Turner Memorial Lecture

2025 Turner Memorial Lecture

‘Helen Monro Turner – A Prolific Creative Force in Glass’

Turner Memorial Lecture 2025 will take place on the evening of Wednesday 29 October, in The Diamond Building at the University of Sheffield, hosted by the School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering.

The Turner Memorial Lecture is an endowed lecture presented periodically in memory of Professor W.E.S. Turner, who created at Sheffield the first Department of Glass Technology in the world, and founded the Turner Museum of Glass. The lecture for 2025 will focus on Professor Turner’s wife, Helen Monro Turner, who herself is considered one of the most significant figures in British 20th century glass.

Dr Jessamy Kelly, Senior Lecturer in Glass & Ceramics at The University of Edinburgh, and Sarah Rothwell, Senior Curator of Modern & Contemporary Design from National Museums Scotland, who will be giving the lecture titled: ‘Helen Monro Turner – A Prolific Creative Force in Glass’.

Jessamy is the Head of Design at Edinburgh College of Art and a practising glass artist based in Edinburgh. She holds a Masters and PhD in Glass, is trustee of the Scottish Stained Glass Trust, and was a member of the International Year of Glass Committee.

Sarah holds responsibility for the British, European and other ‘Western’ collections of modern glass, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery and industrial design at National Museums Scotland. Her research is currently focused on representing and championing unheard and forgotten voices within Contemporary Craft and Design.

Refreshments will be available from 17.00 in the Turner Museum of Glass, Sir Robert Hadfield Building.

The Turner Memorial Lecture will be presented at 18.30 in Lecture Theatre 1, The Diamond Building, a short walk from the Hadfield Building.