Dr Hana Leaper
Liverpool School of Art and Design
Faculty of Arts Professional and Social Studies
Email: H.M.Leaper@ljmu.ac.uk
Dr Hana Leaper was appointed to the post of John Moores Painting Prize Senior Lecturer and Development Manager in late 2017. She began to undertake research on the John Moores Painting Prize in her previous role as Paul Mellon Centre Fellow and one of the founding Editors of the prestigious born-digital journal British Art Studies at the Paul Mellon Centre, a part of Yale University. At the Centre she played an active role in the research programme, and curated the display ‘The Catalogues of the John Moores Painting Prize’ to commemorate sixty years of the competition.
Dr Leaper’s wider research interests include the Grosvenor School of linocut artists, twentieth century exhibiting histories and artists’ networks, and theories of an artistic middlebrow. She is currently working on an exhibition and catalogue of Grosvenor School linocuts with Dulwich Picture Gallery, and a touring retrospective of Sybil Andrews’ work that will begin at the Glenbow, Calgary in 2019.
Alongside Dr Sophie Hatchwell, she co-founded the Early Career Researchers in British Art Network which, supported by the PMC, staged numerous events for ECRs, including a ‘copyright briefing for researchers’ and seminars on preparing for journal and book publication.
Between 2015-2018 she was a guest lecturer on the Courtauld Institute of Art ‘Making the Modern: art and visual culture in Britain 1890-1970’ MA programme, and the Yale in London ‘Photography and the Artistic Imagination in Victorian and Edwardian Britain’ programmes.
On completion of her PhD ‘Vanessa Bell and the Significance of Form in 2014, Hana worked for the Charleston Foundation researching and cataloguing the Angelica Garnett Gift. During her post graduate studies, Hana lectured in English literature and art history at the University of Liverpool and on the art and design programme at the University of Wolverhampton.
Hana holds a BA in Art History and English Literature, and an MA in Cultural Studies from the University of Leeds, and a PhD in British and European Modernist art and culture from the University of Liverpool.
Internet publication
Leaper H, Hatchwell S. 2023. Exploring exhibition histories: an audit of the John Moores Painting Prize 1957 catalogue Publisher Url Public Url
Leaper H. 2019. Omega Workshops, Ltd. https://www.modernistarchives.com/business/omega-workshops-ltd Author Url
Leaper H. 2017. Lee Bontecou, Untitled, 1961 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bontecou-untitled-t00506 Publisher Url
Leaper H. 2017. Alexander Calder, Black Sun, 1953 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/calder-black-sun-t01090 Publisher Url
Leaper HM. 2016. Alexander Calder, Antennae with Red and Blue Dots, c.1953 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/calder-antennae-with-red-and-blue-dots-t00541 Publisher Url
Leaper H. 2016. Theo van Doesburg, Counter-Composition VI, 1925 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/doesburg-counter-composition-vi-t03374
Leaper H. 2016. Kurt Schwitters, Opened by Customs, 1937–8 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/schwitters-opened-by-customs-t00214
Leaper H. 2016. Jessica Dismorr, Abstract Composition, c.1915 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dismorr-abstract-composition-t01084
Leaper H. 2016. Vanessa Bell, Abstract Painting, c.1914 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bell-abstract-painting-t01935
Leaper H. 2016. Vanessa Bell, Frederick and Jessie Etchells Painting, 1912, http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bell-frederick-and-jessie-etchells-painting-t01277
Leaper H. 2015. Leon Kossoff, Self-Portrait, c.1952 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kossoff-self-portrait-t07198
Leaper H. 2015. Maggi Hambling, War Coffin, 1994 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hambling-war-coffin-t07078
Chapters
Leaper H. 2019. Life in Linocuts: The Printmakers of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art Gaber L. Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking Bloomsbury Publishing, Philip Wilson imprint. Great Britain 978-1-78130-078-7
Leaper HM, Mills P. 2018. Eden in Sussex: Atheist Moderns and the Berwick Church Murals Bluemel K, McCluskey M. Rural Modernity in Britain A Critical Intervention Edinburgh University Press 9781474420952 DOI Publisher Url
Leaper H, Mills P. 2018. Chapter 14 Eden in Sussex: Atheist Moderns and the Berwick Church Murals Rural Modernity in Britain :239-254 Edinburgh University Press DOI Publisher Url
Leaper HM. 2018. Ekphrastic writing; illusive illustration: Vanessa Bell’s embroideries for Virginia Woolf’s ‘Kew Gardens’ Battershill C, Wilson N. Virginia Woolf and the World of Books 9781942954569 DOI Publisher Url
Leaper HM. 2018. The ‘materials of modern composition’ in contemporary spiritual art shown at the RA in 1922 Card B, Turner SV, Hallett M, Feather J. The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: A Chronicle, 1769-2018
Leaper HM. 2018. "Immortal Apples and Eternal Eggs": Life and Still Life in the Bedsits of Bloomsbury Briganti C, Mezei K. Living with Strangers Bedsits and Boarding Houses in Modern English Life, Literature and Film :43-62 Bloomsbury Publishing 9781350016521 DOI Publisher Url
Leaper HM. 2018. From Inheritance to Legacy: Virginia Woolf's Place Within Networks of Women Creatives Smith L, Tassi E, Bennett E. Virginia Woolf: An Exhibition Inspired by Her Writings Tate 9781849765985
Leaper HM. 2018. Talk of the Table: Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant's Famous Women Dinner Service Ketteringham S, Travers M. From Omega to Charleston The Art of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant 1910- 1934 9781901192513
Leaper H. 2017. From London to Paris Milroy S, Dejardin I. Vanessa Bell Philip Wilson 9781781300510
Leaper H. 2017. ’"Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!": Vanessa Bell’s Death of the Moth Dust Jacket as Monument to Virginia Woolf’ Reus A, Breckin T, deGay J.
Leaper H. 2016. Bell, Clive (1881–1964) Bloomsbury Publishing Plc DOI Publisher Url
Leaper H. 2016. Fry, Roger (1866–1934) Bloomsbury Publishing Plc DOI Publisher Url
Journal article
Hatchwell S, Insh F, Leaper H. 2019. Born Digital: Early Career Researchers Shaping Digital Art History Visual Resources, DOI Publisher Url Public Url
Leaper H. 2017. The Famous Women Dinner Service: A Critical Introduction British Art Studies, 7 DOI Publisher Url Public Url
Leaper H. 2017. Controversial Moderns Art and Christianity Journal, 91 Publisher Url Public Url
Leaper H. 2016. ‘Old-fashioned modern’: Claude Flight's Lino-Cuts and Public Taste in the Interwar Period Modernist Cultures, 11 :389-408 DOI Publisher Url
Leaper H. 2015. A Bloomsbury Miscellany from the Charleston Attic
Editorial Group BAS. Editorial British Art Studies, DOI Publisher Url
Other
Leaper H. 2018. Introduction to Midldlebrow Tate Etc issue 42,
Hammer M. 2017. British Art Studies Leaper HM, Turner SV, Droth M, Card B. DOI Publisher Url
Leaper H. 2017. Small Stories: At Home in a Dollhouse Early Modern Women, 11 :192-198 DOI Publisher Url
BAS editorial group , Leaper H, Turner SV, Droth M. 2016. British Art Studies Editorial Issue 4 Leaper H, Turner SV, Droth M. British Art Studies, DOI Author Url Publisher Url
BAS Editorial team , Leaper H, Turner SV, Droth M. 2016. British Art Studies BAS Editorial Team , Leaper H, Turner SV, Droth M. British Art Studies, DOI Publisher Url
BAS Editorial Team , Leaper H. 2016. British Art Studies Leaper H. British Art Studies, DOI Author Url Publisher Url
Leaper H, Turner SV, Droth M, BAS Editorial Group . 2015. British Art Studies Leaper H, Turner SV, Droth M, BAS Editorial Group . British Art Studies, DOI Publisher Url
Leaper H. 2010. Crafting Modernist Aesthetics review of 'Beyond Bloomsbury: Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19' exhibition at Courtauld Institute of Art, 18th June to 20th September 2009 The Journal of Modern Craft, 3 :111-114 DOI Publisher Url
Books (authored)
Leaper HM, Jones V, Knight D, Purkiss A, Raback JSK, Tobin C, Wilkins D, Stutchbury A, Wilson S . 2017. The Famous Women Dinner Service: A Critical Catalogue Leaper HM. Paul Mellon Centre Publisher Url
Leaper HM, Jones V, Knight D, Purkiss A, Raback JSK, Tobin C, Wilkins D, Stutchbury A, Wilson S . 2017. The Famous Women Dinner Service: A Critical Catalogue Leaper HM. Paul Mellon Centre Publisher Url
Leaper H, Samuel G. 2015. Sybil Andrews Linocuts: A Complete Catalogue Lund Humphries Publishers, Limited 9781848221802 Publisher Url
Samuel G, Gallery OS, Andrews S. 2015. Sybil Andrews and the Grosvenor School Linocuts Osborne Samuel LLP 9780993078644 Publisher Url
Film
Chicago J, League TWSA, Leaper H, Law J. The Famous Women Dinner Service: In Conversation with Contemporary Art Publisher Url
Exhibition
Milroy S, Dejardin I, with research consultation and development support from Leaper H. Vanessa Bell (1879-1961)
Leaper HM. The Catalogues of the John Moores Painting Prize
Smith L, with research consultation and development support from Leaper H. Virginia Woolf: An Exhibition Inspired by Her Writings
Leaper HM, Spalding F, Shone R, Piano Nobile , Clarke D. From Omega to Charleston
Leaper H. The John Moores Painting Prize and the Rise of the Sixties in Liverpool
Leaper H, Binns A. The Famous Women Project Tate Exchange Author Url
Schofield J, Duffy T, Wilcox M, Embery E, Krysa J, Leaper H, Roberts E, Wilkinson C, Wilkinson D, Liu C, Roughley M, Pollier P. Fanchon Fröhlich: The Wrong Sex (2023) at Exhibition Research Lab, 17/02/2023-14/05/2023 Publisher Url
Leaper H, Hatchwell S, Johnston P, Lamont G. Works from the 1957 John Moores Painting Prize Publisher Url Public Url
Leaper H, Schofield J, Roberts A. John Moores Painting Prize China Residency Exhibition: Work by the 2020 & 2022 winning artists Publisher Url
Leaper H, Roberts A. Fanchon Fröhlich: The Liverpudlian Polymath Publisher Url Public Url
Schofield J, Leaper H, Ayliffe M. Snapshot 07: Tales from the Fine Art Studio
Schofield J, Leaper H. Snapshot 06: The Vulnerability of the Human Situation by India Clarke
Schofield J, Leaper H. Snapshot 05: Notes from Norway by Amelia-Rose Penny
James SE, Schofield J, Leaper H. Snapshot 04: Making in Miniature
Fallows C, Schofield J, Leaper H. Snapshot 03: Into the Light Jamie Reid
Schofield J, Leaper H. Snapshot 02: Temporary Gatherings by Niamh Chisholm
Schofield J, O'Rourke J, Leaper H. Snapshot 01: Painters Posting Paintings
Conference publication
Leaper H. The Legacy of Vanessa Bell and the Heart of Brand Bloomsbury Wright EH. Bloomsbury Influences: Papers from the Bloomsbury Adaptations Conference, Bath Spa University, 5-6 May 2011, Bloomsbury Adaptations Conference
Fellowships:
Organising committee with Exhibition Research Lab and Liverpool Biennial, Dawit L Petros x LJMU Artist in Residence, https://www.biennial.com/artists/dawit-l-petros/. 2025
LJMU, John Moores Painting Prize China, John Moores Painting Prize Trust, Walker Art Gallery, Shanghai University, Organiser of John Moores Painting Prize China residency programme for the 2020 and 2022 artists, https://www.cultureliverpool.co.uk/events/john-moores-painting-prize-china-residency-exhibition-work-by-the-2020-and-2022-winning-artists/. 2023
Glenbow, Calgary, Curatorial Research Fellowship. 2018
Conference presentation:
Oral presentation, Milton Keynes Gallery, Vanessa Bell, Dining with the Famous Women: a legacy of Radical hospitality, https://mkgallery.org/event/vanessa-bell-conference-online/. 2025
Oral presentation, Home and Domestic Cultures online research seminar: 'Bedrooms, Bedsits in Bloomsbury: Women artists giving new meaning to housework. 2024
Oral presentation, Tate Liverpool, MUSES, ANTI-MUSES, COUNTER MUSES https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/fernand-leger-new-times-new-pleasures/muses-anti-muses-counter, Nina Hamnett: Refusing the mantle of muse. 2019
Oral presentation, Walthamstow Hall School, Walthamstow Hall School Sixth Form lecture series, The Famous Women Dinner Service. 2019
Oral presentation, Paul Mellon Centre, A Famous Women “Dinner Party”: Film Screening, Talk, Discussion and Reception, A Famous Women “Dinner Party”: Film Screening, Talk, Discussion and Reception. 2018
film, Queen Mary, Making, Place & Protest, The Famous Women Dinner Service: In Conversation with Contemporary Art. 2018
Oral presentation, Walker Art Gallery, Walker Art Gallery public programme, Public talk on John Moores Painting Prize China winners. 2018
Oral presentation, Moyse's Hall Museum Bury St Ed, public programme lecture, Movement at its core: Sybil Andrews and Bury St Edmunds. 2018
Oral presentation, guest lecture to Franklin University Switzerland, From Omega to Charleston. 2018
Oral presentation, Piano Nobile gallery London, Public Programmes lecture, The Talk of the Table. 2018
Oral presentation, Tate St Ives, Virginia Woolf, Art and Ideas, "The experience of the mass is behind the single voice": Virginia Woolf's sense of her self in relation to wider networks of creativity. 2018
Oral presentation, Oxford University, Oxford Environment seminar on modern landscape, The Berwick Church Murals, Adjusting our gaze to the "local and particular". 2018
Oral presentation, Tate stores and Tate Britain, Making Women’s Art Visible at Tate, Mary Martin and the John Moores Painting Prize. 2018
roundtable discussion, University of Manchester, Feast: Room for Food, Roundtable discussion. 2018
panel discussion, The Derek Jarman Lab, Birkbeck University, Fair Dealing: Theory and Practice, Art History and Fair Dealing. 2017
Oral presentation, Queen Mary University of London and The Arts Pavilion Mile End, Decorating Dissidence: Feminism, Modernism and the Arts, Famous Women: "the familiar, the friendly even the facetious". 2017
Oral presentation, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, public programmes lecture, Vanessa Bell and Making Women's Art Matter. 2017
Oral presentation, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Bedford Square Festival, Bloomsbury Group Breakfast. 2017
Oral presentation, University of Reading, The 27th Annual International conference on Virginia Woolf: Virginia Woolf and the World of Books, Ekphrastic writing; allusive illustration: Vanessa Bell's illustrations for Virginia Woolf's "Kew Gardens". 2017
Oral presentation, National Portrait Gallery and Geffrye Museum, Decoding the domestic interior in British portraits, Carving Limins: From the Victorian Past to the Modernist Future. 2017
Oral presentation, University of London, Britain, Canada, and the Arts, Cultural Exchange as Post-war Renewal, "a corner of a foreign land this is for ever England"': Sybil Andrews and strategies of resistance to losing home. 2017
Oral presentation, University of Sussex, Sussex Modernists and Transformations in the Twentieth-Century Landscape, Eden in Sussex: Atheist Moderns and the Berwick Church Murals. 2017
Oral presentation, Fontainebleau, Festival de l'histoire de l'art, Fair Use et Open Content: les réponses américaines aux nouvelles pratiques de l'image. 2017
Oral presentation, Williamson Art Gallery Birkenhead, Public programmes lecture, '"A Room of One's Own", the Bedsits of Bloomsbury. 2017
Oral presentation, University College London and The Courtauld Institute of Art, Sacred Tradition and the Arts Seminar Series, Controversial Moderns: Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant at St Michael and All Saints. 2017
Oral presentation, Washington, College Art Association, ‘Take my lens…. See that it is always slightly out of focus.’: Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf’s crafting of maternal histories through the gift of Julia Margaret Cameron’s lens. 2016
Oral presentation, Julia Margaret Cameron Conference, Monument, Memory and Mapping the Maternal: The ‘Great Unwritten Story’ in the Work of Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf. 2015
Conference organisation:
Organiser and chair, Exploring exhibition-making as a research practice, https://britishartnetwork.org.uk/uncategorised/event-exhibition-making-as-research/. 2024
Organiser and Chair, Curators and Researchers engaging with Co-Production at LJMU, FACT and Walker Art Gallery. 2024
Organiser, Memory Loss on Screen: lecture and narrative screening with Dr Jonathan Law, https://www.exhibition-research-lab.co.uk/events/memory-loss-on-screen/. 2024
Organiser, Research-based programming in university galleries symposium and networking event, https://www.exhibition-research-lab.co.uk/events/research-based-programming-in-university-galleries/. 2024
Organiser of LJMU-based activities in collaboration with Dr Sophie Hatchwell, organiser of programme at Derby Museum, Co-production in regional art galleries, https://www.exhibition-research-lab.co.uk/events/co-production-in-regional-art-galleries/. 2024
Organiser and Key Note speaker, John Moores Painting Prize and Uses of Big Data in Exhibition Studies. 2023
Organiser. Speakers: Daniel Sturgis (University of the Arts, London), Robbie Bushe (University of Edinburgh), John Moores Painting Prize China and UK winning artists networking conference and workshop. 2023
Co-convener, New Directions in Research in Post-War British Art in Regional Collections. 2023
Organiser, Collective taskforce workshop: Auditing diversity among John Moores Painting Prize winners. 2021
Co-convener, Absence: Absent from history/absent from the gallery, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sINVDJKpXvg&t=2s;%20https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xguzuACjVHE. 2020
Co-convener, Regionalism, Value and Diversifying Post War British Art, https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/folders/1QOtQbiox27AExTR8GRLJdZMAvcG2OeF6. 2020
Co-convener, Debating the status of post-war painting, https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/folders/1S654wmoafv5bxGQM9drptfrZVACs50cM. 2019
Co-convener with Amy Binns, Symposium and Screening, Famous Women: In Conversation with Contemporary Art. 2019
Supporting Adi Lerer, The John Moores Painting Prize and the Rise of the Sixties in Liverpool, A Performative Evening Happening, http://adilerer.com/event-response/4594590031. 2019
organiser and presenter, Talk and tour: John Moores Painting Prize China winners 2018, https://www.artinliverpool.com/events/talk-and-tour-john-moores-painting-prize-china-winners-2018/. 2018
organiser, Building relationships with contemporary Chinese artists in the UK symposium. 2018
Co-convener with Fern Insh and Sophie Hatchwell, Digital Art History, Practice and Potential, https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/digital-art-history-practice-and-potential-tickets-36952699519#. 2017
Convener, Art History & the Middlebrow workshop. 2017
Co-convener with Nadia Hebson, Making Women’s Art Matter: New Approaches to the Careers and Legacies of Women Artists, http://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/whats-on/forthcoming/making-womens-art-matter-224. 2017
Research Grants Awarded:
Grant value (£): 10,000, Arts Council England, James Schofield, Geneva Lavern, The Wrong Sex Symposium. 2023
External PGR examinations performed:
PhD, Birmingham, WOMEN ARTISTS AND THE BRITISH POSTER MOVEMENT (1900 – 1939). 2023
Other invited event:
New York, The Art of To-day: Grosvenor School Linocuts and their Legacy --- A Symposium on the Occasion of “Modern Times: British Prints 1913-1939” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, IFPDA Fair (International Fine Print Dealers Association), Print Month 2021. 2021
Paul Mellon Centre, Respondent for 'Gendered Mediums' panel, Doctoral Researchers Network Summer Symposium 2019. 2019
External collaboration:
Dr Amy Binns, The Famous Women Project with Tate Liverpool and University of Central Lancaster, https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/tate-exchange/workshop/famous-women-project. 2019
External committees:
British Art Network, Co-founder and co-convener, Post-war Painting in Regional Collections Research Network, https://postwarbritishpainting.wordpress.com/. 2019
Gov.uk, Juror, Jury Service. 2018
Paul Mellon Centre, Co-founder and Co-convener, Early Career Researchers in British Art Network, https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/research/about-ecr-485. 2018
Charleston, Committee member, Charleston House and Exhibitions Committee. 2017
Editorial boards:
Deputy Editor, British Art Studies, http://britishartstudies.ac.uk/. 2014