Urddo’r hanesydd celf a chyfarwyddwraig amgueddfa yr Athro Ann Sumner yn Gymrawd

Ganghellor Prifysgol Aberystwyth, yr Gwir Anrhydeddus Arglwydd Thomas o Gwmgiedd gyda'r Athro Ann Sumner, Cymrawd er Anrhydedd Prifysgol Aberystwyth

Mae’r hanesydd celf, curadur arddangosfeydd, a chyfarwyddwraig amgueddfa yr Athro Ann Sumner wedi cael ei hurddo’n Gymrawd er Anrhydedd Prifysgol Aberystwyth.

Mae’r Athro Sumner yn gwasanaethu fel ymgynghorydd allanol ar Fwrdd Ymgynghorol Amgueddfa ac Oriel Ysgol Gelf y Brifysgol.

Roedd hi’n Bennaeth ar Gelfyddyd Gain yn Amgueddfa Cymru rhwng 2000 a 2007, ac yn Gyfarwyddwraig ac Athro yn y Celfyddydau Cain ac Ymarfer Curadurol yn Sefydliad Celfyddydau Cain Barber ym Mhrifysgol Birmingham rhwng 2007 a 2012, cyn iddi gael ei phenodi'n Bennaeth Cysylltiadau Diwylliannol ym Mhrifysgol Leeds.

Fe'i haddysgwyd yn Sefydliad Celf Courtauld, Prifysgol Llundain, cyn gwneud ei Doethuriaeth yng Ngholeg Newnham, Caergrawnt.

Cychwynnodd ar ei gyrfa yn yr Oriel Portreadau Genedlaethol yn Llundain, ac aeth ymlaen i guradu yn Oriel Gelf Whitworth, Prifysgol Manceinion, Oriel Luniau Dulwich, Ymddiriedolaeth Plas Harewood ac Amgueddfa Holburne, Prifysgol Caerfaddon. Fe'i penodwyd yn Gadeirydd Casgliad Celf Fodern y Methodistiaid yn ddiweddar.

Cafodd yr Athro Ann Sumner ei chyflwyno gan yr Athro Robert Meyrick, Pennaeth a Cheidwad Celf yr Ysgol Gelf ddydd Mawrth 17 Gorffennaf 2018. Mae’r cyflwyniad ar gael isod, yn yr iaith y’i traddodwyd.

Cyflwyniad i Ann Sumner gan yr Athro Robert Meyrick:

Canghellor, Is-Ganghellor, darpar raddedigion, gyfeillion.  Pleser o’r mwyaf yw cyflwyno Ann Sumner yn gymrawd Prifysgol Aberystwyth.

Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, prospective graduates and supporters.  It is an honour and a privilege to present Ann Sumner as a Fellow of Aberystwyth University.

As an art historian, exhibition curator and museum director, Ann has been associated with many of the UK’s leading cultural institutions.  As an early career researcher she worked at the National Portrait Gallery in London and Dulwich Picture Gallery where she began as a specialist of seventeenth-century British painting and miniature painting.

There followed periods at the Holburne Museum in Bath and Manchester University’s Whitworth Art Gallery before her appointment as Head of Fine Art at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. She served the Museum for eight years before becoming first female Director of the internationally-renowned Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham. Since her tenure as Barber Professor of Fine Art and Curatorial Practice, Ann has been Director of the Birmingham Museums Trust, Executive Director of the Brontë Society, and Head of Cultural Engagement at the University of Leeds.

In an advisory capacity, Ann is Historic Collections Adviser to the Harewood House Trust and sits on the Steering Committee for the Tercentenary of furniture-maker Thomas Chippendale. She is also part of the Steering Group marking the Centenary of Mitzi Cunliffe, an American sculptor in Manchester. As well as advise Derby Museums Trust on their Joseph Wright of Derby displays, she is newly appointed Chair of the Methodist Modern Art Collection. Importantly for Aberystwyth University, Ann serves as external consultant on the School of Art Museum and Gallery Advisory Board.

Ann studied History of Art at the University of London’s Courtauld Institute and gained a PhD in History from Newnham College, Cambridge. Her research raises awareness of once influential now forgotten or marginalised artists and collectors, and enriches our understanding and appreciation of European art history.

Ann’s first major exhibition for the Holburne at Bath marked the bicentenary of Thomas Gainsborough. One of her most significant research projects was for the National Museum of Wales exploring the work of pioneering eighteenth-century Welsh landscape painter Thomas Jones. Thomas Jones: An Artist Re-discovered toured to the Whitworth in Manchester and the National Gallery in London and was accompanied by a scholarly monograph published by Yale University Press.

At Cardiff, Ann made an important contribution to the history of art and art collecting in Wales. In 2007, she was co-curator of the Museum’s centenary exhibition Industry to Impressionism where she focused on the Davies Sisters of Gregynog as collectors of Impressionist paintings. With the National Gallery, London, she curated an exhibition and researched a monograph on French Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley and his time in England and Wales. A similar project followed on John Brett, A Pre-Raphaelite on the Shores of Wales. She is currently working on now little-known Welsh landscape painter Penry Williams.

Anyone who knows Ann, will know that aside from art history her great passion is lawn tennis. There have been times when the twain have met. In 2011, she curated for the Barber Institute a hugely successful exhibition Court on Canvas: Tennis in Art and just recently has completed for Routledge a chapter on International Tennis Art.

Through uncovering forgotten or marginalised artists and artworks, Ann offers a new appreciation of important figures, historical practices and artefacts and advances our understanding of the personal, professional and institutional forces that shape and maintain our artistic heritage. Rediscovering and re-evaluating, uncovering the past, piecing together a trail of clues, makes accessible work hitherto excluded from the canon due simply to a paucity of information or lack of exposure to the artists and collectors and their practices.

Today we celebrate Ann’s many and varied achievements as one of our foremost art historians and exhibition curators, and in particular mark her contribution to the history of Wales’ visual culture.

Canghellor, Is-Ganghellor mae’n bleser gen i gyflwyno Ann Sumner i chi yn Gymrawd.  

Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, it is my absolute pleasure to present Ann Sumner to you as a Fellow of Aberystwyth University.

Anrhydeddau Prifysgol Aberystwyth 2018

Bydd Prifysgol Aberystwyth yn anrhydeddu naw o bobl yn ystod seremonïau graddio 2018, a gynhelir yng Nghanolfan Gelfyddydau’r Brifysgol rhwng dydd Mawrth 17 Gorffennaf a dydd Gwener 20 Gorffennaf.

Cyflwynir chwe Chymrawd er Anrhydedd i unigolion a chanddynt gysylltiad ag Aberystwyth neu â Chymru ar hyn o bryd neu yn y gorffennol, ac sydd wedi gwneud cyfraniad eithriadol i’w dewis feysydd.

Cyflwynir un radd Doethuriaeth Er Anrhydedd hefyd; mae’r rhain yn cydnabod unigolion sydd wedi bod yn eithriadol o lwyddiannus yn eu maes, neu sydd â record hir o ymchwil a chyhoeddi nodedig.

Cyflwynir dwy radd Baglor er Anrhydedd. Cyflwynir y rhain i unigolion sy’n aelodau o staff Prifysgol Aberystwyth heb radd lefel-mynediad, i gydnabod eu gwasanaeth hir, eu cyfraniad a’u hymrwymiad i’r Sefydliad; ac i aelodau o’r gymuned leol sydd wedi gwneud cyfraniad sylweddol i Aberystwyth a’r cyffiniau.

Cymrodoriaethau er Anrhydedd:

Cyflwynir Cymrodoriaethau er Anrhydedd i:

• Yr Athro Ann Sumner – hanesydd celf, curadur arddangosfeydd, a chyfarwyddwraig amgueddfa
• Bonamy Grimes MBE – gwe-entrepreneur a chyd-sylfaenydd y wefan cymharu prisiau teithiau awyren, Skyscanner
• Euryn Ogwen Williams – darlledydd profiadol a ffigwr arloesol yn y cyfryngau yng Nghymru
• John Dawes OBE – cyn-chwaraewr a chyn-hyfforddwr rygbi rhyngwladol
• Yr Athro Menna Elfyn – bardd a dramodydd arobryn
• Ei Anrhydedd y Barnwr Milwyn Jarman QC – barnwr blaenllaw.

Urddwyd yr awdur a’r ysgolhaig, yr Athro Meic Stephens yn Gymrawd er Anrhydedd Prifysgol Aberystwyth mewn seremoni arbennig yng Nghaerdydd ddydd Iau 3 Mai 2018. Bu farw yr Athro Stephens ar ddydd Iau 3 Gorffennaf.

Gradd Doethur er Anrhydedd:

Cyflwynir gradd Doethur er Anrhydedd i’r entrepreneur technoleg a dylunydd meddalwedd, John Thompson.

Graddau Baglor er Anrhydedd:

Cyflwynir gradd Baglor yn y Gwyddorau er Anrhydedd i gyn Reolwr Gorsaf Dân Aberystwyth, Eric Harries, a drefnodd ac arwain 50 o deithiau dyngarol i Ddwyrain Ewrop i gynorthwyo rhai diniwed a ddioddefai oherwydd rhyfel.

Cyflwynir Gradd Baglor yn y Celfyddydau er Anrhydedd i Sue Jones-Davies, actores a chantores, cynghorydd tref, a chyn Faer Aberystwyth.

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Yr Athro Ann Sumner

Is-Ganghellor Yr Athro Elizabeth Treasure, Yr Athro Ann Sumner, Ganghellor Arglwydd Thomas o Gwmgiedd

Rhannu