Now booking Tate Modern Talk

Ackroyd & Harvey: The Art of Activism

6 June 2025 at 19.00–21.30

A carpet of false grass floats on the river Thames.

Ackroyd & Harvey, On the Shore, Tate to Thames, 2021. Image courtesy of the artists.

Join us for the premiere of a new film exploring art and environmental activism

When does practice become protest, or art, activism? Fiona Cunningham-Reid’s film Ackroyd & Harvey: The Art of Activism is an intimate portrait of artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey. They work at the intersection of art, activism, biology and ecology, and the film documents their quest to shake humanity into action on climate catastrophe – whatever the personal cost.

This world premiere will be followed by a conversation between Ackroyd & Harvey, director Fiona Cunningham-Reid and contributor Ben Okri, chaired by Louisa Buck. The film's composer, guitar virtuoso Richard Durrant will introduce the film with a short performance.

Ackroyd & Harvey

Collaborating since 1990, they have exhibited in galleries, museums, public

spaces and sites of special interest including; Science Gallery London (2024);

Hayward Gallery, London (2023); Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, USA

(2023); Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2022); Somerset House, London

(2022); Tate Modern, London (2021); Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (2018);

Aarhus Triennale, Denmark (2017); The David Attenborough Building,

Cambridge (2016); Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London (2012).

Fiona Cunningham-Reid

Fiona studied film at the London Film School and worked in the camera department on many feature films including My Beautiful Laundrette and

Superman 3. Documentary films include a deep, dark look into her own

family, The Real Country House; Sydney underworld legend, Croc-a Dyke

Dundee; award winning Feed Them to the Cannibals, the Sydney Lesbian

and Gay Mardi Gras; and Groundswell, an inspiring story of a farming

revolution. Most of Fiona's films are shaped and edited by Catherine Arend.

Richard Durrant

Richard Durrant is one of the leading guitar virtuosos of his generation. He

plays worldwide and his lyrical, virtuosic interpretations of Bach's works (on

guitar, tenor guitar and kelele) have received critical acclaim. Showing

concern for the natural environment, he tours the British Isles each year with

everything he needs for his midsummer recital tour on a bicycle and trailer.

Louisa Buck

Louisa Buck is a writer and broadcaster on contemporary art. She is a Contributing Editor and London Contemporary Art Correspondent for The Art Newspaper and a regular reviewer and commentator on BBC radio and TV and a range of publications.

She is the author of a number of catalogue essays for institutions including Tate, Whitechapel Gallery, ICA London, MCA Australia and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

Her books include Moving Targets 2: A User’s Guide to British Art Now (Tate 2000); Owning Art: The Contemporary Art Collector’s Handbook (Cultureshock Media 2006). Commissioning Contemporary Art : A Handbook for Curators, Collectors and Artists Thames & Hudson 2012) Going Public, a report, commissioned by ACE and Museums Sheffield (2016).

Louisa was a judge for the 2005 Turner Prize and is a founding member of The Gallery Climate Coalition.

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