Summary of the impact

This project has disseminated high-quality research through collaborative, curatorial, published, TV and digital outputs with a strong public engagement agenda. It has raised public awareness of the important role of gender in the development of eighteenth-century theatrical culture, influenced the public programmes of national collections, and involved collaborations with disciplines of music, theatre history and drama companies. The research has generated public lectures, a major curated exhibition with the National Portrait Gallery The First Actresses (2011-2012) and a smaller show of modern actress portraits The Actress Now, TV and radio features, linked digital resources on the `Open Arts Archive' (www.openartsarchive.org/oaa), and substantial press interest.

Summary of the impact

The Leon Golub retrospective at Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum introduced Golub's politically engaged work to a city with a radical political history. Curated by Jon Bird, leading authority on Golub, it examined how Golub's depictions of political and military power impact upon individual and collective social bodies. It also related Golub's work to paintings by Goya and Picasso. Extensive public/media response, particularly as it spread through the Spanish-speaking world, confirmed the achievement and topicality of Golub's practice and the significance of the retrospective. Consideration of the role of painting as a mode of political commentary in itself, and as a catalyst for broader discussion of the visual representation of dictatorships and state violence, was found amongst curators, critics, and the general public. Bird's curatorial approach was informed by Middlesex University (MU)'s critical legacy of visual cultural studies, emphasizing works of art as social, material and expressive cultural objects.

Summary of the impact

Professor Andrew Gerstle's research and conceptualisation of the first exhibition of Osaka Kabuki prints since 1975 has proved a catalyst in radically reinvigorating interest in Osaka visual culture of the late 18^th and 19^th centuries, which had hitherto been eclipsed by that of Tokyo. Kabuki Heroes (2005), both as exhibition and detailed catalogue, has prompted further exhibitions on the subject, significantly enhanced the international market for Osaka prints, constitutes a primary source for museum curators and others and has had a significant influence on the British Museum and its curation and planning of its autumn 2013 exhibition Shunga, to which Gerstle has also substantially contributed.

Summary of the impact

Bamforth's research on the Renaissance scientific marvel contributed to a major French exhibition The Birth of Modern Lorraine (Musée Lorrain, Nancy, 4 May-4 August 2013). The exhibition

• provided 24,295 visitors (from Nancy, Lorraine, rest of France, the EU and rest of world) with increased knowledge of the rich cultural heritage and worldview of Renaissance Lorraine
• increased the flow of visitors (11,467 first-time visitors) to the museum itself
• raised the museum's profile through the French Ministry of Culture's formal designation of the exhibition as a `cultural event of national importance'
• attracted 5,000,000€ of public and private funding for this and its sister exhibitions in Nancy
• enhanced public perceptions of the image of the museum
• acted as a flagship for the museum's ambitious programme of expansion and renovation
• enhanced public perceptions (locally, nationally and internationally) of the historical and cultural importance of both town and region
• renewed civic pride and regional optimism following a period of industrial decline