University launches new partnership with the V&A

Posted on Thursday 17 June 2010

The agreement will see staff from the V&A spending time in York presenting their research and collaborating on new projects with scholars in the Department of History of Art.

University academics will also have the opportunity to work in the V&A’s research department and with the museum’s curators.

This new partnership is an ambitious and innovative new venture

Professor Mark Hallett

Professor Mark Hallett, Head of the Department of History of Art, said: “This new partnership is an ambitious and innovative new venture that will bring leading academics and curators together to address important art-historical issues and will enable our students to benefit from the remarkable range of learning and expertise found at the V&A.

“It perfectly complements our recently instituted partnership with Tate Britain, which has already seen colleagues from both institutions working together on an exciting range of teaching, research and exhibition projects.”

The partnership, which will begin at the start of the new academic year, will see the creation of an annual lecture and a symposium, each hosted alternately by the University and the V&A.

University art-historians and V&A staff will also spend two years at a time focusing on particular areas of interest covered by the Department’s research schools. Between 2010 and 2012 experts in the medieval field from the V&A will work with members of the Department’s Research School in Medieval Art and Medievalisms.

Dr Christopher Breward, Head of Research at the V&A, said: “This exciting initiative builds on the Museum's long tradition of collaboration with academic institutions and will enhance our research activities in significant ways.”