About
The New Hall Art Collection at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, is the largest and most significant collection of art by women in Europe, comprising over 600 works by more than 400 artists displayed throughout the college's public and semi-public spaces. Founded in 1986 by a group of women associated with the college — then known as New Hall — the collection was established with the explicit aim of demonstrating that women artists have made and continue to make a contribution to the visual arts of the highest quality, and of challenging the historic underrepresentation of women in public art collections and institutional galleries.
The collection spans art from the sixteenth century to the present day, though its greatest strength is in contemporary and modern work by living and recently active women artists. Paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, textiles, and mixed-media works by artists of national and international significance are displayed in the college's distinctive Brutalist architecture, designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon — the architects responsible for the Barbican Centre in London — creating a striking juxtaposition of contemporary art and mid-twentieth-century Modernist architecture that is itself of considerable architectural interest.
Among the artists represented in the collection are some of the most important figures in twentieth and twenty-first century British art: Tracey Emin, Paula Rego, Maggi Hambling, Barbara Hepworth, Mary Fedden, Bridget Riley, Gillian Wearing, Cornelia Parker, and many others whose work has shaped contemporary artistic practice. International artists are also well represented, and the collection continues to grow through gifts, purchases, and commissions that ensure it reflects the evolving landscape of women's artistic production worldwide.
The collection is unusual among university art holdings in that it is not confined to a single gallery space but is distributed throughout the college — in corridors, common rooms, dining halls, and staircases — meaning that it is encountered as part of the daily life of the college community rather than as a separate, sequestered art experience. This integration of art with daily academic and domestic life is central to the collection's philosophy: that art should be lived with, not merely visited, and that the regular encounter with significant works of art enriches the intellectual and personal life of the college community.
The collection is open to the public free of charge, and visitors are welcome to explore the works displayed in the college's public areas. Guided tours can be arranged in advance, and the collection's website provides comprehensive information about the holdings, the artists, and the collection's history and mission. The New Hall Art Collection has become a model for institutional collecting of women's art and has played an important role in the broader cultural conversation about gender, representation, and artistic value that has reshaped the art world in recent decades.
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Highlights
Europe's Largest Collection of Art by Women
The New Hall Art Collection is recognised as the largest collection of art by women in Europe, comprising over 600 works by more than 400 artists spanning the sixteenth century to the present day. The collection was founded in 1986 with the explicit mission of demonstrating that women artists have made and continue to make a contribution to the visual arts of the highest quality, and of addressing the historic underrepresentation of women in public and institutional art collections.
The scale and quality of the collection have made it an internationally significant resource for the study and appreciation of women's artistic achievement, and a model for institutional collecting that centres women's creative practice.
Paula Rego and Major Contemporary Artists
The collection includes works by some of the most important women artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Paula Rego, whose powerful narrative paintings explore themes of power, gender, and social convention, is represented by significant works. Tracey Emin, Maggi Hambling, Cornelia Parker, Gillian Wearing, and numerous other artists whose work has shaped contemporary British art are also present in the collection.
The quality of individual works is consistently high, reflecting the generosity of artists who have donated work and the discernment of the collection's curators in selecting acquisitions and commissions.
Barbara Hepworth and Twentieth-Century Sculpture
The collection's sculptural holdings include works by Barbara Hepworth, one of the most important sculptors of the twentieth century, whose abstract forms in stone, bronze, and wood established a vocabulary of sculptural expression that influenced generations of subsequent artists. Hepworth's presence in the collection connects it to the broader history of twentieth-century British sculpture, and her work is displayed alongside sculptures and three-dimensional works by other women artists whose practice has extended and transformed the sculptural tradition.
The interaction between sculpture and the strong architectural forms of Murray Edwards College's Brutalist buildings creates particularly effective display contexts.
Bridget Riley and Abstraction
Bridget Riley, the pioneer of Op Art whose precisely constructed abstract paintings create powerful optical effects through the manipulation of colour, line, and geometric form, is represented in the collection. Riley's inclusion connects the New Hall Art Collection to one of the most distinctive and influential movements in post-war British art, and her work exemplifies the collection's commitment to representing the full range of women's artistic practice — from figurative narrative painting through abstraction to conceptual and installation-based work.
The presence of artists of Riley's international stature demonstrates that the collection operates at the highest level of artistic quality.
Collections
The New Hall Art Collection
Over 600 works by more than 400 women artists displayed throughout the public and semi-public spaces of Murray Edwards College, from the Dome dining hall to corridors, common rooms, and staircases.
Contemporary Acquisitions
Recent additions to the collection, including works by emerging and established women artists, displayed in rotating presentations that ensure the collection continues to reflect current artistic practice.
Current Exhibitions
A presentation of recent additions to the collection highlighting works by emerging women artists whose practice represents new directions in contemporary art.