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Research by the Jewellery Industry Innovation Centre (JIIC) has been influential in taking curation beyond normal museum practice. The work has led to the development of novel applications of digital scanning, CAD processes and rapid prototyping. These have enabled the creation of detailed replicas of damaged and deformed precious and fragile objects of cultural heritage. Coupled with the craft design expertise of the researchers these processes have shed new light on the techniques used to produce the original pieces. The handleable replicas that these processes generate are transforming the way museum curators are balancing the competing demands of preservation, restoration and interpretation of objects with those of public access to them. JIIC has assisted museum and heritage professionals at several venues with these transformative approaches, e.g. Black Country Living Museum, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (BMAG), the Museum of London and National Museums Liverpool.
A research project, embedded in the local community, unearthed multiple Iron Age treasures that have rewritten our understanding of the Iron Age to Roman transition in Britain. The discoveries directly inspired the South East Leicestershire Treasure project (SELT), which raised £934k funding (including 651K from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)) for a major programme encompassing museum redevelopment, travelling exhibitions and a suite of learning resources. SELT initiatives have been enjoyed by over 270,000 members of the public, who through it have gained fascinating insights into our distant past. The find has also inspired a huge sense of community pride in a Leicestershire village and underlined the value of university involvement in local archaeology. The project was another important factor in the recent award of a Queen's Anniversary Prize.
Regional and national audiences have benefited from enhanced perceptions of the linguistic and literary heritage of the West Midlands. Cultural capital has been created by engaging members of the public in the discovery of their linguistic and literary past through their unprecedented access to and understanding of a manuscript written in the dialect of the medieval West Midlands. Increased national interest in the region's cultural heritage has been generated.
Dr Lukas Nickel's archaeological fieldwork, art historical research and philological study have led to his proposition of novel theories that question the conventional wisdom surrounding the influences on, methods of production and historical-contextual details of key genres and elements of the Chinese art historical canon, including the famous Terracotta Warriors. Both in China and internationally, his theories have motivated debate, experimentation, and informed and shifted interpretation amongst those working in a range of cultural institutions as well as the general public.
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.
As a result of research conducted at Birkbeck's VASARI Centre, two significant new art collections of digital art provided the basis for establishing the first National Collection of Computer Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum launched with a major free exhibition in late 2009. The two AHRC funded research projects, `Computer Arts, Histories, Context etc' (2002-5) and `Computer Art and Technocultures' (2007-10) also played a significant role in highlighting the importance of computer art and computer applications in art history. A further consequence of the research was the re-establishment of Computer Arts Society, and several innovative initiatives in digital arts.
Dr Lucy Munro's consultancy and public engagement work with Shakespeare's Globe and King Edward VI School has brought her cutting-edge research on early modern theatre history into the public domain, helping to shape not only broader understandings of this field in the culture at large but also the performative and material specifics of its contemporary production. Dr Munro's research focuses in particular on the places in which plays were performed, the companies that performed them, and the ways in which theatrical repertories were constructed.