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This case study focuses on three areas in relation to the social impact of art, across the categories of `cultural life' and `public discourse'.
1) Artistic collaborations with non-artistic specialists in order to generate new interdisciplinary pathways
2) Artistic collaborations with non-artists within a given community or non-artistic institutional setting in order to create new forms of artist-audience participation
3) The sharing of knowledge/skills between either non-artistic specialists or a non-specialist audience and artists in the production of a shared task or project.
4) Performance-based practice inside and outside of the gallery
The outward facing nature of this research, then, addresses the way such work tests the prevailing competences, boundaries and identities of artist and audience alike. This means researchers are involved with both artistic and non-artistic funding-bodies and agencies as the basis for work on a range of critical issues affecting the borders between the art institution and non-artistic settings and contexts.
Derek Matravers' research in aesthetics has contributed to the public discourse on art by offering a plausible postmodern definition of `art'. Matravers' definition offers a way of understanding art that places the emphasis on reasons, and thus moves beyond the obscurantism associated with contemporary art. His podcast on the subject, as part of the PhilosophyBites series, has taken the topic into public discourse. His work has also influenced the art world. Matravers participated in a conceptual art piece, where his ideas on the definition of art were incorporated into the art piece, effectively blurring the borders between the philosophy and the object of study.
The developing collaborative strategic relationship between Professor Ben Quash and the National Gallery stemming from Quash's research, in particular his unique exploration of religious art — or specifically `Christian' art along the dual lines of 'Art in Christianity' and 'Christianity in Art' — has impacted on the approach of this world-leading cultural institution in a number of ways. It has been central to the Gallery's decision to make `Art and Religion' one of its four lead research themes. It has been responsible for attracting significant financial support from donors impressed by the theological character of the questions Quash's research explores. It has resulted in the Gallery's commissioning of its most ambitious educational investment to date in a series of online educational resources; and it has influenced the Gallery's staging of its highly successful 2011 summer exhibition `Devotion by Design'. Finally, Quash's research has impacted on how the National Gallery's education department organizes the public study of religion and art.
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.
Matthew Kieran's research focuses on the role that individual motivations, skills and settled dispositions (i.e. someone's character) actively play in artistic appreciation and creation. In particular, it shows the significant role that character should play in guiding artistic creativity and evaluation. He has worked extensively outside higher education—using small group sessions with the public, contributions to creators' conferences, high-profile media work, policy inputs, a prime-time TV documentary and widely disseminated web materials— to enrich the public understanding of artistic values based on this approach and to help skill people up in developing their artistic creativity and art appreciation.
Dr Antonello's research on the Italian designer and artist Bruno Munari and his relation with Futurism was instrumental for the realization of an exhibition at the Estorick Collection in London, titled `Bruno Munari: My Futurist Past', held on 19 September - 23 December 2012. This was the first exhibition of Munari's work in the UK and the very first exhibition outside Italy since he passed away in 1998. It caught the attention of international media, and prompted the engagement of scholars, teachers, and schools at all levels (from primary to university), as well as discussions among practitioners and graphic designers. The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Miroslava Hajek Archive, Novara, Luca Zaffarano at munart.org, and the Massimo and Sonia Cirulli Archive, New York.
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 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.
The interdisciplinary study of Black and Latino visual cultures by Professor Celeste-Marie Bernier and Dr Stephanie Lewthwaite has led to the retrieval of lost and neglected art from the 19th and 20th centuries and to the display of this artwork for the first time. The research and recovery process has provided new information for curators and archivists who have begun to change their practice to reflect this expanded canon.
Since the 1960s, mainstream photographic art practice has undergone a significant shift, from a primarily factual, documentary medium to a vehicle of aesthetically rich, often narrative, pictorial art. Photography's internalization of digital technology has hastened this shift. In light of this, the research on `Aesthetics after Photography' has re-evaluated the aesthetic capabilities of photography by examining its use by artists since the 1960s. This re-assessment has changed the way that curators and conservators (Tate, V&A) conceptualise the nature of photography. It has been used to curate a high-profile exhibition of a leading British photographer, benefitting the galleries (Mead; Maureen Paley) and the artist. Public conferences (Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Institute for Philosophy) and publications of podcasts, books and catalogues (Tate, Mead; The Hermitage) have brought the research to a wider public.