Transforming Collections
Research ProjectsKey project information
- Duration: November 2021 – November 2024.
- Funders: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of Towards a National Collection (TaNC).
- Team: Yu-Chen Wang (artist-researcher) and research facilitators Victoria Osborne (Senior Curator, Art, Birmingham Museums).
Research question
- Whose voices, bodies and experiences are centred and privileged in collections?
About the project
Transforming Collections: Reimagining Art, Nation and Heritage was a 3-year research project led by the Decolonising Arts Institute, University of the Arts, London, and funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council. Working with Tate and 15 national and international museum collections, archives and arts charities, the project posed the question ‘whose voices, bodies and experiences are centred and privileged in collections?’
As part of the project, artist-researcher Yu-Chen Wang worked with Birmingham Museums to produce an artwork engaging with Birmingham’s collection and the architecture of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Her new installation and film, ‘How We Are Where We Are’, resulting from her residency at Birmingham Museums, Manchester Art Gallery and National Museums Liverpool, was shown for the first time at Tate Modern in October 2024. The showing of the artwork was part of a public programme marking the culmination of the Transforming Collections project.