Catherine Waters, Reader in Victorian Studies and Dickens specialist in the School of English, appeared on local news last week to bring a local view to the BBC’s new project ‘Your Paintings’. The project is a joint initiative between the BBC and the public Catalogue Foundation and seeks to put the nation’s 210,000 oil paintings online.
Many local galleries and museums have been involved in the project including the Guildhall in Rochester which Dickens visited in his youth. The giant portraits of some of Rochester’s most famous citizens are said to have inspired the Victorian novelist when he was a boy and formed the inspiration for passages in Great Expectations.
You can see Catherine’s broadcast on the BBC website here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-21609238
Further information about the ‘Your Paintings’ project, with details on how you can get involved, can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/