Curating by Community Consent? An investigation of the civic art gallery's strategies to make collections and displays more "representative"

Black Lives Matter protesters' de-pedestalling of colonial-era statues in 2020 starkly reinforced the need for the arts and heritage sector to develop more equitable modes of exhibition and "improve on accessibility and inclusivity" (Museums Association 2020) for historically under-represented communities. Since the late-1960s, Bradford's Cartwright Hall Art Gallery has sought to diversify displays, expand collections, and initiate community partnerships in ways that better reflect its multicultural, particularly South Asian, demographic. Working closely with its archives and curatorial team, the researcher will produce a critical, historical, and practically-informed investigation of the diversification strategies deployed by this major civic art space.

This project will use a combination of methods to explore the overarching question of how civic art institutions like Cartwright have worked historically - and can today work - better to represent diverse constituencies. The student will begin with archival research into relevant material documenting such efforts, and observation of current practice. They will then use critical insights from postcolonial, South Asian, museums, and cultural studies; curatorial policy and practice; and community consultation, to create a new cross-disciplinary framework for contextualising and analysing strategies for inclusion in relation to the research questions.