Tate Encounters: Britishness and Visual Culture - Arts and Humanties Research Council awards Tate major grant
I am delighted to announce that Tate Britain’s Interpretation & Education Department has been awarded a maximum grant by the Arts Humanities and Research Council for a major research project within the strategic programme ‘Diasporas, Migration and Identities’. From an initial entry round of 157 applications, Tate Britain’s application was commended for the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of the partnership formed to create the bid.
The research project, 'Tate Encounters', is a collaboration between Tate Britain, London South Bank University (the Social Policy and Urban Regeneration Research Institute and within it the Families and Social Capital ESRC Research Group) and Wimbledon School of Art/University of the Arts.
The project will produce in-depth case studies of how fifty London migrant families, primarily from the African/Caribbean and Asian diasporas, encounter Tate Britain and the National Collection of British Art over a three year period. The project will recruit family participation through first year undergraduate students at LSBU, who are the first generation of their family to attend higher education in the UK. LSBU has one of the highest intakes of ethnically diverse students in the UK. The research programme will investigate whether generation and gender are significant factors in the Tate encounter. The resulting body of material developed by the families and the researchers will form the basis for three inter-related evaluations and analysis of; visual culture and narratives of Britishness; Cultural diversity policy and museums; and models of participant museum education practice. From this encounter the project will develop new curatorial and educational perspectives relevant to wider and more culturally diverse audiences and which contribute towards cultural change within the Museum and Galleries sector.
I'd like to congratulate Felicity Allen and the I&E team for securing our first major AHRC grant since Tate achieved Academic Analogue status earlier this year. The bid was put together by Victoria Walsh and Mike Phillips. Mike will be project consultant and Victoria project leader for Tate Britain.
Stephen Deuchar
Director, Tate Britain
13 September 2006
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