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Transforming visitor experience across museums and heritage sites Museum organisation and evaluation

Summary of the impact

The last twenty years has seen a gradual transformation of museums from being collections-focused to becoming audience-centred organisations. Graham Black, a `practitioner academic' with a proven commercial track record, has played an important role in enabling this change. His research has been instrumental in developing alternative approaches to display, activities and events, and online provision. Black argues that the speed of change in the external world - a `perfect storm' involving rapid demographic change, generational shift and the influence of new media —must be matched by an equally speedy response in the definition, mission and public practice of museums (`Developing Audiences for the Twenty-First-Century Museum', 2013). Through publications, talks and exemplar design practices his work has helped to shape public debates on museums and user participation/user generated content, and on museums and civil engagement, in the UK, Europe and beyond.

Submitting Institution

Nottingham Trent University

Unit of Assessment

History

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies
History and Archaeology: Curatorial and Related Studies

HIS03 - Transatlantic Slavery: influence, legacy, representation

Summary of the impact

The History Department at York has a long-standing commitment (embodied in the work of James Walvin, Simon Smith, Douglas Hamilton, Henrice Altink and Geoff Cubitt) to path-breaking research into the history and memory of transatlantic slavery. Our researchers have worked closely with museums and educational practitioners to establish a `virtuous circle' in which research: (i) influences the content of heritage and educational presentations; (ii) reflects on those presentations, gauging public response and prompting stakeholder debate; (iii) provides constructive feedback to museums and others. This impact case study shows how research by members of the Department has contributed to each stage of this process. Professor James Walvin's research publications from 1993 until his retirement in 2005 revealed how slavery has shaped the nature of contemporary British society, a body of work that significantly contributed to the slave trade's inclusion in the National Curriculum in 2008. In addition to his on-going record as an exhibition curator, historical advisor and commentator on slavery, he advised and helped create the York AHRC-funded `1807 Commemorated' project (2007-9), principle investigator Laurajane Smith (Archaeology) and co-investigator Geoff Cubitt; Data Management Group Walvin. This project helped heritage professionals and other stakeholders understand and analyse the extensive museum activity on slavery generated by the 2007 Bicentenary of the Act Abolishing the Slave Trade, and led to innovations in museum practice and new collaborative relationships within the sector.

Submitting Institution

University of York

Unit of Assessment

History

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies
History and Archaeology: Curatorial and Related Studies, Historical Studies

Embedding participatory research in museum practice

Summary of the impact

DU researchers have delivered their innovative model of participatory action research (PAR) with Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums Service (TWAM, a major regional museum service in the North east, comprising seven museums and galleries) to further social inclusion and deepen participation from socially marginalised groups. Research findings have led to: (1) enhanced income generation for TWAM, with bids citing DU research bringing in more than £0.5m at a time of shrinking resource for the museum sector; (2) the development of a major new museum gallery, which opened in July 2013; and (3) changes to professional practice consequent upon intensifying the practice of participatory working within TWAM.

Submitting Institution

University of Durham

Unit of Assessment

Geography, Environmental Studies and Archaeology

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration
History and Archaeology: Curatorial and Related Studies

Waithe

Summary of the impact

Marcus Waithe has carried out research that has resulted in a web-based `reconstruction' of the St George's Museum, a gallery and library for artisans founded in Sheffield in 1875 by the art and social critic, John Ruskin. Impact can be demonstrated in four areas:

  1. Influence on the work of museum curators at Museums Sheffield.
  2. Recognition as an original concept and practical model by institutions, educators and charities.
  3. Influence on the methods of charity professionals working in the area of public engagement.
  4. Connecting local people with local history, and raising awareness of Sheffield's Ruskin- related heritage among national and international audiences.

Submitting Institution

University of Cambridge

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Anthropology
Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies
History and Archaeology: Curatorial and Related Studies

Bad News for Disabled People: Informing debate on media representations of disability

Summary of the impact

`Scrounger', `cheat', `skiver' - Disabled people are feeling increasingly threatened by how they are represented in the media. University of Glasgow research has provided strong evidence of this negative shift in media coverage of disability issues. The 2011 findings have received widespread attention, have critically informed public and political debate and have substantially shaped the work of NGOs and advocacy groups. They have provided organisations with clear research evidence to inform their campaigns by defining and quantifying misrepresentations in the media and the effects on audience perception of these issues, helping to support calls for change in public attitudes to issues of inequality.

Submitting Institution

University of Glasgow

Unit of Assessment

Social Work and Social Policy

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration, Social Work

Changing Cultural Perceptions of Disability and Difference

Summary of the impact

McKeown is a major exponent of Disability Arts. Through his creative work in animation and performance he works to affect popular assumptions about disability. He seeks to affirm disability as a social construct and his work reflects, deconstructs and engages with the concepts of normalcy and the abnormal. He has become an important proponent of disability issues because of the international reach of his practice as an artist. His work stresses the pride and self-confidence of the disabled and expresses their wish to participate in, and be full members of, society. He has reached a large public and affected the terms of debate of the issues he acts as an ambassador for.

Submitting Institution

Teesside University

Unit of Assessment

Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Studies In Creative Arts and Writing: Film, Television and Digital Media

Learning from the Ancestors, Strengthening Cultural Identity: The Blackfoot Shirts Project

Summary of the impact

Five historic Blackfoot First Nations hide shirts held in the Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM) since 1893 were lent to two museums in Alberta, Canada, to promote cross-cultural exchange of knowledge. Under historic assimilation policies (1885-1970), most heritage objects had been removed from Blackfoot communities to museums, contributing to the destabilization of Blackfoot cultural identity and poor mental and physical health typical of indigenous populations. For the first time in a century over 500 Blackfoot people were able to handle objects made before the assimilation era. This provoked the sharing of cultural knowledge within the Blackfoot community, led to improved self-esteem, and intensified interest and pride in cultural identity. In exchange, Blackfoot people shared cultural knowledge about the shirts with museum professionals from all UK museums with significant Blackfoot collections, trained them in new approaches to museology, and co-curated exhibitions sharing Blackfoot perspectives in Alberta and Oxford reaching over 50,000 people.

Submitting Institution

University of Oxford

Unit of Assessment

Anthropology and Development Studies

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Anthropology
Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies
History and Archaeology: Curatorial and Related Studies

Providing the philosophical underpinnings for self-directed support in social care

Summary of the impact

Research by Jonathan Wolff provided the intellectual framework for pioneering work on self-directed support in social care by In Control, a national charity whose mission is `to create a fairer society where everyone needing additional support has the right, responsibility and freedom to control that support'. Wolff's work with In Control has shaped recent government policies including the Putting People First strategy (adopted 2008), which have improved health provision generally and service provision for disabled persons in particular. The specific impacts described here are (1) shaping government policy at both a national and local level and (2) improving the health and quality of life of more than 600,000 disabled citizens and their carers by improving service delivery.

Submitting Institution

University College London

Unit of Assessment

Philosophy

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration, Social Work

Changing economic thinking to enable the world’s greatest museums to deliver digital images free of charge to everyone.

Summary of the impact

Research by Simon Tanner has had a significant effect on open access policy in the museum sector. His research demonstrated that the cost of managing intellectual property and maintaining payment structures in cultural heritage collections almost always outweighs actual revenue. Museums, galleries and archives internationally have embraced unmediated, open access to digitised assets and Tanner's work is frequently acknowledged as a catalyst for this change in policy. Since 2008, the number of high quality digital images freely available from art museums has risen to more than 2 million. The key beneficiaries have been the general public, schools and life- long learners.

Submitting Institution

King's College London

Unit of Assessment

Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management 

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies
History and Archaeology: Curatorial and Related Studies

Revealing Disability’s Hidden Past: Enriching public discourses and empowering disabled people

Summary of the impact

Prize-winning research by Dr David Turner at Swansea University has enriched public understanding of the history of disability. He has empowered disabled people by showing that they have a history and demonstrated the contemporary relevance of that history in showing that developments considered recent, such as the formation of disabled identities and public fears about the authenticity of disabled welfare claimants, are nothing new. Impact is achieved via the creation of a major cultural product, a BBC Radio 4 series `Disability: A New History' which reached a wide audience, and through targeted engagement with media, policymakers and campaigners on disability benefit reform.

Submitting Institution

Swansea University

Unit of Assessment

History

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

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