Vivienne Roberts is the curator at The College of Psychic Studies in London (Est.1884) where she cares for their large collection of spirit inspired art, photographs and artefacts from 1850 to the present day. This unusual archive along with the College’s specialist esoteric library has offered Vivienne the opportunity to immerse herself in a wealth of primary material and has been instrumental in helping her curate a series of large exhibitions, including: Encounters with the Spirit World (2016), Art & Spirit: Visions of Wonder (2019), Strange Things Among Us (2021) and Creative Spirits, which is planned for Autumn 2022.
Vivienne’s art specialism is the history of mediumistic art with particular attention to its women practitioners. She has established the websites mediumisticart.com, georgianahoughton.com and madgegill.com and her independent research has led to the rediscovery of several spirit inspired artists who have fallen into obscurity, such as Alice Pery and Alice Essington Nelson. Articles and exhibition catalogue contributions include: Madge & the Spiritualists; Alice Pery: Royal Blood and Spirit Voices; Georgiana Houghton: Pioneering Spirit; The Art and Spirit of Madge Gill; Madge Gill: Star of Destiny; Alice Essington Nelson for the Women in Abstraction exhibition at the Pompidou and Guggenheim and Aleksandra Ionowa: A Force of Nature. Recent talks include British Visionary Sisters in Art for the Visionary Women Conference in Barcelona and Madge Gill: Myrninerest, Marconi and Mars for the College in 2021.
