RESEARCH activities

Research at Tate involves a range of subject disciplines, including art history, conservation and conservation science, collection management, education and museology, as well as a variety of research methods and outputs.

Projects often bring together specialists through interdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships with organisations such as museums, universities, other Independent Research Organisations and industrial partners.

Research helps us encourage new knowledge, address practical problems, develop new tools for practice, and allows us to contribute to broader debates.

We aim to create a vibrant research culture across Tate that generates high quality ethical and sustainable research about art, ideas and practices of institutional, national and international significance, shared openly and accessibly.

Priority themes

Recognising Tate’s institutional priorities, the following interconnected, inter-departmental and cross-disciplinary themes provide a framework through which research activity across Tate can operate. Research on and around the collection underpins each theme, while digital is a feature of all four.

1)      Curating and the collection in relation to the global, national and local

-          Interrogating the transnational

-          Resituating British art; its history, generation, acquisition, cataloguing and display

Such as the British Art Network or linguistic patterns and cultural frameworks that undermine the inclusion in mainstream art history of 19th-century women artists in Tate Britain's collection

2)      Innovations in collection management, development, conservation and access

-          Addressing the evolving needs of Tate’s diverse collection alongside developments in library and archival practice

Such as GREen ENdeavor in Art ResToration or Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum

3)      Progressing museum practices and histories

-          Contemporary concerns including decoloniality, representation, diversity and identity politics; their impact on art museum collections, practices, structures and audiences

-          Ecology, sustainability and the climate emergency

Such as Transforming Collections: Reimagining Art, Nation and Heritage or The Archive is a Gathering Place

4)      Creative learning and new models of public and participatory practice

-          Interrogating and evidencing the nature and value of learning and engagement with and through art/Tate’s collection and innovations in museum participation

Such as human-centred approaches to Tate’s digital learning model or The Art of Engagement: Foundations for an International Learning Community in Social Practice

If you are interested in collaborating with Tate, please complete our Expression of Interest form or get in touch via research@tate.org.uk

Cover image: ©Tate, Josh Croll