Networking international and transnational approaches to contemporary art in heritage practice.

Lead Research Organisation: Newcastle University
Department Name: Sch of Arts and Cultures

Abstract

The principal aim of this project is to initiate a new International Contemporary Art in Heritage Network that will bring together UK and overseas academics, curators, artists, heritage and historic landscape organisations, and museum sites to exchange and explore international and transnational approaches to contemporary art in heritage practice. Our Network will extend the interdisciplinary study of contemporary art in heritage practice, initiating the first international mapping and global overview of this field. The project will be delivered in partnership with four (UK and international) heritage sector partners: Arts&Heritage; National Trust; International Coalition of Sites of Conscience; and the Artists' Studio Museum Network. Building on learning from the cultural sector's pivot to digital during the Covid-19 Pandemic, and to maximise opportunities for international input, all our planned programme activity will take place online.

Since the 1990s contemporary artists have been commissioned to create temporary, site-specific responses to a wide range of heritage places across the UK - from grand palaces and country houses to historic designed landscapes, industrial waterways, and cathedrals. While the UK may arguably be regarded as a leading proponent of such practice, pilot international mapping research undertaken through our AHRC-funded 'Mapping Contemporary Art in the Heritage Experience' (MCAHE) project (2017-2020), indicated that contemporary art in heritage is more than just a UK phenomenon. Reflecting expanded global agendas within the wider museum and heritage sector, much of this work is concerned with articulations of difficult heritage, including a key focus on artistic engagement with colonial and postcolonial narratives. Despite this engagement with global concerns, and strong arguments made for diversifying the presentation of heritage, existing academic literature on contemporary art in heritage in the UK has primarily focused on the national scene, with little exploration of a broader transnational context. It is this gap in international knowledge that our Network specifically seeks to address.

Key Outputs of this networking activity include:

- A series of 5 online Meet Ups co-hosted with UK and international partners and involving an interdisciplinary community of academics, researchers, curators, artists, and heritage professionals.
- A newly created, publicly accessible online Google Map of international contemporary art in heritage practice that captures and links to current and recent activity in this field.
- 4 pilot virtual transnational commissions/artists residencies hosted by UK and international network partners (heritage sites, museums, and historic landscapes).
- 3 new Podcasts featuring UK and international curators, heritage sites and commissioned artists in conversation, co-produced with Arts&Heritage and made freely available via its existing Apple Podcasts and Soundcloud channels.
- A closing online international symposium open to all interested academics, artists, curators, and other professionals working in, or with an interest in, this field.

This project will benefit a broad and international constituency of academics, practice-based researchers, curators, artists, museum, and heritage professionals. This will be achieved through multiple and complementary dissemination routes, including public presentation of the virtual commissions/residencies on the Arts&Heritage website and through presentations at future academic and sector-based conferences (UK and international).

Publications

10 25 50
 
Title Virtual artist's residency - Afghanistan Memory Home 
Description A three-month long virtual artist's residency by London-based Afghan artist Mohammad Sabir at the online museum Afghanistan Memory Home, a website developed by the NGO Afghanistan Human Rights Democracy Organisation (AHRDO) to record and commemorate the testimonies of victims of conflict in Afghanistan. 
Type Of Art Artistic/Creative Exhibition 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact This virtual residency enabled Mohammad Sabir to create a new artistic response to the testimonies and experiences of Afghans collected by AHRDO. 
 
Title Virtual artist's residency - National Trust 575 Wandsworth Road 
Description A three-month long virtual artist's residency by Portugal-based American artist Liliya Lifanova at UK National Trust 575 Wandsworth Road (London) the historic home of Kenyan born poet, artist and philosopher Khadambi Asalache. 
Type Of Art Artistic/Creative Exhibition 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact This virtual residency enabled Liliya Lifanova to carry out extensive research into the life and works of Khadambi Asalache, with a particular focus on textiles displayed within the collection at 575 Wandsworth Road. This led to the creation of a series of new drawings and paintings and development of a performance celebrating the life of Asalache, plus an online artist's talk and conversations with other creatives working with the collection at 575. 
 
Title Virtual artist's residency - National Trust Bateman's 
Description A three-month long virtual artist's residency by New Dehli-based artist Nidhi Khurana at UK National Trust Bateman's (historic home of writer Rudyard Kipling). 
Type Of Art Artistic/Creative Exhibition 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact This virtual residency enabled Nidhi Khurana to make a new connection with Rudyard Kipling, and to reevaluate personal experience around the legacy of British imperialism in India, resulting in the production of a series of new experimental drawings and photographic book works. 
URL https://nidhikhurana217.blogspot.com/p/batemans-virtual-residency-2024.html
 
Title Virtual artist's residency - Van Gogh House 
Description A three-month long virtual artist's residency by Germany-based Chinese artist Yingmei Duan at Van Gogh House London. 
Type Of Art Artistic/Creative Exhibition 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact This virtual residency enabled Yingmei Duan to spend time researching the life and art of Vincent Van Gogh, and exploring parallels with her own artistic life course. This research was made public through a weekly blog published on the Van Gogh House website. 
URL https://vangoghhouse.co.uk/yingmeiduan/
 
Description Our research indicated that virtual artist's residencies (i.e. residencies conducted at physical distance, online with the host site/organisation) can provide a fruitful method for transnational artistic engagement with heritage sites.
Exploitation Route Our pilot virtual residencies provide a model for future activity development and case study evidence for heritage professionals and heritage sites planning or wishing to expand their own artists residency programmes.
Sectors Creative Economy

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

URL https://research.ncl.ac.uk/transnationalartinheritagenetwork/
 
Description Our research findings are helping our project partners and especially the participating host sites to think about their future artist's residency programming, including building on the virtual residency pilot activity.
First Year Of Impact 2024
Sector Creative Economy,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

 
Description Newcastle University and the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience 
Organisation International Coalition of Sites of Conscience
Country United States 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Expand ICSC's and ICSC members' knowledge and understanding of the contribution that contemporary art and artists can make to the positive negotiation of difficult and traumatic heritage, including support and funding for a pilot virtual artist residency with one of ICSC member sites.
Collaborator Contribution Support in selecting an ICSC member as a host site for one of the virtual artist residencies, co-hosting of an international network online Meet-Up, and participation in the project advisory group.
Impact Selection of ICSC member the Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization (Afghanistan Memory Home) as a host site for a virtual artist residency.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Newcastle University and the National Trust 
Organisation National Trust
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Furthering National Trust's digital engagement activity and international networking through virtual artist residencies and participation in online network Meet-Ups.
Collaborator Contribution Working with us to select two National Trust sites for the pilot virtual artist residencies, co-hosting of an online international network Meet-Up, and participation in the project Advisory Group.
Impact Selection of two National Trust sites, Bateman's (East Sussex) and 575 Wandsworth Road (London) as host sites for artist virtual residencies.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Blog post - 'Contemporary art in Heritage Settings' 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Blog post on Artist's Studio Museum Network website announcing the new research project to Network members and the general public.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.artiststudiomuseum.org/blog/contemporary-art-in-heritage-settings/
 
Description International Art in Heritage Network online Meet-Up 1 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This first in our planned series of online Network Meet-Ups was attended by 19 UK and international curators, artists and academics interested in or working in the field of contemporary art in heritage. The event was structured around presentations from, and interactive Q&As with, project partner and event co-host Arts&Heritage and three international guest speakers (participating from Brazil, Svalbard, and Ukraine). The event allowed a new exchange of knowledge around differing international contexts for art in heritage practice.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://research.ncl.ac.uk/transnationalartinheritagenetwork/meet-ups/meet-up1/
 
Description International Art in Heritage Network online Meet-Up 2 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Meet-Up Two (26 March 2024) was co-hosted with the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (ICSC) and explored the theme of community co-creation. Introduced by Linda Norris (Senior Specialist, Methodology & Practice at ICSC) the session heard from the experiences of three guest speakers, US First Nations artist Alex Ponca Stock (based in Tulsa, Oklahoma), US Museum Consultant and Curator Sean Kelley (calling from Philadelphia), and Bangladesh-based artist-curator Asif Imteaz.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://research.ncl.ac.uk/transnationalartinheritagenetwork/meet-ups/meet-up2/
 
Description International Art in Heritage Network online Meet-Up 3 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Our third online Meet-Up (16 July 2024) was co-hosted by the Artist's Studio Museum Network and its sister US-based organisation Historic Artists' Homes and Studios (HAHS). Comparing UK and US experiences, this session focused on the question of how artist's house museums maintain their historic integrity when engaging with contemporary artists. Our speakers for this event were Kate Menconeri, Chief Curator of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, USA, and Gaia Giacomelli, Curatorial Assistant at Cosmic House (the post-modernist London home of British architect Charles Jencks).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://research.ncl.ac.uk/transnationalartinheritagenetwork/meet-ups/meet-up3/
 
Description International Art in Heritage Network online Meet-Up 4 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The final online Meet Up was co-hosted with National Trust. Focussing on wider discussion of public realm commissioning and arts ecologies in the UK, Europe and China, the session was led by guest speakers Andy Brydon and Alison Brodie, co-founders and creative producers from UK commissioning agency Curated Places, and curator Ying Kwok at Tai Kwun Contemporary in Hong Kong.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://research.ncl.ac.uk/transnationalartinheritagenetwork/meet-ups/meet-up4/
 
Description Virtual artist's residencies in heritage places - Online symposium 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The aim of the symposium (held on Zoom on 9 November 2024) was to share insights into the very different and individualised ways in which our four experiments with virtual artist's residences had worked in practice, as reflected on by the residency artists and the host site teams concerned.The symposium was attended by 59 artists, curators, academics, and heritage professionals, including participants from Israel, Singapore, Trinidad, Turkey, UK, and the USA.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://research.ncl.ac.uk/transnationalartinheritagenetwork/symposium/