00:00 The Victoria Gallery and Museum preserve and present unique objects from the last 130 years
00:09 of the University's history, alongside curating imaginative exhibitions like the one we're
00:15 going to see now.
00:16 What we've got here is an exhibition curated by Liverpool University.
00:20 It's French and French artwork across a period of something like 30, 40 years and the work
00:29 is alongside male artists who she either worked with or she was influenced by.
00:38 In the 1960s, Fanchin-Freulich enjoyed professional success.
00:42 Her work entered prestigious collections, including the Walker Art Galleries.
00:47 But from the 1980s onwards, her work began to become overlooked.
00:52 This exhibition seeks to re-establish her position in the art world by showcasing her
00:57 work alongside that of her contemporaries.
01:00 I mean on my left we've got one of my paintings and on my right we've got one of her collaborative
01:05 phenomena paintings.
01:06 And collaborative phenomena is a scientific term which her husband Herbert used.
01:14 By the late 1980s, she had a large collection of friends, they were all women, and she got
01:19 them all painting.
01:20 She would be painting alongside some of her friends on the same artwork and in the background
01:26 would be somebody on the keyboards providing music and so on.
01:32 So it was fun, serious art.
01:36 In the University of Liverpool's founding charter, there was a clause for equality and
01:40 by 1884 half of the students were female, making the gallery an apt place to present
01:46 the work of a woman who was such a trailblazer.
01:49 There was a point in which, I think it was in the early 60s, when she was trying to get
01:54 exhibitions and she was doing abstract art, which tended to be just a male domain, and
02:03 she was told by this woman gallery owner that she was simply the wrong sex.
02:09 We're at the point now where we realise that there were so many great women artists who
02:15 were not recognised in their time, and she is one of them.
02:19 She should be recognised as being a highly talented woman.
02:24 As well as the gallery, the museum collection includes items from the dental school, natural
02:28 history, fossils, skeletons and more.
02:31 As well as soaking up some culture, they organise events here, holding anything from award ceremonies,
02:36 business dinners or conferences.
02:38 You could even get married here.
02:40 When University College Liverpool, which is what the University of Liverpool was known
02:45 as when it opened its doors in 1882, needed a new headquarters, local architect Alfred
02:50 Waterhouse was asked to draw up plans.
02:53 Ordinary bricks and terracotta dressings were selected for the gothic exterior, which led
02:58 to the coining of the phrase 'Red Brick University'.
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