Animating exhibition-making through the material encounters of under-3s: in collaboration with Manchester Art Gallery

This project offers a PhD opportunity in experimental exhibition making, curating practice, exhibition display research or fine art practices to work with Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) fine art and education research staff and in partnership with Manchester Art Gallery (MAG). 

The project will explore how the material and spatial encounters of children under 3 can inspire ways to engage with museum collections differently, and to generate inclusive exhibition-making practices for all audiences. ‘Exhibition-making’ instead of ‘curating’ recognises the complex, collaborative, material and social processes that go into making a physical encounter- and the possibilities for doing this differently. We invite applicants who bring curiosity and creative approaches to explore the terrain beyond interpretation and representation, prioritising sensorial and material aspects of exhibition-making. A key focus is Manchester Art Gallery’s extraordinary Mary Greg collection, and the groups of very young children and families that MAG works with. 

The project seeks to explore how children’s forms of encounter and engagement can be used to unsettle powerful assumptions about what is deemed valuable, and by who, and how, artefacts should be encountered. Through our partnership we seek to ignite experimental exhibition practices, grow the exhibition-makers and researchers of the future and to develop ways to use limited space, inside and outside the gallery, for all. 

This project is connected to a nationally funded collaboration with SHU, Manchester Art Gallery and Manchester Metropolitan University researchers, but we intend this project to develop a specific focus shaped by the distinct interests that the candidate would bring. 

We offer broad aims and objectives to offer different emphases through which a candidate might approach and conduct the project:

Aims

• To use participatory art strategies to explore how the under 3s engage with a collection.
• To explore how exhibition-making developed with the material and spatial practices of under 3s might animate collections, spaces and audiences.
• To understand how the processes of ‘exhibition-making’ can expand the spatial and conceptual edges of institution and community and drive inclusive encounters.

Objectives

• To identify a particular series of artefacts which could benefit from exploration by the under 3s.
• Working with MAG’s existing early years community groups, to devise and deliver a series of workshops that explores how under 3s interact with artefacts
• To produce a body of artistic work/artistic diary exploring encounters between MAG collections and under 3s
• To develop a number of ‘exhibitions’ (broadly conceived) 
• To devise imaginative and appropriate ways to understand audience’s relationship with the exhibitions.

Research context

The context of the work includes museums research, practice research about spatial encounters, and early years education research. More young children are entering galleries and museums internationally than ever before (Piscitelli, 2021). However, there remains limited understanding of co-produced engagement and exhibitions with under 3s in galleries and museums due to physical, social and attitudinal barriers and poor collaboration between museums and community groups (Hackett, Holmes & MacRae, 2020). 

Museums exhibition research acknowledges a critical inertia (Shelton, 2018) in the ways cultural knowledge is produced, managed and transmitted, and still encumbered by Enlightenment-derived legitimating conventions (Sunnucks et al. 2019). At the same time some rare examples of experimental exhibition-making challenge roles, encounters, power, systems and practices (Drotner 2019). There remains a need to develop more experimental cultures with those with the least agency – in this case, the under 3s. Bjerregaard et al (2021) describe experimental exhibitions as research-in-action, disrupting divisions between product and process, unsettling times and spaces of doing and showing, thereby fostering a sense of ‘aliveness’. The project brings museological curation and gallery education together with contemporary art practice to unsettle divisions between curation and art production. Key points of artistic context include the Tropicalia movement of the 1960s/70s and Intermedia Arts of the 1960s.

Research environment and training

The partnership offers a substantial training package which includes both SHU’s programme of doctoral training, and MAGs own suite of museum staff training including a new programme on co-production in the museum. At SHU, art and design research happens in a vibrant community of practice-based research, and in participation in cross-disciplinary conferences. Via links between SHU and MMU, and named advisors, the candidate can also participate in childhood research networks across the institutions.

How to apply

Please see the prospectus entry for PhD Fine Art & Design for course information, entry requirements and the online application form. You will need to provide information about your exhibitions and creative projects and concise documentation (e.g., a pdf portfolio or website link/s) which you can upload as a separate document to the online application form or included in the personal statement field of the application form. This project is not suitable for a Distance Learning arrangement.

For your research proposal we would like you to a) set the project enquiry into a context that includes examples of relevant research, curation and/or creative practice, and policy; b) discuss some of the practical research challenges and opportunities for this project; and c) outline how your skills and experience have prepared you to embark on this project.  

For further guidance on how to apply see Culture & Creativity Research Institute PhD application guidance

Sheffield Hallam welcomes applications from all candidates irrespective of age, pregnancy and maternity, disability, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, or belief, or marital or civil partnership status. 

We strongly recommend you contact Dr Becky Shaw via email at [Email Address Removed] to discuss your application. Other project supervisors are Olivia Penrose-Punnett (SHU) and Katy McCall, Learning Manager, Manchester Art Gallery.

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The deadline for applications for this project has been extended - the original closing date was noon 26th May 2023, but the new deadline is now 12 noon on Friday 9th June 2023.

Start date for studentship: 1^st October 2023

Interviews are currently scheduled for: week beginning the 26^th June 2023