The Wallace Collection Ticket Portal

Join us for a special film night hosted by filmmaker Huw Wahl and art critic and curator Valentin Diakonov, showcasing the thought-provoking series, Speaking Back. This compelling programme, directed by Wahl and produced by curator Holly Grange, explores how so-called ‘outsider artists’ – those often positioned at the margins of the art world – challenge and converse with the institutions that collect and interpret their work. Showing newly released films documenting Valerie Potter and Marie Rose-Lortet, the event will reflect on the lives and practices of artists such as Madge Gill and Aloïse Corbaz – featured in our exhibition Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur – whose deeply personal, visionary work has often been misunderstood or underappreciated.

Wahl and Diakonov will also screen a pre-recorded discussion between artist Valerie Potter, and curator Jennifer Gilbert, who champions self-taught, disabled and overlooked artists. They will discuss power, representation and the radical potential of outsider art. This event invites audiences to reconsider how these artists ‘speak back’ through their work.

The featured artists are part of the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection, the largest public collection of its kind in the UK, which has played a vital role in preserving and championing their work. Speaking Back is a series of four films about artists from the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection. Commissioned by the Whitworth Art Gallery. For ages 18+.

About the speakers:

Valentin Diakonov (born 1980, Moscow, Russia) is an art critic and curator of Modern and Contemporary art at the Whitworth, University of Manchester. As a critic, he published reviews and articles in many Russian- and English-language publications, such as Frieze, e flux Criticism, Glasstire, Burnaway, and others. He served as curator at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, in 2016-2022. In 2022-2024 he was critic in residence at the Core Program in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Huw Wahl is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has been screened internationally at festivals such as CPH:DOX and Open City Docs, in venues including Centre Pompidou Metz, Royal Museums Greenwich, and aboard a Thames sailing barge. His films have received international awards, featured in Sight and Sound, The Guardian, and The Wire, and been supported by Arts Council England, The Henry Moore Foundation, and the Royal Photographic Society. He has published widely, curated film programmes, taught internationally, and worked as an AHRC-funded researcher. He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. His latest film, Wind, Tide & Oar, is on UK cinema release with Tull Stories.

Jennifer Gilbert is the Director of the Jennifer Lauren Gallery, which she founded to promote self-taught, neurodivergent, and disabled artists from around the world. Her curatorial work challenges traditional ideas of art and champions inclusion and accessibility. She has collaborated with places including Flowers Gallery and Carl Freedman Gallery, Tate, and TalkArt Podcast. Jennifer is committed to ethical representation, working closely with artists and their communities to support visibility and recognition. Through exhibitions and public programmes, she creates platforms for underrepresented voices, fostering greater understanding and appreciation of artists working outside the 'mainstream' art world.

Valerie Potter is an artist exploring emotional expression through drawing and stitching. No longer able to draw, her textile work, often small-scale and hand-stitched, reflects themes of care, memory and inner monologues. Her practice bridges traditional techniques with contemporary themes, highlighting the quiet strength found in slow, tactile processes. Valerie lives and works in Margate, where she also writes poetry and knits. Her drawings, paintings, tapestries and embroideries have been exhibited at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin, UK), Whitechapel Gallery (London, UK), the Whitworth (Manchester, UK) and Tate Britain (London, UK). Collections include the Whitworth (Manchester, UK), Bethlem Museum of the Mind (Kent, UK) and Tate (London, UK).

About Outsider Film Season: Join us for a season of films inspired by our exhibition Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur, celebrating self-expression, unconventional creativity and the art that exists beyond the expected. Curated by Sophie Dutton, Works by Madge Gill worksby-madgegill.co'.

Take part at the museum: Join us at the museum for this special event, followed by an evening view of Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur until 20.45.

Please note the speaker line-up was changed on 12 August 2025 as Holly Grange is no longer able to attend.