School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies

Centre for Critical Studies in Museums, Galleries & Heritage

The Centre for Critical Studies in Museums, Galleries & Heritage (CCSMGH) was established in 2009 in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies. The Centre is an interdisciplinary unit with the School, under the Directorship of Professor Catherine Karkov and Deputy Directors Dr Abigail Harrison Moore and Dr Mark Westgarth. The current membership includes academics, museum professionals and research students; the Constitution, Aims and Current Membership of the Centre can be found here. The Centre promotes research in the field of critical studies in museums, galleries and heritage within the School, across the university and in collaboration with external partners both in higher education and the museum, gallery and heritage sectors.

The Centre also supports the development of the taught undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in museum and gallery studies in the School and actively participates in the vibrant research culture pursued by our doctoral research students. Current doctoral research students in Museums, Galleries and Heritage can be found here.

Building on the Schools intellectual foundations these taught and research programmes engage critically and philosophically with the historic and contemporary practices of museums, galleries and heritage organisations. As a result of this unique combination of theory and practice, the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes produce graduates who are able to develop careers in the professional world of museums and also continue to question the methodologies and development of the institutions themselves.

Students on the BA History of Art with Museum Studies and the MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies also benefit from the research activities arising from the Centre. We organise a continuous series of Museology Seminars during the teaching semesters. Past speakers in the Museology Seminars have included speakers from the Universities of Manchester, Salford, Newcastle and London. A list of previous speakers and topics, as well as the latest talks in the Museology Seminar Series can be found here. The Centre also supports our 'Perspectives on the Art Market' series of seminars and news on forthcoming seminars and a list of previous seminars can be found here.

The Centre is engaged in a number of research projects in museums, galleries and heritage. Recent research funding applications by the Centre include:

European Social Fund Framework Seven (FP7): 'The Citizen in the European Union: SSH.2010.5.2-2 Reinterpreting Europe’s Cultural Heritage: towards the 21st century library and museum' for which the Centre submitted an extensive international project entitled Reinterpreting the Regional for a post-national audience. The project (funding up to 2.7 million euros) involves a range of collaborative partners, including the University of Copenhagen; Roskilde Viking Ship Museum; Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm; Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen; Nationalmuseum/National gallery of Sweden, and Yorvik Viking Centre, York.

The Higher Education Innovation Fund IV (HEIF): 'Technology, Heritage and Museum' (£2,400). This project involves a series of research and network seminars held at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery (include link here) at the University. The purpose of the project is to formalize and develop the relationship between our Museum, Gallery and heritage studies programmes and new technologies and sciences through the sharing of expertise and discussion to benefit academics, museum professionals and the community. The events have included a series of Heritage & Technology talks:

Professor Robert Cywinski (Applied Sciences, University of Huddersfield) 'Neutrons, Nuclear Reactors, Particle Accelerators....and Museums' Dr Martin Cooper (Conservation Technology Lab, National Museums Liverpool) '3D Scanning of Cultural heritage: experiences at National Museums'

The Centre also has recently submitted three AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award applications (with Temple Newsam House, Leeds and the Leeds Discovery Centre).

On September 10th-11th 2010 the Centre co-organised the Museums and Galleries History Group (MGHG) annual conference, 'Museums and the Market', held at the new Leeds City Museum.

The Conference Programme can be found here.

You can follow events and activities arising from the Centre and activities on the UG and PG programmes on the Museum and Gallery Studies Blog here.