, Maria Cicala, Will Fairfax and I began to think about the imprint we wanted to make on the �鶹��Ƶ’s walls for the next two years. Now in its 16th edition, the East Wing Biennial carries with it a legacy of bolstering emerging and established artists across disciplines. Art history itself, particularly at the �鶹��Ƶ, is currently in a process of self-reflection and development to complicate the traditional canon. In a building dedicated to the study of the past, how do we grapple with the contemporary? With these ideas swirling in our heads, after six-months of work on our curatorial statement and theme, RE:VISION was born.

The next step was one that I had honestly been equal parts excited and apprehensive about. Acquiring the artworks themselves. I had been concerned that the lengthy two-year loan period might mean that we would struggle to secure works. But I had nothing to worry about. We were met with such openness and generosity from all the artists and galleries we approached.

In the Spring, we used social media to launch an Open Call for works of any medium. The response was overwhelming, with very high-quality work submitted by a huge number of applicants. After a difficult decision-making process, we began to finalise loan agreements, organise transportation, book installation dates and, most excitingly, map out the layout of the show.

Over the summer we installed the exhibition, hanging the works and transforming each teaching room as we went. These months were also spent writing catalogue essays and wall texts and planning the much-anticipated opening night party. Ushering in the new academic year, RE:VISION opened in September 2026. With works by over 40 artists, a film programme, performances, and an innovative roster of workshops, publications and artist talks, the exhibition will run until August 2027.

Since the show opened, I have had the pleasure of watching students, faculty, artists and visitors alike interact with the exhibition. Every single day I get to listen to people engaging with, discussing, learning from and living alongside these wonderful works of art. I feel so lucky to learn and work in this environment.

But don’t just take my word for it! Why don’t you come see for yourself? Director-led tours of RE:VISION are held on the first Sunday of every month at 3pm. You can read more about the exhibition, including a digital copy of the catalogue and news about our upcoming events, and follow us on Instagram @eastwingbiennial.

The Lady Chapel to the north-east was the first area to be completed in 1921, and the scheme celebrates women’s contribution to the Church and nation, with female figures and saints from Christian history and notable women from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Almost a century after their completion, the paintings are now at serious risk of material deterioration due to flaking, salt activity, and structural damage. Their surfaces are further compromised by blanching and accumulated dirt which obscure details and reduce aesthetic legibility and value.

The project commenced in January 2026 and will continue over several years in phases of approximately six weeks at a time. Phase one took place between January to March with a wide range of investigations and treatments trials on the domes. This provides invaluable information about the paintings, their history, technology, condition, deterioration mechanisms and the potential for remedial interventions.

Students taking the �鶹��Ƶ Institute’s MA Conservation of Wall Paintings work directly on conservation projects throughout the course. Previous fieldwork projects include Longthorpe Tower in Peterborough, Tamzhing Monastery, Bumthang, in Bhutan and Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang, China.

Alongside sculptures, the exhibition features a rich selection of Hepworth’s drawings with colour. Hepworth lacked the materials, studio space and time to produce much sculpture during the first years of the war but her drawings allowed her to continue to explore and develop her ideas. She recalled, ‘In the late evenings, and during the night I did innumerable drawings…exploring the particular tensions and relationships of form and colour which were to occupy me in sculpture during the later years of the war.’ These drawings, usually entitled ‘drawing for sculpture’ are striking for their intricate crystalline forms, punctuated with strong blues, greens, reds and yellows.

The exhibition extends into the 1950s and 1960s to reflect how colour continued to occupy Hepworth in new ways, including in her expressive paintings of the mid and late 1950s, and in her work with patinated bronze and painted marbles.

To coincide with the exhibition, a display of photographs of Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson’s shared London studio at No. 7 the Mall Studios in Hampstead will be presented in the Project Space. Taken between 1932 and 1936 by Paul Laib (1869–1958), these are among the most evocative studio images to emerge in Britain during the 20th century and show the fascinating interrelation of their practices at this time. Hepworth and Nicholson: The Hampstead Studio Photographs is open in the Project Space from 6 June – 4 October 2026.

The Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen Exhibition: Hepworth in Colour is accompanied by a new catalogue, edited by Dr Alexandra Gerstein, Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the �鶹��Ƶ and Stephen Feeke, with essays by Alexandra Gerstein, Stephen Feeke, David Batchelor, Eleanor Clayton and Kirstie Dootson.

The exhibition’s Title Sponsor is Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen LLP. The exhibition’s Lead Supporter is the Huo Family Foundation, with Support from Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne.

The Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen Exhibition: Hepworth in Colour
12 June – 6 September 2026
Denise Coates Exhibition Galleries, Floor 3
Book now

Hepworth and Nicholson: The Hampstead Studio Photographs
6 June – 4 October 2026
Project Space, Floor 2

Before starting the MA History of Art Special Option American Art in the Age of Ecology in the autumn of 2024, I was intrigued by the prospect of a course co-led by two scholars with such distinct expertise. Dr Lucy Bradnock, a specialist in American countercultures and West Coast histories, and Dr Johanna Gosse, an expert in lens and time-based media, created a collaborative heartbeat for the course that was truly electric.

The course was built on the premise that the climate crisis is also a crisis of culture. We moved far beyond the category of eco-art to rethink the art history of the Americas through the lenses of wilderness politics, nuclear frontiers, and extractive economies. Our seminars in Vernon Square were deeply engaging, and Lucy and Johanna’s collaborative leadership made the space feel supportive and intellectually expansive.

The program’s commitment to first-hand looking was evident in our frequent off-site visits. A standout was our trip to ESCALA (the Essex Collection of Art from Latin America). We spent time engaging with the archive, including Carolina Caycedo’s Serpent River Book, a breathtaking accordion-fold book that traces the bio-cultural diversity of rivers, and viewed an exhibition by artist Bryan Giuseppi Rodriguez Cambana.

For a student like myself, whose research focused on the Global South, seeing these contemporary Latinx voices prioritized in the curriculum was deeply validating.

The undisputed highlight was our study trip to the 60th Venice Biennale, curated by Adriano Pedrosa under the theme Foreigners Everywhere (Stranieri Ovunque). The Biennale’s focus on indigenous, queer, and folk histories aligned closely with much of our coursework.

While wandering through the Nucleo Storico (Historical Nucleus) in the Central Pavilion, I stumbled upon a display of Chilean arpilleras—the very textile works of resistance I had focused on for my undergraduate dissertation. I was overwhelmed with emotion as I hadn’t realized they would be part of the exhibition.

Johanna found me in that moment and, recognizing the personal significance of the works, immediately invited Lucy and members of our cohort over, and encouraged me to share my knowledge of the arpilleras’ history with the group. In that gesture, I felt genuine support and uplift from my tutors who I already deeply admired.

To this day, I consider Lucy and Johanna not just previous tutors, but lifelong mentors. This course didn’t just change my understanding of ecologies in art, but changed my understanding of how research can be both academically rigorous and profoundly empathetic. For anyone looking to challenge the boundaries of art history, this MA and its leadership is a truly transformative home.