Research hub: Art and Performance

About our research

The Art and Performance Research Hub brings practice- and text-based research together. We work locally and internationally through exhibitions, seminars, conferences, screenings, events, performances and publishing. Our models for creative and critical practice include everything from performer training to curating.

We also investigate art and performance through theoretical and historical writing about performance, painting, photography, printing, drawing, dramaturgy, screen art (including performance), sculpture and time-based arts.

Our work takes place in the public realm, locally and internationally, through exhibitions, seminars, conferences, screenings, events, performances and publishing. We contribute to the overall research culture and expertise at Manchester School of Art through the local and international profiles of our staff.

How we work

We develop and share internationally acclaimed digital media and performance. We recognise and embrace the importance of individual practice, as well as collaborative and inter- and trans-disciplinary work.

Our historical and contemporary research alike is relevant to socially engaged art practices. Challenging the boundaries of real and virtual sites allows us to examine both digital and analogue art and performance across platforms and realities.

We welcome new technologies and methodologies as well as cross-disciplinary collaborations with academic and non-academic partners worldwide. We also provide specific expertise and knowledge in digital materials and processes, as well as analogue media such as micro-fiches, slides, vinyl and film.

We’ve embraced new ways of making and disseminating our work online. The rich and innovative approaches to our research we’ve developed recently have led to rich and innovative pedagogy.

We lead and contribute to the postgraduate research student environment through seminars, lectures, roundtables, research training and research supervision. We also work collectively and across disciplines within the wider University ecology.

Our research focus

The Art and Performance Research Hub explores contemporary issues through rigorous intellectual research themes, including:

archives, museums, cultural heritage and domestic histories
power, politics, protest, site and communities
arts and health, social practice, policy and law
simulation, materiality, identity, fiction of the image
composition, dramaturgy, laboratory training
embodiment, gender and histories of practice

Art and Archive Futures

Bridging the gap between historic archiving and the digital archives of the future.
Go to research group
Asian Cultures Group

Using art to connect with Asian cultures and communities across Manchester and the rest of the world.
Go to research group
The Curating Contemporary Art Group (CCAG)

Practical and innovative approaches to researching and understanding the curation of contemporary art.
Go to research group
Painting Manchester

Understanding the city of Manchester through the lens of contemporary art, and conducting world-leading research on painting and painting techniques.
Go to research theme
Performance Research Group

Influencing creative developments, public policy and broader culture through impactful performance research.
Go to research group
Memory and Matter

Re-examining the past using contemporary context through visual art, performance art and art research.
Go to research group
Mobilities in Art and Performance

Understanding and showcasing how modes of travel and mobilities such as walking and cycling can be performance art.
Go to research group
Social Art Inclusion Lab (SAIL)

Encouraging equality, diversity and inclusion in social arts practice, policymaking and access to culture — where art and people meet.
Go to research theme
Visual culture

Responding to a wide range of visual media and visual practices through a critical, historical and theoretical lens.
Go to research group

Selected projects

British Ritual Innovation under COVID-19 (BRIC-19)

Understanding how Britain’s religious communities adapted during — and responded to — the COVID-19 pandemic.
Go to research
SAFEDI

Improving equality, diversity and inclusion in partnership with social artists, audiences and policy makers.
Go to research
Asia Triennial Manchester

Exploring and celebrating Asian cultures in Manchester and beyond through a community of international artists and events.
Go to research