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Professor Alex Danchev's research on the relationship between art, artists and politics has underpinned material changes to curatorial approach and practice at the Imperial War Museum, contributed to the planning of exhibitions at the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, London, and has added depth to museums' and galleries' public programmes. It has stimulated new thought and practice amongst artists and writers, and has generated wider public debate about art, artists and politics. It has enriched the cultural debate by engaging thinkers, writers, broadcasters, practitioners, curators and educators, and the diverse publics with whom they engage.
Investigating how artistic reputation is constructed and sustained, Meyrick considers the professional and institutional forces that shape our artistic heritage. Sourcing, documenting, interpreting and displaying difficult-to-access artworks and archival materials, his research raises awareness of once influential now forgotten 20th-century British artists and collectors. Recovering `lost' cultural capital, Meyrick engages the public through touring exhibitions, publications and public appearances. His research outcomes enrich our cultural life as well as public understanding and appreciation of British print history and Welsh visual culture. They are the principal sources of reference for a wide range of beneficiaries, from curators and dealers to broadcasters and general audiences.
York's British Art Research School, judged `world-leading' in RAE 2008, aims to change the way key cultural institutions represent British art. To advance this aim we have fostered partnerships with museums and galleries at local, national, and international levels. The partnerships have influenced curatorial practices through:
These initiatives have helped partners to display and promote a significantly wider range of British art and to generate new kinds of interpretation for larger and more diverse publics.
Research carried out at the University of Southampton into the social and intellectual value of conceptual art has been the basis of creative education and personal development programmes designed for school children, teachers, young offenders and the general public. Through public engagement activities run through the University's John Hansard Gallery, public knowledge and understanding of conceptual art have been deepened. Research has had a significant impact on 93 young offenders whose participation in arts-based programmes has resulted in the attainment of educational qualifications, enhanced employment prospects and a drop in re-offending. New programmes, co-developed with Southampton Youth Offending Service, have influenced public policy at local and national government levels, with impact reach evidenced when they were recognised by the Ministry of Justice as a model for best practice.
The impact comes from Ekserdjian's authentication and attribution of Renaissance paintings and the curatorship of international exhibitions, both of which have had substantial financial impact on institutions and individuals involved in the art market, in particular the auction house sector, galleries and museums. This also includes cultural impacts on the art-loving public by introducing them to newly-discovered and attributed artworks which might previously have never been exhibited publicly and by offering innovative ways of exhibiting and understanding masterpieces gathered from around the globe.
Research at the University of Bristol on the international contexts of British art has made a distinctive contribution to a renaissance of British art studies that began in the late 1980s. Over the past five years, scholars at Bristol have worked with museums in London, the regions and overseas to engage the widest possible audience in fresh thinking about British art. Exhibitions and catalogue essays informed by their research have raised awareness of individual artists and changed public and critical perceptions of British art as a whole. They have also brought many benefits to the museum partners, attracting visitors, generating income and enhancing the museums' understanding of their own collections. Some exhibitions have inspired additional collaborations which have fed back into research and further extended audiences for British art.
In times of financial instability, there is particular pressure on arts and cultural institutions to operate effectively and attract, develop and retain new audiences. Research conducted at the University of Southampton's Winchester School of Art has directly enabled key cultural institutions to address these challenges. Since 2009 three major Tate exhibitions/events with related public education activities were built out of this research — resulting in over £140,000 of economic benefits for the Tate through ticket sales, a broadening of traditional audiences, and greater public understanding and knowledge of art and social history.
Afterall is a research and publishing organisation founded in 1998 by Research Fellow Charles Esche and Professor Mark Lewis at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London (UAL). Afterall focuses on contemporary art, and its relationship to wider theoretical, social and political fields. Researchers associated to Afterall undertake and commission research, which is disseminated to an international audience through publications and events. Afterall impacts on the cultural sector and an extended audience by providing a platform for critical and creative responses to art, curatorial and cultural practice and by shaping discourse in this area. The significance and wide reach of this impact is demonstrated through partnerships and high-profile cultural events, publication reach, and support from the cultural community.
Nicholas Alfrey's work has led to a reassessment of modern British art of the 1960s and 1970s concerned with landscape and the environment. This has been achieved through his curatorship of exhibitions at the Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham (2009) and at Southampton Art Gallery, the latter under the aegis of Arts Council England (2013), and their subsequent press reception. Alfrey has selected work for these exhibitions by leading British artists never before displayed and he has therefore increased the visibility of this material. Through his activities, the dominance of American Land Art has been questioned. In a related strand of activity, Alfrey's Land Art Network, funded by the AHRC, has initiated a dialogue between different generations of contemporary artists and created new networks and interaction between art historians, museum and gallery curators, artists and writers. The careers of individual artists, notably Katie Paterson, have been transformed by their participation in the Network. The institutions concerned have thereby invested and promoted Land Art as part of their exhibition strategy, which has been linked to Arts Council England's historic promotion of British Land Art and the more recent revival of Southampton Art Gallery.
Research by Daniels for Picturing Britain, an exhibition about the life and works of the pre-eminent Nottingham-born landscape artist Paul Sandby (1731-1809), shaped the policy and practice of Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery (NCMAG). While NCMAG previously imported exhibitions of international standing produced elsewhere, Picturing Britain reversed this relationship. This exhibition, conceived in Nottingham and based partly on works held at NCMAG, was exported to two internationally important venues, strengthening the city's national and international cultural reputation. Inspired by the success of Picturing Britain, NCMAG re-assessed its permanent collection with a view to securing Arts Council recognition and is currently investigating other `home-grown' touring exhibitions.