In conversation with Richard Wright: celebrating 10 years of the Great Hall ceiling

Richard Wright is back at the Queen's House on Thursday 22 October, ten years after his contemporary artwork was installed on the ceiling of the Great Hall. The evening is a conversation and Q&A, with Wright joined by Christine Riding, who commissioned the work in 2016 when she was Head of Arts and Curator of the Queen's House. Riding is now Director of Collections and Research at the National Gallery, and the two will spend the night looking back at the piece's inspiration, how it came together, and what it's left behind.

There's a fair bit of history to the room itself. Between 1636 and 1638, Orazio Gentileschi, working with his daughter Artemisia, painted nine canvases for Queen Henrietta Maria: The Allegory of Peace and the Arts under the British Crown. They stayed there until 1708, when Queen Anne gifted them to Sarah Churchill and they were moved to Marlborough House, leaving the ceiling empty for more than three centuries. Wright's installation was a response to that specific room, and it's been there for a decade now.

Wright, born in 1960, won the Turner Prize in 2009 and is known for large-scale, site-specific painted and metal-leaf installations. The conversation will be held in the Great Hall on the first floor, so you'll be sitting right under the work they're talking about. It's for ages 18+, and seating is unreserved except for RMG patrons.

Doors open at 6.30pm, with the conversation and Q&A starting at 7pm and wrapping up by 8pm. Tickets are £25 for adults and £22.50 for students, with a £3 non-refundable booking fee added to each. The venue is the Great Hall, first floor, Queen's House, Romney Road, Greenwich, London SE10 9NF.