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The AHRC-funded British Grotowski Project has enhanced international theatre practice and the teaching of theatre in schools, as well as broadening cultural understanding in the UK.
The project enabled the development of new theoretical and embodied understanding of Jerzy Grotowski's oeuvre within and beyond the theatre profession, enhancing theatre skills in actor training and directing amongst professional practitioners, schoolteachers and pupils. Many project events took place under the auspices of the Polish government's Polska! Year in the UK and UNESCO's Year of Grotowski, both 2009, which broadened the global impact.
From 2004 to the present, Gemma Blackshaw (Reader in Art History at Plymouth, 2002-present) has worked on the relationship between mental illness, psychiatry, and the visual arts in Vienna 1900. Through exhibition, a non-specialist book, film, and associated social media platforms, this work has reached and responded to audiences outside academia, including mental health communities. It has generated new knowledge, interpretations and approaches to the history and study of mental illness. It has encouraged international public discourse on how society used to engage with the mentally ill, and how we continue to engage with this community 100 years on.
Researchers at the Photography and the Archive Research Centre (PARC) study the practice and products of photography in terms of both artistic importance and social relevance, recognising photography's many roles including its presence in: the art world; reportage; autobiographical practice; and in social and political education. This case study demonstrates PARC's impact on cultural life via the production of work and curatorial practice, bringing new insights, challenging assumptions, and raising awareness of the role of photographic practice in the public realm.
This case study highlights the impact derived from research undertaken into the history and contemporary possibilities of new visual media technologies, and is focused on the work of two cultural theorists in the Department, Dr David Cunningham and Dr Sas Mays. Their engagements with visual-technological cultures showcase the impact of their work on various public audiences, artistic and media practitioners and heritage organisations in creating access to new cultural knowledge for non-academic users. Mays's research has informed practice in the worlds of contemporary art and visual media heritage. Cunningham's research has generated public understanding of the visual culture of the modern metropolis, and, more directly, innovation and entrepreneurial activities within the new media production industry.
Ysanne Holt was Academic Advisor and Commissioning Editor for Tate's Camden Town Group in Context project, funded through the Getty Foundation's Online Scholarly Catalogue Initiative which aims to transform how museums disseminate information about their collections. Holt undertook and commissioned new research into the Group's artworks and their broader contexts. Impacts derived from the project's online catalogue include increased awareness for national and international public and specialists; and improved access to the art and its contexts via a multi-platform open access facility. In addition, the project has influenced the Tate's Digital Strategy and led to the creation of the new post of Digital Editor within Tate's Research Department.
There are two ways in which Erle's research on William Blake, Physiognomy and text-image relationships have achieved public impact. First, a display and a Scholar's Morning on "Blake and Physiognomy" at Tate Britain (2010-11) and there were also invitations to give public lectures for "Haus der Romantik", a Literature Museum specialising on Romanticism in Marburg (Germany) and for the Blake Society, a London-based but international organisation of Blake scholars and enthusiasts. Second, an online-exhibition on Lord Alfred Tennyson's copy of Blake's Job for the Tennyson Research Centre (2012-13) and a display on Blake, Tennyson and Anne Gilchrist in Lincoln Public Library.
Our research has harnessed the power of photography to expand the cultural imagination, creating new works and interpretive practices that enrich, illuminate and challenge perceptions of society and the world in which we live. Through exhibition, publication, and public and community engagement, our research has: 1) created cultural legacies for major public (Millennium Dome, Treasury) and commercial (Airbus) projects; 2) provided enhanced cultural experiences to multiple audiences and specific communities in the UK and Europe, provoking reflection on ideas of place and identity, and contributing to processes of cultural memory and reconciliation (Association of Jewish Refugees, Healing Through Remembering) and; 3) expanded photography within the cultural economy, working in partnership (Photoworks, Multistory) to build and sustain audiences for photography within and beyond the region.
As a result of Benedict Burbridge's work on photographic practices, he was asked to co-curate the Brighton Photo Biennial 2012, entitled Agents of Change: Photography and the Politics of Space. The Biennial had an impact on viewers' understanding of photography, photographic practices and the contingent meaning of photographic images. It also affected the artistic practice of participants and influenced a number of students to see connections between art and politics. Burbridge's research shaped the Biennial's thirteen exhibitions: he invited its artists and organised the exhibition of work in unusual spaces and modes that highlighted connections between image and context by underlining the influence that setting has on meaning.
Work undertaken by the Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN) at the University of the Arts London (UAL) focuses on the role of identity and nation in the production and consumption of artwork and artefacts. This has resulted in an increased awareness and critical understanding of transnational art and design, to the benefit of the Museums and Galleries sector, arts organisations, and the artistic community.
The significance of illumination for the development of innovative place-making strategies designed to enhance convivial life in the city, enable better communal heritage preservation and augment urban economic capacity has been acutely underestimated. The research showcased here is interested in discovering new concepts and methodologies for the understanding, utilisation and evaluation of illumination as both a facilitator and intrinsic expression of communal life in both the city and beyond. The research has initiated a vibrant knowledge exchange between academics, professionals and municipal authorities leading to the establishment of an increasingly international network focused on the politics, aesthetics, communal benefits and economic potential of effective urban place-making through strategic illumination. The research has also impacted on the tourism strategies of coastal towns and resorts, and on heritage cultivation through the provision of expert advice. Among both specialist stakeholders and the wider public the research has raised awareness of illumination as a place-making strategy, as well as a matter of class and taste. The research has also rehabilitated aspects of popular culture by reappraising the role of the vernacular in municipal event planning and general policy-making discourse.