UAL Decolonising Arts Institute awarded £3m AHRC grant to transform UK collections using emerging technologies 

Transforming Collections: Reimagining Art, Nation and Heritage is a 3-year project led by UAL Professor susan pui san lok. The project is 1 of 5 national Discovery Projects awarded a total of £14.5m by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). This forms the largest investment of Towards a National Collection (TaNC), a 5-year research and development programme. Harnessing the potential of new technology to dissolve barriers between collections, the investigation is the largest of its kind to date. It extends across the UK, involving 15 universities, 63 heritage collections and institutions, and over 120 individual researchers and collaborators.

Towards a National Collection aims to connect thousands of the UK’s disparate culture and heritage collections for audiences to explore holistically. It will empower audiences by involving them in the research and creating new avenues of access. There will be research and development of emerging technologies, including machine learning and citizen-led archiving. Outcomes will include innovative online access, computer simulations, community fellowships and travelling exhibitions.

Transforming Collections is driven by the belief that a national collection cannot be imagined without addressing structural inequalities in the arts. It will engage with the contentious histories imbued in objects, informed by debates around contested heritage. The project will combine critical art historical and museological research with participatory machine learning design. It will embed creative activations through artist commissions. It aims to enable cross-search of collections, surface patterns of bias and uncover hidden connections, and generate new narratives around art, nation and heritage.

Transforming Collections is an interdisciplinary collaboration with colleagues from UAL’s Decolonising Arts and Creative Computing Institutes, working closely with the Tate. The project team includes Professor Sonia Boyce, Professor Mick Grierson, Dr Anjalie Dalal-Clayton and Dr Rebecca Fiebrink, Dr Athanasis Velios and Dr Peaks Krafft. We welcome applications for 2 new positions: Project and Partnerships Manager and Project Administrator.

Dr susan pui san lok is Professor of Contemporary Art and Director of the Decolonising Arts Institute at UAL. Project partners are: Tate, Arts Council Collection, Art Fund, Art UK, Birmingham Museums Trust, British Council Collection, Contemporary Art Society, Glasgow Museums, Iniva (Institute of International Visual Art), JISC Archives Hub, Manchester Art Gallery, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, National Museums Liverpool, Van Abbemuseum (NL), and Wellcome Collection.