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This case study demonstrates how research has informed and influenced the policies and practices of a leading UK museum group, the Tate; and specifically to (a) barriers to access to publicly-funded culture and (b) responses to cultural policies advocating cultural diversity amongst audiences.
Impact includes: (i) repositioning of Tate's On-Line strategy leading to a more permeable web-site; (ii) recognition and acceptance by Tate Trustees, Management and funding authorities of the significance of longitudinal social science research in shaping the plans and future development of Tate; (iii) informing and influencing the Tate's Audience Development Strategy, 2012-15; (iv) modelling conceptual categories of audiences to allow for effective audience recognition and engagement; and (v) advising Tate's learning programmes in relation to the use of new media and making them more relevant to a diverse youth audience.
The University for the Creative Arts has a longstanding commitment to the history, practice, and theory of craft. The research of the Crafts Study Centre (CSC) and Anglo-Japanese Textile Research Centre (AJTRC) has long championed the work of craft practitioners in order to find new ways of thinking through creative practice. This curatorial work, public facing in nature, has contributed to the personal, professional and creative development of a range of craft practitioners by offering an enquiry-led platform for the exploration of craft as profession. Though this research has brought numerous benefits to a wide range of people and organisations, this case study explains specific qualitative and quantitative benefits brought to a number of craft practitioners by this work.
Earth Forum, a citizens' practice (2011 on-going) with global grassroots take-up in South Africa and Europe, demonstrates cultural and educational impacts through Sacks' 40-year social sculpture and connective practices enquiry. It incorporates insights from the Exchange Values project, whose 12 venues, since 1996, offered thousands of consumers an arena for exploring `fairtrade' and their relationship to the global economy. Participatory social sculpture processes with Caribbean farmers inform methodologies and connective aesthetic practices in all later commissions including, University of the Trees and Ort des Treffens. Sacks' internationally recognized pedagogies, commissioned lecture-actions, writing and projects extend Joseph Beuys' social sculpture ideas into a coherent and widely accessible set of understandings and practices.
The focus on creativity in educational practices at Chester is through the Centre for Research into Education, Creativity and Arts through Practice (RECAP), directed by Adams (since 2010) and Owens (since 1993). They have worked worldwide to bring creativity into educational and professional practices by developing innovative approaches to teaching and learning. Their research has brought about extensive international partnerships between HE, arts and professional and business institutions and groups, which has informed policy development on creative education worldwide. Their contemporary creative pedagogies have impacted on teacher education and the professional development of teachers, arts groups, communities and businesses throughout this international community.
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.
Bournemouth University (BU) research by White (BU 2003 to present) focuses on the relationship between art, technology and culture. Exhibitions, workshops and presentations across the UK, Europe and in the USA have provoked societal reflection on critical topics such as genetics and germ warfare, among other controversial ethical issues. The work examines how sites, technologies and events shape our ideas of culture, political and personal life, whilst exposing audiences to ordinarily inaccessible information. Beneficiaries include the arts organisation with whom White has collaborated, and their participants, but more widely, those benefiting from his contribution to socially engaged art. The work has also furthered art-science discourse, providing impetus and critical breadth to the development of art and science as a cultural sector in the UK.
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.
Andrew Burton's practice-based visual arts research, presented through international public exhibitions, commissions, illustrated lectures, conference presentations and publications has impacted on international cultural life and public discourse around the creative intersection between the worlds of sculpture, ceramics, architecture and craft. This research has:
a) provided opportunities for public audiences to experience unique artworks which embody and combine an articulation of fine art and craft sensibilities, methods and skills;
b) stimulated practitioner-led debate around the relationships between the practices and educational disciplines of sculpture, ceramics, architecture and craft.
Andrea Phillips has worked with numerous institutions in the public realm to address questions about the commissioning of public art. This commenced with an AHRC-funded research project, Curating Architecture (2007-08), and in 2009 upon the invitation of a Dutch public art foundation [SKOR] she co-founded a research project called Actors, Agents and Attendants (AAA). This comprised public dialogues, expert meetings, and publications that brought together the expertise of commissioners, politicians, curators and directors to investigate the role of art in the shaping of public, social life. The project coincided with major changes to the Dutch arts funding system, and its activities and outcomes were widely disseminated and influential in this context. Thus for example SKOR has changed its shape since 2012, its new approach having been significantly influenced by the outcomes of Phillips' collaborative research. Her expertise in this area also led to her co-curating the public programme of the 2013 Istanbul Biennal on the highly topical issue of citizen's rights to, and use of, the public sphere. The Biennial was attended by over 350,000 people including local and national politicians, commissioners, philanthropists, collectors, artists and curators, many of whom took part in the public events.
The two-year ROTOЯ programme of exhibitions and events has been a cornerstone of the University of Huddersfield's efforts to introduce new audiences to contemporary art and design, as encouraged by successive Arts Council policies for enhancing public engagement. As well as raising awareness, inspiring curiosity and providing cultural enrichment, it has initiated changes to local authority policies on providing cost-effective, high-quality cultural services and has functioned as a vehicle for research into how the impact of such programmes can be captured. As such, it has served as a model partnership for local authority and university sectors in offering cultural leadership, generating and measuring engagement and delivering public services.