Rethinking Research in the Art Museum

This fellowship addresses two priorities for Tate and art museums generally: developing research-led practice and greater co-production with audiences. I will examine how practitioner-led co-produced research practices can be embedded in art museums. It has been prompted by a growing interest in framing the art museum as a space for research-led activity that is undertaken by curators and educators working collaboratively with audiences and others. This interest has itself been prompted by criticisms of art museums as sites of cultural exclusivity alongside museum professionals' frustration regarding how their ongoing activities can be understood as research.
My project interrogates accepted thinking on research in the art museum by (1) examining and building on a diverse set of existing interdisciplinary literatures not normally used in gallery contexts. And (2) interrogating five comparative case studies of exploratory research-led co-constructed art museum practice. It will develop a context specific framework for practitioner research that foregrounds creativity and innovation and challenges dominant orthodoxies and hierarchies of knowledge. The framework will support museum professionals and researchers to bring about change in art museum research practices.
The main output will be a book about emerging models of research being adopted within museums. These models give agency to practitioner researchers who devise programmes, curate exhibitions and facilitate audience engagement and learning and who are, through this, engaged in generating new knowledge and theories. To achieve this, the book will draw on an extensive multidisciplinary literature review and five case studies from the UK, Europe and America to illuminate how different museum practices can be productively understood as research.
In building a framework for practitioner research within the art museum, the book will explore connections between research, art practice, curation and learning and draw on theories associated with practice as research and the practitioner scholar. The text will tease out the relevance of these ideas for the art museum sector, reflecting on the challenges inherent in adopting them, but also highlighting the benefits to individuals and institutions of implementing approaches informed by these theories.
The framework will be tested with a group of interdisciplinary experts and disseminated to a wider group of museum professionals and researchers via seminars, a research blog, journal articles and the book. The book will thus provide innovative insights and useful guidance for museum professionals and researchers carrying out research in their institutional settings.
Overall the fellowship will develop my knowledge, skills and experience enabling me to become a leader in the field of practitioner research in galleries.

The fellowship will benefit a range of key stakeholders:

- Internally: learning professionals, curators and artists working at Tate and at each of the case study organisations
- Within the art museum sector: gallery learning professionals, curators, artists in the Plus Tate network of galleries across the UK and a wider network of art museums in the UK and internationally
- Policy makers and funding bodies within the UK and internationally
- Public sector: those who engage with galleries including colleagues in formal education, youth sector, health and community development

How will they benefit:

- An enhanced knowledge of practice, research and practice as research in art museums
- A clearer sense of how innovative models of research are currently being implemented within art museums in the UK and internationally.
- Greater knowledge of how to implement strategic and relevant research methodologies in the art museum in the future
- Greater understanding of how to support curators and gallery educators' research capacity within the museum
- Deeper insights into the ways practice as research can afford more collaborative and dynamic relationships with art museum audiences

This will be achieved by:
- In-depth conversations with staff at Tate and each of the case study organisations
- Ongoing knowledge sharing within Tate at senior management meetings, Research Strategy Group meetings, curatorial forums and cross-site Learning meetings
- Key individuals from Plus Tate galleries, policy and funding bodies and public sector organisations attending the three expert seminars to participate in the generation of the framework for practitioner research
- A wider group of key stakeholders from across Tate and from the sectors identified above attending the two public events
- Cross-disciplinary practitioners from UK and international galleries, public sector organisations, funding and policy bodies currently on the Tate Research Centre: Learning mailing list will be notified of the research and regularly updated via the blog on the website
- All the above having access to a framework for practitioner research via the book that could shape the development of practice and research in the art museum going forward and lead to more informed organisational funding decisions.

In addition the wider public who visit galleries will benefit from greater participation in art museum research practices. There is growing interest by members of the public in actively taking part in exhibitions, events and public programmes in galleries and in co-producing knowledge with museum professionals. By supporting me to generate and disseminate knowledge on how museum professionals can engage in practitioner led co-produced research, this fellowship will potentially enrich and deepen the public's experience of visual art.